HISTORY OF MODERN SOMALIA SET STRAIGHT

The resistance against Italian colonial conquest of Southern Somalia started with the Kingdom of Boqor Osman in Bargaal and Sultanate of Keenedid in Obyo in former Mudugh Region in early 20th Century. Italian Navy had used warships to bombard the Seat of Boqor Osman in Bargaal on the shores of Indian Ocean in Eastern Somalia.This was followed by Northen Derwish Movement of late Sayid Mohamed Abdulle Hassan, better known as Ina Abdulle Hassan by Somalis or Mad Mullah by the British colonial Military Administration of Somaliland Protectorate (the best good book about the Sayid’s Movement called ” The Divine Madness” was written by Prof. ABDI sheikh Abdi). This movement mainly focused on fighting the British occupation in the North of the country. It was religious/nationalistic armed organization taking cues and inspiration from Mahdist Movement in the Sudan then.

About the same time or a bit earlier, deep in the South, there was Sheikh Hassan Barsame’s struggle with the Italian Colonial Administration. This resistance, however, was about Sheikh’s wish for the preservation of slavery for the plantation fields of his community in lower Shabelle Region. The Italians wanted to abolish slavery under pressure from the provisions of the European Accord on suppressing slavery (The 1926 Slavery Convention or the Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery was an international treaty created under the auspices of the League of Nations and first signed on 25 September 1926).

Ahmed Gurey’s Movement in Abyssinian Campaign ( known as Ahmed Gran by the Ethiopians) was religious in nature rather than a national movement for freedom. “Fatuh Al-Habasha” or the Opening/Penetration of Abyssinia is the best literary works written on Gurey’s Campaign.

The struggle for national independence continued with the rise of the Somali Youth League (SYL) from 1943, forming the first post-colonial national government of the Somali Republic in 1960 under the unification of former colonies of the South and North of the country, until it was overthrown by Military Junta in 1969, leading to the collapse and state failure in 1991. That was the end of the Somalia’s 1st Republic.

The 2nd Somalia’s Republic (with the Federal Government of Somalia) was founded in October 2004 under National Peace and Reconciliation Congress, 2002-2004, in the town of Mbagati, Kenya. Villa Somalia was liberated by the forces of the Founder of the 2nd Somalia’s Republic, the late President of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Abdullahi Yusuf, in 2006. Some Somalis were made to believe that Ethiopian soldiers had assisted Mr Yusuf in liberating the Villa. That is far from the truth. The Ethiopians had entered Mogadishu after a few days after Mr. Yusuf had seized and restored Somalia’s Presidency. Yusuf’s Government had rehabilitated and repaired Villa Somalia. In the words of former Somalia’s president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, “not a teaspoon was missing from the Villa as I came in”

Mogadishu Airport was re-opened by now defunct Union of Islamic Courts (UIC/ICU) after many years of stateless Somalia, but, it was rehabilitated and expanded by Yusuf’s government, renaming it Aden Abdulle International Airport. It also had made the Mogadishu Harbor operational and returned it to government control for the first time since 1991.