Tag: Siad Barre

Somaliland was amongst the seventeen African countries that attained their independence in 1960, “The Year of Africa.” A former Italian colony, Somalia merged on...

The independence of British  Somaliland (north) came into being on 26 June 1960. Five days later, Italian Somaliland (south) attained independence. Both north and south merged for irredentism agenda – to unify five different Somali regions under one ethnic umbrella. The merger of the two territories faced legal obstruction. Both sides signed no identical unifying law. Italian Somaliland never passed an act of union drafted by British Somaliland. Instead, it passed a different act named Atto di Unione, which was substantially different from British Somaliland's original marriage act. According to Rajagopal and Carrol (1992), the act of union law did not have legal validity in southern Somalia, and the subsequent but different passed Atto de Unione was legally insufficient. Therefore, the declaration of independence was legally invalid.

His name is Mohamed Abdullahi-Farmajo, born in 1962 in Mogadishu. He was one of the few fortunate youths, not by virtue of merit, but by his clan affiliation. His uncle was the former dictator of Somalia, Mohamed Siad Barre.