Published by Vikas Publishing House PVT LTD; 576 Masjid Road, Jangpura, New Delhi 110014; India in 1993

ISBN 0-7069-8004-2

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© Mohammed Farah Aidid & Satya Pal Ruhela 1994

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publishers.

Re-published here in the Civic Webs Virtual Library in an online version under permission from Vikas Publishing House PVT LTD in 2001.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Preface

Acknowledgments

Section - I : Somali Tradition & History

Section - II : Somali Social Structure

Section - III : Social Culture & Education

Section - IV : Somali Economy & Political Democracy

Section - V : Recent Developments in Somalia

Dedication

Dedicated to

all the living and future

generations of the Somali people

with profound love and reverence

"The road to lasting peace and prosperity is very clear, but the decision and the authority to follow it an bring appropriate changes in the country rests with the Somali people. It is up to them to determine their destiny. As Allah clearly states in the Holy Quran, "Verily never will God change the condition of a people until they change it themselves". (13:11)

Preface

"SOMALIA: From the Dawn of Civilization to the Modern Times" is a joint intellectual venture undertaken by Mohammed Farah Aidid and me during the period Aidid was Somalia's Ambassador to India from 1984 to 1989. I first met Aidid by chance, at a dinner party hosted by Madam Chief of Arab League Mission, in New Delhi on 29 May, 1986 to which all Ambassadors of Arab and African countries, some professors of my university and other Indian dignitaries and high officials had been invited. During dinner we introduced ourselves and started talking. He greatly impressed me by his highly polished, polite and cordial manners. He invited me to meet him and his wife Khadija at his house. I now believe that it was not a mere chance meeting; it was perhaps destined to be the beginning of a very happy and creative friendship between both of us. We met often, our families visited each other's house several times and we attended several seminars and academic programmes together.

He told me much about the Somali tribes, customs, social structure and folklore. As a sociologist and social anthropologist, having a deep interest in nomadic communities, social change, modernization and futurology, I was greatly attracted towards Somali society and culture through Aidid's informal descriptions. Gradually, the idea of writing this book jointly emerged. I searched each and every important library in Delhi to collect all available information about almost all aspects of Somali society and the Somali nation during 1986-89, and almost every week we discussed the information collected by me. He provided me with the actual and latest information on every aspect, adding much to my information. Thus many chapters, specially those dealing with Somali history from the ancient rulers of Somalia to Siad Barre's 'Ugly Revolution' and his despotic regime were almost dictated by him to me as he had the most authentic information on them. Aidid had been in the Somali Army; he had known Siad Barre from close quarters and he greatly suffered at Siad Barre's hands for about two decades and so he had a realistic, thrilling and very moving story of his fateful years with Somalia's greatest dictator in history to tell. I tape-recorded Aidid's narrations of those thrilling years of his association with Siad Barre as also his narrations of early Somali history. Thus this book was written by both of us -- he provided me with the basic first hand or field information about Somali history, its social structure, culture and contemporary problems and I did the research and writing which we both discussed and incorporated in this book.

Aidid left India in early December, 1989 to plunge into the patriotic movement of the Somali Opposition parties to oust the Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. By that time the first 24 chapters had already been written and almost finalised by both of us. We were expecting to publish the book in early 1990, but Aidid got so actively involved in Somali politics after achieving his goal of dragging away Siad Barre from Somalia in January 1991, that the publication of this book was delayed.

Unfortunately, during the last two years and a half (between January 1991 when Siad Barre was dragged away by Aidid from Mogadishu, and 15 July 1993 when the rift took place in the United Nations Forces on the question of UN force's deadly attack on Aidid's establishments in Mogadishu on 14 July(, I could not have any contact with Aidid and discuss with him the final manuscript of the book.

In order to complete this book, I have myself compiled the last chapter on the 'Recent Events: Developments in Somalia After the Downfall of Siad Barre (January 1991 to December 1993)' I do not know how Aidid would have liked this chapter to be jointly written by us, what information he would have liked to add and what he would have liked to delete. The best thing I thought would be to compile all relevant news items, information and views published in the international press on the recent happenings of the post Siad Barre  period in Somalia and present their gist in an objective and straight-forward manner, without taking any sides or offering any generalization of my own. It is for the readers to go through it, assess it and then to arrive at their own conclusions about the unfortunate policies pursued and the activities indulged in, in the name of rendering humanitarian help in Somalia (by US dominated UN forces which had singled out Aidid and pledged to eliminate him), leaving all other 'Warlords', 'Somali leaders' and 'bandits' etc. untouched allowing them go scot free under the strange notions of dispensation of justice.

Aidid's critics and enemies as influenced by the US and the Western media have been saying many derogatory and damaging things against him because of their vested interests and politics. He was made a scapegoat for all the ills of the Somali nation and for all the failures of US and UN efforts to provide peace and help to the Somalis. I have known him as a friend, as a human being and as the co-author of this book. Every time I met him and discussed anything concerning Somalia with him, when he was in India, I found him extremely concerned about the peace, unity and welfare of the Somali people and the peaceful return of democracy in Somalia. His heart bled to see the most inhuman and pathetic plight of all the Somali nationals under the Somali tyrant Mohamed Siad Barre. He was prepared to sacrifice everything, even his life, to put an end to the tyrannical regime in his country. His patriotism and his sense of dedication to this country, his honesty and straight-forwardness and his qualities of head and heart are par excellence. Personally, I have so far not come across a leader of such a high character and such rare values of dedication and sacrifice, who is so honest and bold and so genuinely concerned for his country, and ready to sacrifice very thing for his country. It is really an irony of fate and a great misfortune for the Somali people that they have not sunk their differences, and have not united and appreciated the genius of such a great leader among them and benefitted maximally from this unique capabilities and rich experiences to bring back peace, democracy and development in Somalia. 

In order to make this book comprehensive and of interest to all the Somali people, I have considered it desirable to include the following chapters written by experts in their respective fields. It would have been presumptuous on my part to write on economy, animals resources, agriculture and foreign aid in Somalia, as these are not my fields of specialization.

These papers have earlier appeared in fuller detail in our book "The Preferred Future Development in Somalia" I have edited and abridged these papers to include them in this book.

It is hoped that the Somali people and all those concerned with Somalia will find this book on Somali history, social structure, culture and problems interesting and useful.

"SAI KRIPA"

126, Sector 37

Faridabad (INDIA)-121-003

2nd Feb., 1994

Dr. Satya Pal Ruhela

Acknowledgments

I gratefully acknowledge all the authors and publishers of several books, pamphlets and articles on Somalia from whose valuable contributions we have been greatly benefited. We duly acknowledge the individual authors in the references of each chapter as well.

I am grateful to the staff of all the libraries of Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Millia Islamia, British Council, Indian Council of World Affairs, Indian Council of Cultural Affairs and the Somali Embassy in New Delhi, for their kind cooperation.

Our young Somali friend Mr. Abdi Mohammed Hassan Nur "Bashe", a doctoral research scholar of Economics in Majia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, was kind enough to give me many of the newspaper cuttings from national and international papers about Somalia so laboriously and meticulously collected by him and made uptodate during the last five years, with the help of which the last chapters have been prepared by me.

Dr. Satya Pal Ruhela

© Mohammed Farah Aidid & Satya Pal Ruhela 1994

© Jack L. Davies for editing and typesetting as web pages 2002

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Complete Version as of 3 September 2002

Except for photos and maps, which may be added later.