If I may quote a favorite film of mine:
"Sometimes, fear is the appropriate response."
Secret Policemen and Funky Bass Lines: A Somali Democratic Republic TL
- Thread starter GoulashComrade
- Start date
If I may quote a favorite film of mine:
"Sometimes, fear is the appropriate response."
There's gonna be a lot of strong personalities emerging from the Revolutionary Flowers program, including (a mild spoiler) the Somali Democratic Republic's first female general secretary. Strong personalities tend to clash when they have different visions for the nation, but the Flowers might end up working together quite effectively. President Taariq is confirmed as well...but the Somali governmental system is going to see some restructuring, so how much power each role has is up in the air.
Also, your post just made me realize that the term "flower child" is gonna have some wildly different connotations ITTL
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Also, your post just made me realize that the term "flower child" is gonna have some wildly different connotations ITTL
Roses, after all, have thorns.
Should have the next update up in the next few days - as interesting as Kediye's communist kids are, there's still a ways to go before they arrive ITTL. The next post should have Somalia become fully independent and establish the First Republic - I'll move things along quicker in approaching the Red October Coup now that y'all have a handle on the nature of post-colonial Somalia. This is an SDR TL, so it's no secret that the First Somali Republic is doomed - but for a brief moment before it goes to hell we can all celebrate the coming of independence. Soomaaliyeey toosoo!
To tide you over until then, here's some more English-language Somali music; this time a contemporary song from the Mogadishu-born refugees turned Canadian pop duo Faarrow:
To tide you over until then, here's some more English-language Somali music; this time a contemporary song from the Mogadishu-born refugees turned Canadian pop duo Faarrow:
"Exit Stage Left" - Part I
"Exit Stage Left" - Part I
European Decolonization and Growing Pains in the Blue Star Republic
An XHKS poster from 1977 celebrating May Day. The Somali nation is represented by the legendary chieftain Arraweelo (reimagined as a symbol of working-class feminism by the party) bearing the gifts of modernity. The upper text reads "Long Live May 1st", while the bottom text says "Long Live the Progressive Cooperation Between the Somali Workers, Farmers, and Pastoralists!"
The Iftin Band - Shimaali
An XHKS poster from 1977 celebrating May Day. The Somali nation is represented by the legendary chieftain Arraweelo (reimagined as a symbol of working-class feminism by the party) bearing the gifts of modernity. The upper text reads "Long Live May 1st", while the bottom text says "Long Live the Progressive Cooperation Between the Somali Workers, Farmers, and Pastoralists!"
The Iftin Band - Shimaali
"Always remember that the people are not fighting for the ideas that lie inside men’s minds. The people fight and accept the sacrifices demanded by the struggle in order to gain material advantages, to live better and in peace, to benefit from progress, and for the better future of their children. National liberation, the struggle against colonialism, the construction of peace, progress and independence are hollow words devoid of any significance unless they can be translated into a real improvement of living conditions."
--- Amilcar Cabral
From "Comrade Husna: Exploring the World of Africa's Red Lady" by Maria Salvini
"The government formed in Somalia by ‘Abdillahi ‘Ise in 1956 was confronted by all the problems of a country moving rapidly towards autonomy. Interest naturally centred on those internal issues of vital concern to the future stability and prosperity of the state. External affairs being outside his government’s purview, the only gesture towards the fulfilment of the abiding goal of Pan-Somali unity which the Prime Minister permitted himself was the announcement, given first place in his programme, that every effort would be made to settle the disputed frontier with Ethiopia – a subject on which more will be said presently. Of more immediate moment was the stabilization of the country’s precarious economy, the attraction of foreign capital and aid, and the raising of increased revenue by wider taxation. The perennial and vexed question of deciding upon an official language – Somali being still in the main unwritten – also received attention, but, as will be seen later, remained unresolved.
In social affairs the Right-SYL government pledged itself to examine ways of extending further voting rights to women as a compromise with the communist-sympathizing Left, and to promote the further Somalization of all branches of government and administration, including the judicial system. In this latter field satisfactory progress was in the main achieved, and a number of other progressive measures were successfully launched. The statutory authority of chiefs, in practice greater amongst the southern cultivators than the northern nomads, was reduced; and the procedure of applying collective punishments in the control of inter-clan feuds was modified in the direction of placing a stronger burden of responsibility upon the individual criminal. This move was designed to weaken the continuing vitality of collective clan solidarity. At the same time, in an effort to separate secular from religious authority, the considerable criminal powers wielded by Muslim magistrates (Kadis) under the Italian system were reduced in order to restrict their jurisdiction more unambiguously to matters of personal status. As far as the Somalization of the judiciary was concerned, pending the training of the necessary Somali staff, Somali District Commissioners were temporarily granted judicial powers to be exercised subject to the overriding authority of higher courts presided over by Italian judges.
On a different plane, in a climate of opinion increasingly hostile to the disruptive effects of clan particularism (an anti-tribalism initally spread by the militant trade unions and Italian communists), legislation was passed making it illegal for political parties to bear tribal names. This measure, was, no doubt, partly directed against the opposition Digil-Mirifle party which adroitly changed its title to that of Hizbia Dastur Mustaqil Somali (Somali Independent Constitutional Party) thus taking advantage of the plurality of languages in Somalia to retain its original initials. Legislation was also enacted forbidding the use of the traditional derogatory names applied to the sab specialist occupational groups who, in any case, were now rapidly acquiring a considerable degree of emancipation from their former status as bondsmen. As well as such issues as these, the government was also soon preoccupied with the important question of preparing a constitution for the independent state.
In the light of the prevailing Pan-Somali aim shared by all nationalists, the constitution had to provide for the possibility of the eventual union of Somalia with other Somali territories. and provisions fulfilling this requirement were incorporated in the final proposals. Here the S.Y.L. government and the H.D.M.S. opposition held very different views. The League favoured, indeed insisted upon, a unitary state with a high degree of centralized authority. In the light of its own particularistic interests, the H.D.M.S. on the contrary sought a federal relationship which would permit a high degree of regional autonomy. Already the opposition had advocated the creation in its own southern area of a separate Digil-Mirifle state, and in conflict with the government’s firm repudiation of them had expressed sympathy towards the Ethiopian Emperor’s overtures contained in his speech at Qabradare.15 Here as in other matters such as the discrimination against Digil and Rahanweyn clansmen alleged to exist in the public service, the H.D.M.S. position proceeded directly from its own particularistic interests and general opposition to the S.Y.L. But with only thirteen members in the Assembly its voice was naturally weak. The real threat to the League’s authority came from within its own ranks, both through the independent-mindedness of its deputies in the Assembly, and through the wider cleavage between Darod and Hawiye supporters. The issue which best served as a vehicle for the expression of these internal differences was the moderation of ‘Abdillahi ‘Ise’s government’s policies, derided by the Left-SYL as too conciliatory to Italian interests and ignoring both the needs of the rural nomads and the urban proletariat.
The Left of the party now openly attacked the government, and the President of the Assembly, Adan ‘Abdulle ‘Isman, who was dubbed ‘President Alright’ after his repeated insistence that the fundamentals of the colonial system were "alright" and did not need changing. Strong demands were made for a more open pro-Soviet and pro-Egyptian stand. This line of attack seemed favoured at the time by the public sympathy provoked by the recent assassination of the Egyptian member of the U.N. Advisory Council at Mogadishu. Earlier, some Somalis had volunteered for service with Egypt during the Suez crisis; but since then there had been Somali protests at alleged Egyptian interference in Somalia’s internal affairs. Now, however, opinion seemed again generally favourable to a more definite pro-Egyptian/Soviet Bloc alignment and this was strongly advocated by the Somali trade union communist and SYL politician Haji Muhammad and his associates. The League’s new President was a severe embarrassment to the government and its supporters, and his influence was such that an open split in the party seemed imminent.
These fears were proven well-founded when Haji Muhammad Husseyn, who enjoyed a formidable reputation as an orator and who had in the past played an important part in the development of Somali nationalism, struck out on his own to form a new militant socialist party called the Worker's Front of Somalia. To this new organization, known locally as ‘the Front’, Haji Muhammad sought to attract support from the dissident flanks of the League, the Italian PCI affiliates, and to exploit what remained of the Darod-Hawiye breach, after Adan ‘Abdulle’s intervention. The October 1958 municipal elections – in which for the first time women participated equally with men thanks to communist agitation – provided an opportunity for assessing the extent of the new movement’s appeal.
Of 663 seats the S.Y.L. won 416; the H.D.M.S. 115; while the Worker's Front came in third place winning 86 seats but nevertheless beating the only other national party which contested the elections, the Liberal Party, which gained 27 seats. Clearly the Worker's Front did not as yet constitute a threat to the League with its massive national following. But, taking into account its rapid snowballing growth and the Front's incredible performance for having only been organized a year ago, it could by no means be dismissed altogether, particularly in view of the forthcoming elections for the national assembly due the following spring.
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It was not quite the problem that they weren't accommodating themselves, but that their policies were mostly geared towards getting the broadest base of support possible - which meant necessarily catering to Samale interests in the main. The agrarian Sab felt like they weren't being represented well enough in the big tent party, so they made their own.
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Before reading this thread today, I would never thought that what I needed in my life was a somali timeline, but now...
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This is an interesting TL! I'm really looking forward to seeing alt!Somalia's evolution which averts a lot of the misery faced in OTL Somalia.
Incidentally, I think the Kaddare alphabet looks pretty cool and oddly kind of reminiscent of 1970s and 1980s computer fonts. But Latinization of the Somali alphabet does have the advantage of a reasonably consistent orthographical representation on a pre-existing British or Italian typewriter.
Incidentally, I think the Kaddare alphabet looks pretty cool and oddly kind of reminiscent of 1970s and 1980s computer fonts.
But Latinization of the Somali alphabet does have the advantage of a reasonably consistent orthographical representation on a pre-existing British or Italian typewriter.