Imperialism in Africa Is Good for British

Country Nowadays

Somalia, is a country that is located in the Horn of Africa [7]. It has quite long history, from the colonialism on. Somalia nowadays has 16 ethnic groups and the population is around 28-30 million. Out of 85% is Somalis and the rest is other 15 ethnic groups such as Madhiban. The majority of the ethnic groups in this country speak Somali language, which is the official language in Somalia.

Their religion is mostly Islam, and there is rarely exceptions. [10] In customs aspect, native people kindly greet each other with handshakes, however many people avoid shaking hands with the opposite sex due to their religions, they also use certain hand gestures to express their ideas.

For example, “a swift twist of the open hand means ‘nothing’ or ‘no’.” – Culture of Somalia. [3] The occupations in Somalia are basically agriculture, which occupies 71% of labour force, including farming, fishing and logging. [12] Result from the colonialism, the standard of living in Somalia is extremely weak because the shape political ethnicity confrontation and the non-stop influence from Islamist rebels nowadays [11].

Colonialism

The colonialism in Somalia has thousand-year history. It started from 1840 to 1960. In the early 19th century, England, France, Italy, Ethiopia, and Egypt all seize Somalia. At first, Egypt seized Somali territory in 1875, but 5 years later, they were kicked out by the English and French. However, the English, French and Italians colonized Somali territory at the end. Due to Berlin Conference of 1884, the English took the north part of Somalia and the Italians took the southern Somalia. [2]

Different aspects made Somalia attractive to European imperialism.

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First of all, the reason of the English did that was because of economic aspect – they wanted to protect their trade route (1869) through the Suez Canal to India, so they took over this land. In the meanwhile, the Italians got the chance to take over the southern Somalia and proclaimed the territory as Italian Somaliland. The reason of they did that was because they wanted natural resources, such as bananas, sugar and livestock and also to develop trading. It can be said with certainty that one of the reasons why European imperialism colonized Somalia was because they wanted to exploit natural resources as many as possible.

Secondly, it was also related to political aspect. Before Somalia was colonized, Somalia had no unified government and it was ruled sultans from different religions. Therefore in order that it wanted to improve their power and expand the territory, it started conflicts and moreover the conflicts were formed within Somalia. So at that time, Somalia was divided into different parts with their own leaders, which means that the government of Somalia was separated and became weak. [8]

On one hand, due to social Darwinism, it led to European countries, such as France and Italy wanted to take over and colonize this country since this country had no organized government or any communities, conditions at that time, and European countries would not give up this opportunity to enhance their countries, get free resources and improve economic status. And this implies that social Darwinism is also one of the reasons that led European countries to imperialize Somalia. On the other hand, cultural aspect also attracted European imperialism. Because who would not like to exchange the culture, language furthermore to develop the trading?

After Somalia was imperialized by the Italians, English, and French, all of these countries governed them in different ways. First of all, the Italians colonized the southern Somalia, basically most of the Somali territory. Since the Italians wanted economic benefits, including natural resources. So they colonized Somalia to exploit natural resources and trading items. In order to deliver those resources back to Italy, they focused on trading so that they set a standpoint along the Indian Ocean Coast in order to develop the trading route to Somalia. Apparently, what the Italians did was just to exploit the resources and trading items to improve their economy. But it also influenced Somali economic aspect in a good way – developed certain trades.

Secondly, what the English governed Somalia was to occupy the coast area in order to make sure their trading route through the Suez Canal was safe. Differently, during their colonization, they ruled Somalia as protectorate until 1949. The English improved working Somali conditions for agricultural labourers. Not only that, but they also improved the elementary school system – they doubled the size of the system. Thirdly, the English allowed native people to have jobs as the civil servants in the low stratum and gendarmeries. [6] Which means more jobs were available for native people. From these actions, we could see that Somali economic situation was also improved by the English.

Next, the French only occupied a portion of territory of Somalia so it did not influence Somalia and its economic status that much. Why they colonized Somalia was because after they kicked out Egyptians from Somalia, they also wanted to colonize a portion of Egypt as a coal station in order to improve the international relationship with China. However it did not work, so the French could only occupy Somalia instead.

What was the response to the imperialist power within your country – were there any groups or famous individuals that aided or resisted the imperialist power?

In the late 19th century, which is during the imperialism of Somalia, the Scramble for Africa inspired the Somali religious and patriotic leader, Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, began the colonial resistance war. In his poems, he implied that European countries plundered the freedom of Somalia. Additionally, while the military was forming, he set a milestone for the independence of Somalia. In his military movement, he defeated the British four times, however, this movement ended when the English applied bombardments to Somalia in 1920. [10]

Although European countries imperialized Somalia for a long time, they still brought benefits to Somalia. The first advantage of imperialism pertaining to Somalia was it improved Somali economic status. Since the Italians developed its trading within Somalia, it increased Somali urbanization and its economy. Secondly, Somalia got development because while European countries were exploiting the resources and trading items, Somalia got new infrastructures from them, such as schools. Thirdly, as we already said the Italians developed Somali trading route, which means one of the advantages of imperialism were new trade routes. Therefore, as I mentioned above, Somalia was ruled as protectorate during the imperialism. So that means this country was under protected, which means it was also an advantage for Somalia because it could avoid sudden wars from other countries.

However, on the other hand, there were also disadvantages of imperialism pertaining to Somalia. It goes without saying that Somalia lost control of its own country because of colonization. Secondly, there is no denying the fact that it caused conflicts within Somalia and wars with other countries. In addition, because of exploitation in Somalia, it brought lots of people starvations and diseases since they did not have resources and certain technologies to deal with the problems at that time. Thereupon it means one of the disadvantages was exploitation of resources. On one hand, even though as we said before the English improve the elementary school system, they still did not get enough education because elementary schools’ education was not enough. What is more important, on the other hand, Somalia did not gain too much cultural exchange: Somalia maintained its original religion and Somali language, even though ethnic groups raised a little bit after the independence.

The reason of it maintained its religion and language was because since people did not have enough education due to European imperialism, they could not just change their language from Somali to English, neither cultures, religions. [4] Also, because Somalia had been colonized for many years, it did not have time to develop an organized government – which means it was a problem if Somalia could develop its future. Lastly, wars were more common due to the fact that competition between the Italian colonies and British colonies took places because of social Darwinism – everyone wants to be the best because ‘survival of the fittest’.

Under imperialism, Somalis’ lives were not good since their standard of living was already bad. What is more, because of exploitation of resources and these resources included foods and trading items. Which means it caused starvation for native people. Even worse, it could lead to diseases spread. Secondly, their society under imperialism might be better than the one without imperialism, because under imperialism which means natives were under controlled and this country was under protected. However, once they lost the imperialism control and protect, their society might be orderless since their own government was not organized even before the colonialism. Moreover, it has to be noticed that there was not slavery in Somalia at that time because firstly, it took lots of resources and times to go to Somalia for slaves from European countries. Secondly, natives’ religion is mostly Islam, which means they were less acceptable to being enslaved. On the other hand, natives at that time might have better economic conditions since they got jobs available because the English allowed native people to work as the civil servants and gendarmeries.

Decolonization

Somalia won its independence on the 1st of July, 1960 from Britain. In the beginning of the 20th century, Somalis against the control from Britain and therefore in 1910, the English gave up on the inland of Somalia. Therefore after WWII, Italy also gave up on the control and then Somalia was given to the United Nations. After 10 years, Somalia gained the independence with the British protectorate and the Somali Republic was formed. [1]

After the independence, Somali republic government was formed, it was formed by Abdullahi Issa Mohamud and Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal and other protectorate government’s members. [9] And it is headed by Aden Abdullah Osman Daar.

But the problem was that Somalia lost all the knowledge on how to rule themselves because the European countries that used to rule them left. So it means Somalia went back to the beginning and it took time to have an organized government. Secondly, since Somalia was merged with the British protectorate and the Italian protectorate, so it needed a long time to integrate the whole country.

Somalia today is not the same form of government that was formed during the time it won independence. Because Somalia needed to take stability to the devastated nation back, to create new social, political and economic foundations. So people kept on trying new governments to provide new opportunities for changes. Nowadays, the government in Somalia is the Federal Government of Somalia – it was formed in 2012, after 8 years of transitional government. [5]

Overall, nowadays Somalia has a great connection and relationship between the past colonialism and its own independence. As the entire world is improving, Somalia will definitely develop in the future.