Africa’s First Democrats: Somalia’s Aden A. Osman and Abdirazak H. Hussen

308 Pages·2016·4.593 MB·English

by  Abdi Ismail Samatar

AFRICA’S FIRST DEMOCRATS
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AFR ICA’S FIRST
DEMOCR ATS
Somalia’s Aden A. Osman
and Abdirazak H. Hussen
Abdi Ismail Samatar
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
© 2016 by Abdi Ismail Samatar
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association
of American University Presses’ Resolution on Permissions consti-
tutes the only exception to this prohibition.
∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of the American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Samatar, Abdi Ismail, author.
Title: Africa’s first democrats : Somalia’s Aden A. Osman and
Abdirazak H. Hussen / Abdi Ismail Samatar.
Description: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2016. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2016028457 (print) | lccn 2016029757 (ebook) |
isbn 9780253022301 (pbk. : alk. paper) | isbn 9780253022226
(cloth : alk. paper) | isbn 9780253022370 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Somalia—Politics and government—1960–1991. |
Osman, Aden Abdulle, 1908–2007. | Hussein, Abdirizak Haji,
1924–2014. | Democracy—Somalia.
Classification: lccdt407 .s25 2016 (print) | lccdt407 (ebook) |
ddc 967.73051—dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016028457
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To Ismail Samatar and Halimo Abdillahi, who gave us
the best values any parents could pass on to their
children;
Amina Ismail Samatar, my beloved sister; and
Michael Watts, my mentor at the University of
California, Berkeley
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Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments ix
Selected Dates xv
1 Leadership in Africa 1
2 Aden A. Osman: From Orphan to Nationalist Leader 14
3 Abdirazak H. Hussen: From Camel Boy to Freedom Fighter 29
4 The Somali Youth League and the Nationalist Project, 1943–1960 39
5 The First Republic: Institutional Foundations of Democracy,
1960–1964 86
6 The Second Republic: Democratic Trailblazing, 1964–1967 127
7 The March toward Dictatorship, 1967–1974 186
8 Conclusion 214
Notes 227
Bibliography 267
Index 277
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Preface and Acknowledgments
T
his book has been long in the making because of the encounters I had over
the past decade. The unprecedented political and humanitarian disasters in So-
malia occupied some of my attention. Further, it took me several years to collect
the materials necessary to write the book. This involved tracing people on three
continents who either had information about the period covered or knew actors.
Translating some of the original documents from Italian into English took an
unbearably long time, and family obligations took some of my attention.
The Somali people have been subjected to unimaginable cruelties over forty
years by the military regime that destroyed their democracy, warlords who bru-
talized them, pseudoreligious leaders who failed to honor the basic tenets of Is-
lam, corrupt political leaders whose sole aim has been to steal everything, a vicious
Ethiopian and Kenyan military occupation masquerading as African brothers,
and an international community that subverts Somali civic commonalities by
endorsing sectarian agendas. But the Somali people’s resilience continues to in-
spire.
On another plane and for over thirty years, Somalis have been told by ex-
perts that they cannot dream of rebuilding their democratic republic based on
their inclusive cultural and Islamic values. My hope is that when young Somalis
read Africa’s First Democrats, they will be inspired by the dedication of those first
Somali democratic leaders and their supporters, whose commitment embodied
the hopes of a proud people and the essence of liberation.
Africanist scholarship has been dominated by antistatist political projects
that assume that Africans do not have the capacity to build capable and effective
states and therefore require tutelage from others. This book offers an unambigu-
ous example of the pioneering experience that challenges such notions. Ironi-
cally, the stories of these democratic leaders have not attracted the attention of
many Africanists interested in Somali affairs or democracy, even though most of
the material has been accessible for more than forty-five years. The common wis-
dom is that Africa needs and has never had ethical, competent, and courageous
political leadership. However, this book contradicts that and shows that Africa’s
first democrats fulfilled that exemplary leadership, and their legacy is still rel-
evant for Somalia and the continent. I hope this book will stimulate sustained
debate about the nature of democratic leadership in Africa.
Working on this book gave me an exceptional opportunity to learn the
country’s political history anew through the practice of these leaders and their
ix