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The War in the Ogaden: Implications for Siyaad's Rôle in Somali History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

At the turn of the century, Sayid Maxamad Cabdille Xasan led a 21-year battle against foreign colonialists in the Somali lands. Then British aircraft mercilessly bombarded his main fort at Talex in 1920, and he died a few months later, his military forces in utter disarray. The Sayid, as he is known, is none the less considered the father of modern Somali nationalism. Military defeat did not spoil the lustre of this hero's feats.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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References

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page 97 note 1 Sheikh-Abdi, Abdi, ‘Sayid Mohammed Abdille Hassan and the Current Conflict in the Horn’, in Horn of Africa (Summit, N.J.), 1, 2, 04/06 1978, p. 61.Google Scholar

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page 97 note 3 Samatar, op. cit. p. 17.

page 98 note 1 Martin, B. G., Muslim Brotherhoods in Nineteenth-Century Africa (Cambridge, 1976), p. 194.Google Scholar The author footnotes the major authorities on the Sayid's career.

page 98 note 2 Sheikh-Abdi, loc. cit. p. 62.

page 98 note 3 Samatar, op. cit. p. 25.

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page 102 note 2 Statement by Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile-Mariam at the O.A.U. meeting, Gabon, July 1977.

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page 109 note 2 Harbeson, John, ‘Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa’, Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Baltimore, 11 1978.Google Scholar

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page 112 note 1 I do not have any direct evidence to back this view of the origins of infiltration into the Ogaden, but have been given informal support by various Somali informants. Cf. Ministry, of Affairs, Foreign, Republic, Somali Democratic, Go From My Country (Mogadishu, 1978).Google Scholar Richard Greenfield, who I believe wrote this text, suggests quite clearly that ‘no Government could restrain… the Freedom Fighters.… further’ (p. 43).

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page 113 note 2 I argued a more moderate position in ‘Political Economy of Military Rule in Somalia’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), XIV, 3, 09 1976, pp. 449–68,Google Scholar but my point then was not to view the rôle of Siyaad in future Somali history, but rather to evaluate by some objective criteria his performance in comparison to the régime he overthrew.

page 114 note 1 In fact, substantial gains by Somali guerillas, especially in the Southern Ogaden, have been reported. See the Los Angeles Times, 7 March 1979.