# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Somaliland

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​SOMALILAND (see 25.378). The territorial division of Somaliland between Abyssinia, Great Britain, France and Italy, except for a comparatively slight readjustment of the Italo-Abyssinian frontier, remained unchanged during the period 1910–21. However, Italy obtained from Great Britain the promise of the addition to Italian Somaliland of part of the Jubaland province of British East Africa (Kenya Colony). Italy also desired to acquire the port of Jibuti (French Somaliland), but failed to do so (see Africa: History).
British Somaliland.—From 1910 to 1920 the mullah Mahommed bin Abdullah, popularly known in Britain as the "Mad Mullah," continued to dominate the interior of the protectorate. In March 1910 the British troops were withdrawn to the sea-ports and a policy of "strict coastal concentration" adopted. Officially arrangements had been made to enable the friendly tribes to defend themselves from attack by the Mullah; in fact the "friendlies" were not only systematically raided by the dervishes, but also quarrelled among themselves. At the end of 1912 a camel constabulary, 150 strong, was raised and under R. C. Corfield checked inter-tribal fighting. In Aug. 1913 Corfield, acting against instructions, engaged a raiding party of some 200 dervishes at a place called Dolmadoba, 110 m. S.E. of Berbera. In the action Corfield was killed, his little force of 109 men had over 50% casualties and was compelled to fall back. G. F. Archer, the acting commissioner, rode out from Burao (40 m. distant) with an escort of 20 Indian troops and covered the retreat. The dervishes proceeded to occupy some of the chief grazing ground of the "friendlies" and the Mullah built strong forts at Jidballi and Shimber Berris—places in the S.E. part of the British protectorate, Jidballi being 220 m. S.E. of Berbera. In March 1914 dervish raiders reached the coast and fired into the town of Berbera. Archer, who in May 1914 became commissioner of the protectorate in succession to H. A. Byatt, urged that duty should compel Britain to safeguard the tribes in the protectorate and further operations were authorized. Sheikh and Burao were reoccupied and on Nov. 23 Maj. (local Lt.-Col.) T. A. Cubitt defeated the dervishes at Shimber Berris. Cubitt having returned to Burao, the dervishes reoccupied Shimber Berris. Here they were again attacked by Cubitt on Feb. 3–4 1915, and after severe fighting, partly in caves, were driven out and ail their forts destroyed. There was no means of following up the Mullah, nor any belief that his power had been crushed, though for over a year after the destruction of Shimber Berris he remained quiescent. His headquarters were at Tale, towards the Italian frontier, where, under the direction of Arab masons from the Yemen, his followers built elaborate stone fortifications of great strength.
Subsequently the Mullah again overran the centre and east of the protectorate, building more forts and making many raids on the "friendlies." This state of affairs lasted until 1920, when carefully planned and ably executed operations resulted in the complete destruction of. the Mullah's forces. The Mullah had, in Sept. 1919, suddenly moved northward from Tale to Jidballi with most of his fighting men, establishing his own camp in the hills at Medishe, 12 m. N.W. of Jidballi. This move, occasioned by the hostility of the Mijertin Somalis, proved advantageous to the British plans. The main attack was made from the air, the force employed being one flight of DH9 aeroplanes under Group-Capt. R. Gordon. The ground troops were a King's African Rifles contingent (700 rifles), the Somaliland Camel Corps (700 rifles) and the 1st 101st Grenadiers, Indian Army (400 rifles). Lt.-Col. G. H. Summers was in command, the whole operations being, apart from the initial attacks by the air force, under the personal direction of Archer. Hostilities began on Jan. 21 with an aerial attack on the Mullah's camp at Medishe and ended on Feb. 12 with the flight of the Mullah, his eldest son, a brother and four or five followers. The rest of his followers were killed or. captured, together with all his stock and property of every kind. The killed included 7 of the Mullah's sons; the captured, his 5 wives, 6 of his sons, 4 daughters and 2 sisters. The British casualties were very slight—3 natives killed and 8 wounded. The cost of these operations was about £84,000. Their success was primarily and mainly due to the Royal Air Force. The dervishes, good fighting men, were demoralized from the start by the attacks from the air and offered no serious opposition. They appeared not to know the character of aeroplanes; when the first attack was made on Medishe the Mullah is reported to have regarded the appearance of the machines in the air as a divine manifestation. It is known that on their approach he collected his people around him and awaited their coming under the white canopy used on state occasions. The first bomb killed an uncle of the Mullah's, who was standing by his side, and singed the Mullah's clothing.
When the British captured Tale (Feb. 9) the Mullah was already in flight, and he succeeded in eluding pursuit with the small following named. He crossed the Haudh to Galadi. News was received in the summer of 1921 that the Mullah had died at Imi in the heart of the Ogaden country the previous Feb., deserted and destitute. The Mullah's defeat was regarded in Somaliland as marking the deliverance of the country from 21 years of dervish oppression. Archer, to whose persistent advocacy this result was due, was created a K.C.M.G.
The World War and the high prices prevailing in 1918–20 had a marked influence on trade, the Somalis exporting large numbers of sheep and goats for the Aden Field Force and many thousands of camels for the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. Apart from this the most valuable export was skins and hides, the Somali skins being of very high quality. The great majority of the skins, especially the sheepskins, went eventually to the American market. The chief imports—American grey sheeting, dates, rice, sugar and tea—showed a heavy decline in quantity during the war, but an increase in value. Trade with Abyssinia continued, but the Zeila route could not compete beyond Harrar with the railway-borne traffic through Jibuti. In 1910–1 the total value of imports was £267,000 and of exports £247,000. In 1919–20 the figures were: imports £754,000, exports £346,000 (of which £134,000 was the value of hides). External trade was mainly in the hands of Indians and Arabs.
Revenue was mainly derived from customs and was inadequate to meet the cost of administration. The figures for 1910–1 were: revenue £30,000, expenditure £99,000; for 1919–20 revenue £81,000, expenditure £322,000. Deficits, incurred mainly for military purposes, were met by Imperial grants in aid. There was evidence to show that, with internal peace and a reasonable development of the resources of the country, the protectorate would become self-supporting. It was known to contain oil-fields, favourably reported upon by experts as long ago as 1914. A step towards opening the interior was taken in 1920 when a motor road was made from Berbera (the capital and chief port) to Lower Sheikh and from Upper Sheikh to Burao.
See R. E. Drake Brockman, British Somaliland (1917); H. F. Prevost Battersby, Richard Corfield of Somaliland (1914); A. H. E. Mosse, My Somali Book (1913); A. Hamilton, Somaliland (1911); and the annual Colonial Office reports on the protectorate. The account of the final overthrow of the Mullah is given in a supplement to the London Gazette of Nov. 1 1920.
French Somaliland.—Situated on the western shores of the Bab-el-Mandeb, French Somaliland is important as possessing the only French port on the Suez Canal route and as being the main artery of trade with Abyssinia. The pop. in 1917 was estimated at 206,000. Jibuti, the port and capital, had 13,608 inhabitants, of whom 294 were Europeans (107 French).
The resources of the country, which is largely arid, are limited. Date palms have been planted in the desert round Jibuti. Cotton-growing was tried in the same neighbourhood but was abandoned. On the higher ground there is rich grassland, on which the natives—Somali and Danakil—have herds of camels, goats and black-faced sheep. The Bahr 'Asal has been exploited since 1912 for its immense deposits of salt; in 1918 the export was 11,500 metric tons. There is also a considerable fishing industry, and mother-of-pearl figures among the exports.
Jibuti numbered 272, with a tonnage of 643,000. About 90% of its trade is the transit of goods to and from Abyssinia, the railway from Jibuti to Addis Abbaba being owned by a French company. In 1913, before the railway had reached Addis Abbaba, the value of the transit trade was £1,636,000. In 1918, with the railway completed, the imports destined for Abyssinia were valued at £1,433,000 and the exports from Abyssinia at £2,622,000. There is also a trade in supplying passing ships with coal, previously imported. Textiles, foodstuffs and coal are the chief imports; the exports are the characteristic produce of Abyssinia—coffee, live stock, hides and skins, ivory, rubber, beeswax, etc.
The colony is administered by a governor assisted by a council composed equally of official and non-official members. The budget for 1919 was balanced at 2,370,000 francs. Relations between the Somali and Danakil and the French proved satisfactory, the tribes being very lightly administered. A small military force was maintained for the security of Jibuti and the railway. The colony was on good relations with its Italian, British and Abyssinian neighbours, save for differences with the Abyssinian customs officials, whose valuation of dutiable goods passing inwards was often arbitrary. Some anxiety was caused in 1917–8 by the presence of Lij Yasu, the deposed Emperor of Abyssinia, in the Danakil country, and by his threats to the railway. His effort to raise the tribes against the French failed.
See the Côte Française des Somalis (annual reports by the French Colonial Ministry), and L'Afrique Française (monthly).
Italian Somaliland.—The efforts of Italy in Somaliland during 1910–21 were concentrated upon the southern part of their protectorate. By a royal decree of July 1910 this southern region, Benadir and its hinterland, was constituted a Crown colony, administered by a civil governor resident at Mukdishu (Ital. Mogadiscio), and divided into four "commissariats." This region included the fertile valleys of the lower Juba and Webi Shebeli and the good grazing land on the plateau between those rivers. Dura was the main crop, but cotton and rice plantations were formed along the Juba and aid given to Italian colonization companies. The result was not great; the Somalis preferred a nomadic life, while the agricultural classes, negroes or semi-negroes, were few in number. This paucity of labour was the most serious problem confronting the administration.
By the occupation of strategic posts and the building of roads the Italians secured the safety of Benadir, and with this security a considerable trade developed with Abyssinia, chiefly via Lugh, on the Juba. But the absence of any harbours—all the ports are open roadsteads—proved a great drawback, and to remedy this difficulty Italy had obtained facilities at the harbour of Kismayu, in British East Africa (Kenya), some little distance south of the mouth of the Juba. That river formed the Anglo-Italian frontier. On Dec. 24 1915 an agreement was reached for the appointment of a permanent mixed commission to deal with customs, transit, conservancy, navigation, irrigation and other purposes in the Juba region. Italian desires in respect to the Juba were, however, of a wider character. It was believed that with complete control of the lower Juba—spoken of as a second Nile—the economic future of the colony would be assured, and in the treaty with the Allies which preceded her entry into the World War Italy secured inter alia a promise of the rectification of her Somaliland frontier. Formal negotiations to that end were entered upon in 1919, when Great Britain agreed to the cession of Kismayu and of a strip of land which would give Italy both banks of the Juba.
The northern part of Italian Somaliland remained under the rule of Somali chiefs, of whom the most important was the Sultan of the Mijertins, whose territory included the coast facing the Gulf of Aden. The Mijertins, who number approximately 100,000, possess large numbers of camels, sheep and cattle, and their country, as also Obbia and the Nogal territory, abounds in plants which furnish gum-arabic, myrrh, frankincense, etc. The Mijertins were near neighbours of Mahommed bin Abdullah, the "Mad Mullah," who between 1905 and 1909 was settled in the lower Nogal region. The hostility of the Mijertins finally drove out the Mullah, who established himself at Tale, in the southeast corner of British Somaliland. The continued and unwelcome attentions of the Mijertins induced the Mullah in 1919 to remove farther into the British protectorate, while in 1920 the Mijertin Sultan, Osman Mahmoud, assembled his warriors to prevent the Mullah's reentry into Italian territory.
Italian relations with Abyssinia were satisfactory. Following the Italo-Abyssinian convention of 1908 the frontier was delimitated in 1911, tribal boundaries rather than physical features determining the line chosen. In the north, where the frontier reaches the southern limits of British Somaliland, the Italo-Abyssinian frontier was fixed at 48° E., instead of 47° E., as provided in the 1908 agreement. This gave to Abyssinia the small portion of Ogaden tribal lands which had been in the Italian protectorate, including Galadi.
The external trade, valued at £174,000 in 1908–9, had risen to £326,000 in 1912–3, and was £800,000 in 1918. Throughout this period imports greatly exceeded exports, the exports in 1918 for example being valued at £243,000 only. Imports are chiefly cotton goods from Italy and food-stuffs. Skins form, in value, 75% of the exports. The expenses of administration exceed revenue; the Italian grant in aid (£119,000 in 1910–1) was £186,000 in 1920–1, when the budget was balanced at £440,000. Of the expenditure one-fifth was for the military force, some 3,000 strong, sent from Eritrea, the men being Abyssinians.
A 1920 estimate put the total pop. as high as 650,000. Mukdishu had 14,000 inhabitants. Besides a few hundred Europeans there are at the coast towns settlements of Arab and Indian traders. Mukdishu was, in 1915, connected with Massawa by a high-power wireless station. Surveys for railways had been made, but no construction had begun up to 1921. There were in that year some 1,500 m. of road in southern Somaliland.
See G. de Martino (sometime governor of the colony), La Somalia Nostra (1913), and Italian Somaliland, a British Foreign Office handbook, with bibliography (1920).  (F. R. C.)