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The Somali-Ken yan Controversy: Implications for the Future
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
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Since 1960, the Northern Frontier District of Kenya (N.F.D.) has become the centre of controversy between two African nations—the Somali Republic and Kenya. The area, about 102,000 square miles, includes the dominantly Somali-inhabited Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa Districts and the non-Somali (mainly Galla) districts of Marsabit, Isiolo, and Moyale.1 It consists of a vast, low plateau sloping rather uniformly from 2,000 feet east of Lake Rudolph towards Lamu on the Indian Ocean. Except for the Marsabit mountain region, it is semi-desert, covered by thornbush and useful only for grazing camels, cattle, goats, and sheep. The climate is hot, and the average annual rainfall is less than 12 inches. No commercially exploitable minerals have been found, and the flatness of the land often causes flash floods during and after the two rainy seasons.
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References
Page 165 note 1 The Turkana District was until 1963 a part of the Northern Province of Kenya, but not of the N.F.D. In this article, the N.F.D. includes all other northern districts except Sambura, which, although it was de jure a part of the N.F.D., was de facto administered separately. For details see map overleaf.
Page 168 note 1 See Lewis, I. M., ‘The Somali Conquest of the Horn of Africa’, in The Journal of African History (Cambridge), 1, 2, 1960, pp. 213–30,Google Scholar and his A Pastoral Democracy (London, 1961), pp. 1–30.Google Scholar A penetrating account of Somali expansion in the N.F.D. is Turnbull's, R. G. ‘The Wardeh’, in Kenyan Police Review (Nairobi), 07 and 10 1957.Google Scholar
Page 168 note 2 According to the Report of the Northern Frontier District Commission (London, 1962),Google Scholar Cmnd. 1900, the approximate tribal population of the N.F.D. is distributed as follows: Garissa District: Somali—72% Orma Galla—7%, Riverine Tribes—21% Wajir District: Somali—88%, ‘half-Somali’ (Ajuran)-12%; Mandera District: Somali—49‘half—Somali’ (Gurreh)—51%; Moyale District: Boran and Gabbra Galla—49%, Rendille—50·5%, Elmolo—0·5%; Isiolo District: Galla Boran—71%, Somali—19%, Turkana—10% Marsabit District: Galla Boran and Gabbra-49%, Rendille—50·5%, Elmolo—0·5%;‘half-Somali’ as Somali, primarily because they regard themselves as such, and because practically all ‘half-Somali’ are Muslims.
Page 168 note 1 Treaty between the United Kingdom and Italy (London, 1924),Google Scholar Cmd. 2194. R. Lefevre gives a brief analysis of the various Italian claims in his Politica Somala (Bologna, 1933), pp. 131–51.Google Scholar
Page 168 note 2 See, for example, Sir Gerald Reece (former Provincial Commissioner of the Northern Province and ex-Governor of British Somaliland), ‘The Somalilands’, in The British Survey (London), main series, no. 98, 05 1957.Google Scholar
Page 169 note 1 Unpublished Italian documents reveal such aspirations, especially the conclusions of the Conference of Governors of Italian East Africa in 1939.
Page 169 note 2 In addition to the works cited elsewhere in this article, the following may be consulted on colonial history and the partitioning of the Horn of Africa:Trimingham, J. S., Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford, 1952);Google ScholarCoupland, R., The Exploitation of East Africa, 1856–1890 (London, 1939);Google ScholarLanger, W. L., The Diplomacy of Imperialism (New York, 1956);Google Scholar and, more briefly, Touval, Saadia, Somali Nationalism (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), pp. 30–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For a pro-Somali historical interpretation, see Government, Somali, Somali Peninsula: a new light on imperial motives (London, 1962);Google Scholar and for a pro-Ethiopian history, Pankhurst, E. Sylvia, Ex-Italian Somaliland (London, 1951).Google Scholar
Page 169 note 3 East Africa Official Gazette (Nairobi), 1914, p. 308.Google Scholar
Page 170 note 1 SirEliot, Charles, The East African Protectorate (London, 1905).Google Scholar
Page 171 note 1 House of Commons Parliamentary Debates, 5th series, vol. 423 (London, 1946), p. 1840.Google Scholar
Page 170 note 2 G. Reece, op. cit.
Page 170 note 3 The important Northern Province Livestock Improvement Ordinance, no. 22 of 1957, later sought to develop new techniques in handling livestock.
Page 172 note 1 This section on N.F.D. administration relies heavily on interviews with colonial officials and Somalis in Nairobi and the N.F.D., the Annual Reports of the Kenyan Native Affairs Department for the years 1922–42, unpublished documents in the Secretariat Library in Nairobi, and historical materials such as Smith's, A. D.Through Unknown African Countries (New York, 1897),Google Scholar and Hodson's, A. W.Seven years in Southern Abyssinia (London, 1927).Google Scholar There is little anthropological material on N.F.D. Somali inter-clan relations. In addition to the Somali inter-clan and Somali-Galla feud pattern there has long existed a Turkana-Merille rivalry along the Turkana District boundary. The more recent clashes of serious consequence were in 1957 and 1962.
Page 172 note 2 Perham, Margery, The Government of Ethiopia (London, 1948), p. 336.Google Scholar
Page 173 note 1 Somali Exemption Ordinance, no. 17 of 1909, Special Districts Ordinance no. 13 of 1934. The ‘Native Poll Tax’ was changed to ‘African Poll Tax’ in 1957 and was applied equally to all groups.
Page 173 note 2 Farson, Negley, Last Chance in Africa (New York, 1950), p. 60.Google Scholar
Page 173 note 3 Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Estimates of Expenditure of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya for the year ending 30 June 1959. On the slim prospects for economic development, see Parkinson, J., ‘Notes on the N.F.P., Kenya’, in The Geographical Journal (London), xciv, 1939,Google Scholar and A. Melamid, ‘Economic Aspects of the Kenya-Somali Boundary Dispute’, a mimeographed paper for the 6th annual meeting of the African Studies Association, San Francisco, October 1963.
Page 174 note 1 See Castagno, A. A., ‘The Development of Political Parties in the Somali Republic’, in Coleman, James and Rosberg, Carl (eds.), Political Parties and Integration in Tropical Africa (Berkeley, 1964).Google Scholar
Page 174 note 2 Kenya Colony and Protectorate, African Affairs Department, Annual Report, 1948 (Nairobi, 1950), pp. 4–5,Google Scholar and N. Farson, op. cit.
Page 174 note 3 East African Standard, 9 November 1959.
Page 174 note 4 Somali News, 2 February and 18 May 1959.
Page 174 note 5 ‘Garissa, Oltre’, Corriere della Somalia, 24 04 1959.Google Scholar
Page 175 note 1 Somali News, 1 February 1960.
Page 176 note 1 Okonga, S., ‘The Somali Yesterday and Today’, in Presence africaine (Paris), x, 1961, pp. 101–2.Google Scholar
Page 176 note 2 See Touval, S., op. cit. pp. 147–53,Google Scholar and Castagno, A. A., articles in Africa Report (Washington), v, 07 1960, and VII, 12 1962.Google Scholar
Page 176 note 3 For a fuller discussion of Somali-Ethiopian relations, see Mariam, Mesfin Wolde, ‘The Background of the Ethio-Somalian Boundary Dispute’, pp. 189–219,Google Scholar below. In addition to the sources there quoted, see Brown, D. J. L., ‘Recent Developments in the Ethiopian Somaliland Dispute’, in International and Comparative Law Quarterly (London), x, 01 1960, pp. 167–78;Google ScholarCastagno, A. A., ‘Somalia’, International Conciliation, no. 522 (New York, 1959), pp. 386–94;Google Scholar and Castagno, , ‘Conflicts in the Horn of Africa’, in Orbis (Philadelphia), IV, Summer 1960, pp. 204–15.Google Scholar The most recent work on the Somali question is Drysdale, John, The Somali Dispute (London, 1964).Google Scholar
Page 177 note 1 Somali Government, The Issue of the Northern Frontier District (Mogadishu, 1963), p. 19.Google Scholar
Page 177 note 2 I was present as a guest at some of these meetings. The various issues of the Somali News and the Corriere della Somalia during September 1962 give a comprehensive coverage.
Page 178 note 1 The Somali Government has set out its case in The Issue of the Northern Frontier District and other publications.
Page 178 note 2 International law does not recognise contractual agreements between a state and her subjects as binding. In 1956, Somalis from British Somaliland sought to secure some form of international adjudication on the Haud and Reserved Areas, but they failed.
Page 179 note 1 Report of the Northern Frontier District Commission, Cmd. 1900.
Page 179 note 2 The Issue of the Northern Frontier District, p. 41.
Page 179 note 3 The Rendille view was discounted because, according to the Commission, they could not speak Somali nor are they Muslim, and because they might have expressed a strong proSomali opinion owing to the current Rendille-Gabbra dispute. Cmd. 1900, pp. 7, 15, and 19. However, there is a note in the Nairobi Secretariat Library to the effect that the ‘Rendille are probably of Somali origin’.
Page 179 note 4 Kenya Colony and Protectorate, Report of the Regional Boundaries Commission (London, 1962), Cmd. 1899, para. 48.Google Scholar
Page 180 note 1 The Issue of the Northern Frontier District. For reactions to the announcement, see summary in Africa Report, VIII, 04 1963, p. 6.Google Scholar British newspapers seemed sympathetic to the Somali. For the British Government's policy explanations, see Parliamentary Debates, House of Lords and House of Commons for 04 and 07 1963.Google Scholar Strong pro-Somali sentiments were expressed by the Earl of Lytton and the Earl of Listowel.
Page 180 note 2 See Somali News, Ethiopian Herald, and Corriere della Somalia, 1962–1963, passim. For summaries of 1963 events see the following issues of The Times (London): 25 02; 7 and 25 05; 2, 14, 16, 25, 6, and 31 07; 24 and 30 08; 2, 3, 12, 24, 25, and 28 09; 3, 9, and 10 10 1963.Google Scholar
Page 181 note 1 Somali Government, Frontier Problem Planted by Britain between Kenya and the Somali Republic (Cairo, 1963).Google Scholar
Page 181 note 2 See, for example, Corriere della Somalia, 25, 16, 20, and 22 April 1959, and 16 April 1960. On Somalia and Pan-Africanism, see Lewis, I. M., ‘Pan-Africanism and Pan-Somalism’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 1, 2, 06 1963, pp. 147–61;CrossRefGoogle Scholar also Somali Government, The Somali Republic and African Unity (Nairobi, 1962).Google Scholar
Page 182 note 1 Somali News, 28 October 1961. However, Somali-Ghanaian relations temporarily deteriorated in 1962 when the Ghana ambassador at Mogadishu withdrew after some differences with the Somali Government.
Page 182 note 2 Corriere della Somalia, 7 February 1963.
Page 182 note 3 Mimeographed reports on the Conference of African Heads of States, Addis Ababa, May 1963.
Page 187 note 1 The Somali army is estimated at 4,000. Ethiopian forces include about 10,000 men in the Imperial Guard, about 26,000 regular soldiers, and a number of irregulars in the territorial army; in addition Ethiopia has a small air force equipped with jet fighters and a relatively modern mechanised unit.
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