SHEMET E with Addis Ababa & Eastern Ethiopia i rT) Marit a re "3PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD Adrian Phillips, Publishing Director Rarely has a guidebook been so long in gestation - we've been discussing publishing a guide to Somaliland for nearly ten years! Simon Reeve must claim some credit for finally encouraging us to take the plunge. He regularly extolled its virtues to Hilary Bradt and me when our paths crossed at various travel fairs, and he’s kindly provided a foreword to the book. And Philip Briggs is also now a Somaliland fan. The country is unlikely to become a tourist hotspot any time soon — and it has very few facilities ~ but it is peaceful and democratic. In short, even though the international community doesn’t recognise its independence, Somaliland is not Somalia! First published March 2012 Bradt Travel Guides Ltd IDC House, The Vale, Chalfont St Peter, Bucks SL9 9RZ, England wwwibradtguides.com Published in the USA by The Globe Pequot Press Inc, PO Box 480, Guilford, Connecticut 06437-0480 Text copyright © 2012 Philip Briggs Maps copyright © 2012 Bradt Travel Guides Ltd Photographs copyright © 2012 Individual photographers Project Manager: Elspeth Beidas ‘The author and publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information in this book at the time of going to press. However, they cannot accept any responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience resulting from the use of information contained in this guide. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior consent of the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Bradt Travel Guides Ltd in the UK, or to The Globe Pequot Press Inc in North and South America. ISBN: 978 1 84162 3719 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Photographs Eric Lafforgue (EL), Jason Florio/Aurora/SpecialistStock (JF/A/SS), Ariadne Van Zandbergen (AVZ) Front cover Camels in the desert in the Sanaag region (AVZ) Back cover Somali girl in colourful dress (EL), Old Ottoman mosque, Berbera (AVZ) Title page Somali girl in school uniform (AVZ), Rock art at Las Geel (AVZ), Northern red-billed hornbill (EL) Maps David McCutcheon ‘Typeset from the author's disc by D&N Publishing, Wiltshire Production managed by Jellyfish Print Solutions; printed in Indiaaa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.relationship between the numerous Homo taxa that have lived within the past million years). However, a pair of human skulls uncovered alongside southern Ethiopia's Omo River in 1967, originally thought to be around 130,000 years old but re-dated as 195,000 years old in 2005, is now frequently cited as the oldest known fossil of anatomically modern humans, placing the Horn of Africa at centre stage not only of early hominine evolution, but also of more modern developments in the emergence of our species. ‘The oldest direct evidence of human habitation of Somaliland is Acheulean stone blades and flint tools discovered in the vicinity of Hargeisa and in caves along the Golis Escarpment. The sites where these tools were discovered have not, to the best of our knowledge, been subjected to modern dating techniques, but various sources place them at between 12,000 and 40,000 years old - relatively recent by comparison to similar finds in neighbouring countries. Almost nothing is known about these Stone Age inhabitants of Somaliland, beyond the fact that they were nomadic hunter-gatherers with few, if any, ethnic or linguistic links to the modern Somali people. A more revealing relict of ancient human activity in Somaliland is a wealth of Neolithic rock art sites, preserved thanks to the dry climate. The most famous of these is Las Geel, 50km north of Hargeisa, but dozens of other rock painting and engraving sites are scattered around the country, and the likelihood is that others still await discovery. ‘The paintings at Las Geel, and elsewhere in Somaliland, are placed in the so-called Ethiopian-Arabian school, examples of which occur at scattered localities across central Arabia and the Horn of Africa, as far west as Ethiopia's southern Rift Valley. Ethiopian-Arabian rock art has been divided into two different stages, with the later period widely represented in Somaliland, while the recently discovered Dhambalin site represents a rare example of the earlier period (otherwise restricted to southern Ethiopia). The age of these paintings remains conjectural, not least because the sensitive pigments cannot be tested without causing some damage, but the most recent panels are probably at least 5,000 years old and the oldest might be twice that age. ‘The Somali rock art includes many depictions of people and wild animals, but the dominant motif on most panels is stylised and often unnaturally colourful representations of domestic livestock. Most numerous by far are cattle, almost invariably painted in profile, showing only one front and one hind leg, with prominent udders, no necks or ears, and prominence given to the large arcing horns, which are depicted as if seen from above. Given their great antiquity, these paintings unambiguously demonstrate that Somaliland, like the rest of the Horn of Africa, supported one of the world’s earliest pastoral (livestock-herding) societies, dating back some 6,000 to 9,000 years, several millennia before pastoralism was adopted in Europe or Asia. The art that adorns the rock shelters of Somaliland also appears to have a strong spiritual dimension, and - bearing in mind that any paintings made ona less durable or protected canvas would have vanished long ago ~ it probably represents a tiny surviving fragment relict of the region's sophisticated Neolithic artistic tradition. SOMALILAND AND THELANDOF PUNT A number of ancient Egyptian documents refer to a maritime trade with a distant country known as Punt or Ta Netjer (‘Land of God’), The earliest such expedition took place c2480xc, during the 5th dynasty reign of Sahure, and other visits to Punt were recorded during the 6th, 11th and 12th dynasties. It seems all maritime trade fell victim to the general disarray that gripped Egypt c1775zc following the death of Queen Sobekneferu. But it was resumed 4aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a partially first-hand Greek document that details trading opportunities along the Red Sea coast and further south, includes an unusually overt and detailed description of Somaliland can60. Chapter Four, for instance, refers explicitly to ‘Adulis, a fair-sized village, from which there is a three-days’ journey to Koloe, an inland town and the first market for ivory’, and ‘five days’ journey more ... to the city of the Axumites. The Periplus then goes on to name several‘other Berber market towns, known as the “far-side” ports; lying at intervals one after the other, without harbours but having roadsteads where ships can anchor and lie in good weather. It also asserts that ‘these places ... are governed by [the Axumite king] Zoscales; who is miserly in his ways and always striving for more, but otherwise upright and acquainted with Greek literature’ Clearly, most of the Berber ports listed in the Periplus lay along the coast of present-day Somaliland, which was then part of, or a vassal to, the Axumite Kingdom. The ports namedas Avalites and Malao probably tally with present day Zeila and Berbera, the latter also preserving the ancient Greek name for the entire region. The more easterly Mundu and Mosyllum are frequently identified with present-day Maydh and Bosaso, although it could be argued convincingly that they actually lay between Berbera and Maydh. If that is the case, then the ‘large laurel-grove called Acannae, where alone is produced the far-side frankincense, in great quantity and of the best grade’ near‘a river, called Elephant ... along the coast beyond Mosyllum;, describes to a tee the forested base of the Daallo Escarpment, which lies a short distance inland of Maydhand still supplies it with copious quantities of high-grade frankincense. Either way, the ‘Cape of Spices, an abrupt promontory, at the very end of the Berber coast toward the east’ is unambiguously Cape Guardafui, the most easterly point in Africa, set in present-day Puntland. The Periplus provides an interesting, albeit rather brief, description of Somali coastal trade 2,000 years ago. Popular import items ranged from ‘undressed cloth [and] cloaks of poor quality dyed in colours’ to glassware, Italian wine, olive oil and various metals — brass was ‘used for ornament Instead of coin; copper to make ‘cooking utensils, and for bracelets and anklets for the women; and iron for'spears used against the elephants and other wild beasts, and in their wars. Export items included frankincense, myrrh, ivory, tortoiseshell and rhinoceros horn (the latter then, as now, used in Yemen and elsewhere in Arabia as the handle for a type of dagger called a jambiya). Slaves were also sometimes sold to passing ships, but this was rare. Somali merchants played an important middleman role, as indicated in the Periplus, selling on a variety of goods that were transported to the region by Indian merchants. Among the items that were openly sold on in this manner were ‘Indian iron, steel and cotton cloth ... and a few muslins, anda scarlet insect-derived dye called lac. However, the writer of the Periplus clearly swallowed one myth perpetuated on the Mediterranean world by Somali and Arab traders for centuries. This was that cinnamon bark, used to make a highly valued spice, was produced locally, when in fact it was cultivated in the Far East, shipped on to the Red Sea region and then re-sold to Mediterranean traders at a whopping profit.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.tended to focus on trade - in particular frankincense grown at the base of the Daallo escarpment - as opposed to the conquest of Ethiopia. Its ports included Maydh and Bosaso (in Puntland), and its capital was Las Khorey (or Laasgoray), a historic port now situated in the disputed Puntland-Somaliland border territory. Warsangali proved to bea political entity of unusual durability. Indeed, where Zeila and Berbera were captured by the Ottoman Empire in 1548, and remained under its nominal rule for 300 years, Warsangali remained a fully autonomous sultanate until the end of the 19th century. THE SCRAMBLE FOR SOMALI TERRITORY In the mid 19th century, Somali pastoralists occupied a territory of some 1.5 million km*, comprising practically the entire Horn of Africa east of the 41° longitude. They did not form a unified state as such, being divided into six distinct genealogical clans (see Clans, page 28) and numerous subclans. Nevertheless, the Somali as a whole shared strong cultural ties, then as they do today, as well as a common language and religion. By the century's end, the Somali-occupied territory in the Horn of Africa was arbitrarily divided between five different externally administered political entities: British Somaliland (present-day Somaliland), Italian Somaliland (Somalia), French Somaliland (Djibouti), British East Africa (Kenya) and the Kingdom of Ethiopia. Britain’s interest in Somaliland dates to 1839, when the British East India Company (BEIC) established a naval base at the Yemeni port of Aden. ‘Ihe main purpose of this naval base was to prevent pirate attacks on merchant ships travelling between three of its key possessions: Zanzibar, Bombay and Suez. But while Aden was well situated for military purposes, its hinterland was poorly stocked with food, and the BEIC came to rely upon the Somali ports of Zeila and Berbera, on the opposite shore of the Gulf of Aden, as its main source of fresh meat. Zeila and Berbera were then, as they had been for 300 years, nominal vassals of the Ottoman Empire. However, it seems that the actual Turkish influence over the two Somali ports was minimal; both were effectively ruled by home-grown emirs who gladly entered into regular trade with the BEIC. The explorer Richard Burton, who visited Zeila and Berbera in 1855, describes both ports as supporting a lucrative maritime trade in goods sourced from the interior. They had quite different seasonal patterns, however, with Zeila supporting a relatively stable year- round trade, while Berbera'’s calendar centred upon the annual fair held over the ‘winter’ months of November to March, In 1865, the Turks reasserted their dormant interest in the Horn of Africa by formally ceding the ill-defined province of Habesh, which included Eritrea and western Somaliland, to the Khedive Ismail of Egypt, which was then an autonomous tributary state of the Ottoman Empire. The Egyptian flag was raised at Berbera and Zeila in 1870, and Khedivate garrisons were stationed at both ports, as the first step in realising Ismail’s ambition to control Ethiopia and the entire African hinterland between the Red Sea and the Sudanese Nile. This ambition was partly realised in 1875, when Egypt captured Harar, meaning it had full control over the most important trade route between the Ethiopian Highlands and the Somali coast. Two years later, Britain, anxious to ensure the supply of meat to Aden was not disrupted, signed a treaty that recognised Egyptian rule of the Somali coast in exchange for an undertaking that the region would never be ceded to another European power. Egypt's interest in Ethiopia wavered following the retirement of Khedive Ismail in 1879, and when a more pressing military concern emerged in the early 1880s, in the form of the Mahdist Rebellion in Sudan (which was then under Egyptian 12aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.THE SOMALI REPUBLIC ‘The union between Somaliland and Somalia was rooted in romance: the notion of a Greater Somali state had taken hold asa result of the territorial shifts associated with World War II, and was reflected in the star ~ whose five prongs represent the five nations incorporating Somali territory - that adorned the country’s flag. But the integration of the two former colonies’ administrations presented several practical difficulties. For one, in the absence of a then officially recognised Somali script, the two systems were linguistically incompatible, with English being the primary language of education and bureaucracy in the Northern Region (as British Somaliland was now known), while Italian served the same purpose in the Southern Regions. The two parts of the country also inherited contradictory legal systems, and their civil services operated on very different terms and salary scales. In addition, while English was obviously the language of the future in international terms, Italian was the tongue more familiar to the numerically and politically dominant southerners, as well as to the many Italians who stayed on to help guide the administration through post-independence teething problems. Another obstacle to integration was the ancient clan attachments inherent to Somali culture. Parochial tribal concerns had been subdued by passionate patriotism during the build-up to independence, and they were also discouraged by the post-union government, but ultimately the notion of clan is far more deeply embedded in the Somali psyche than the more modern concept of national statehood. This tendency to clannishness was heightened by the numeric and political dominance of the south, which — being five times more populous than the north - was represented by 90 out of the 123 seats in the first National Assembly. Mogadishu, the former Italian capital and largest city in the republic, not only became capital of the newly merged state, but also dominated every facet of economic and political life. Most adversely affected by this imbalance was the Isaq clan, which had dominated the north prior to independence, but was now a relatively small player on the national scene. Bearing all of the above in mind, one might ask why it was that the northerners were so keen on union in the first place. ‘The answer is probably that the allure of unity was primarily emotional, though it was also the case that the northerners - whose pastoral economy centred on the export of livestock from Berbera to Arabia ~ had hoped it might set a precedent for the incorporation into the Somali Republic of the vast grazing lands in the perennially disputed Ogaden region of eastern Ethiopia. Northern unease at the union was reflected in the results of a constitutional referendum held in June 1961. The 90% ‘yes’ vote among the 1.6 million southern voters ensured the new constitution was ratified with overwhelming support, but of the mere 200,000 potential voters in the north, as many as half abstained, and of those who did cast a ballot, dissenters slightly outnumbered supporters. In December of the same year, a group of British-trained northern junior officers in favour of northern secession led an abortive coup against their southern senior officers. A presidential tour of the north in 1962 temporarily eased the growing dissatisfaction, but hikes in food and transport prices, caused by the introduction of a unitary tariff and customs system, led to widespread rioting in Hargeisa in May 1963. At around the same time, the SNL and several other mostly northern minority parties merged to form the Somali National Congress (SNC), thereafter the country’s second most important party after the SYL. The integration of Somali parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti into the Somali Republic was a high-profile concern throughout the early years of union It was also one in which Somalia won little international sympathy. In 1962, the 16aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.aa You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.7 Tazz teas Fe [OAT Mukha ee \ AsO ~