Teach me about the history of Western Somalia

[Somali_Jaceel]

Enlighten me..I am very ignorant when it comes to the issues affecting somalians living in Kilil 5

[Munique05]

Enlighten me..I am very ignorant when it comes to the issues affecting somalians living in Kilil 5

1st all is NOT western Somalia/Somal Galbeed or kilil 5 da correct term is OGADEN or Ogadenia as it appears on the world map..


May the May peace and blessings of Allah Almighty be on my beloved land of Ogadenia

The history of Ogadenia is colorful n deeper then that of the Somali Republic.Before the colonialists came to Africa, especially to the Horn of Africa in the late half of the 19th century, the people of the Horn lived relatively peaceful with no one denying the nationhood or identity of the other. The war and conflicts caused mainly by a power struggle within Abyssinia coupled with ambition of Abyssinia to acquire more territory to reach the goal and win the throne of the kingdom, every Abyssinian Empire had to amass as much land, people and wealth as possible. This objective promoted aggression and invasion towards the neighboring African lands. As a result many areas in the Horn of Africa were taken by the Abyssinian Empire (now known Ethiopia).
Around this time, Ahmed Ibrahim (known as Ahmed Gurey) and his men fought with Abyssinian aggressors in order to avert latter's permanent threat to some areas of the Horn of Africa. The Abyssinian Empire was humiliated and almost defeated in the war, the Portuguese came for their help. The situation of colonial help, Ahmed Ibrahim himself was killed by the Portuguese troops. But his men and many other anti-colonial forces despite the Martyrdom of their, were still able to stop the Abyssinian in their land.


After delivering a large number of relatively modern arms, Ethiopia with the help of the colonial power was able to conquer the city of Harar in 1887. The fall of Harar in the hand of Abyssinia did not guarantee or stop the ambition for Ethiopians to occupy whole of Ogaden. And in order to facilitate Ethiopian occupation of Ogaden, the colonial power forbade Ogaden people the possession of any fire arms. Britain was the greatest collaborator with Ethiopia in this process, taking advantage of the protection agreement, signed by Britain with Ogaden chiefs on 1st September 1896 within the context of the convention signed by Britain with chiefs of the other different Somali regions. The second agreement ( the context of the convention signed by Britain with chiefs of other different regions of Somalia) was the fundamental factor by which Britain exercised its authority over Ogaden. The first agreement (1.9.1896 signed by Britain with the Ogaden chiefs) was not a concession of the sovereignty - of Ogaden to Britain or granting the right to submit Ogaden people to Abyssinian Empire or Ethiopian rulers, neither disarming them nor annexing their land to Ethiopia while Ogaden chiefs were full-adherence to the 1896 agreement. The protecting country (Britain) was practicing political hypocrisy and colonial policy games without legally respecting the above mentioned agreement.

[Munique05]

Britain's main objectives of both (1896 agreement and Cape Town-Cairo project) were:

1. To establish a new colonial policy game to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) towards, the Mahdi Revolution against Britain's colonial occupation to Sudan.

2. To set a new colonial policy game pressure placed on it by the American oil companies to annex Ogaden to Abyssinia (Ethiopia). After the full information of the economic resources available in Ogaden.

In 1897 Britain signed an agreement with Abyssinia under which recognized the Abyssinian occupation to Harar and other areas around it. On 24.09.1948 Britain annexed most of other Ogaden territories to Ethiopia and the plan was completed in 1954.

The above plan of Britain were entirely considered as breach of the 1896 agreement between Britain and Ogaden chiefs. Such plans including the annexation of Ogaden to Ethiopia which was directly implemented without considering the destiny of the people or consulting them (People are the only possessors of the right for self-determination on the basis of the General Principles of International Law). On the the hand, the 1896 agreement basically constituted Britain's control over Ogaden which aimed to preservation of the Ogaden people and their land against the others (Abyssinia or the others).

So that any action against it (Misguiding or abuse) would harm the fundamental principles of the agreement.

On thee General Principles of International Law, the British actions related to the future of Ogaden, especially the concession (Ogaden) to Ethiopia would assume the authority to transfer the sovereignty of an existing nation to another with no one to delegate Britain with that authority.


In order to win the throne of the kingdom, the Abyssinian Empire welcomed and supported the European invasion of the Horn of Africa and supplied human resources and vital strategic information. The problem that occurred in the Horn of Africa and which the present people are now helplessly enduring the repercussions can be traced both the Europ-colonial and Ethiopian colonial actions. From the mentioned political games (1897 - 1948), the Ogaden boundaries were constantly predetermined by foreign forces. Since that time the Ogaden history has been quite turbulent one and Ogaden people's struggle for self-determination has not misdestined or stopped. It has scene of many battles against the former tyrant regimes in Ethiopia, hence becoming virtually a huge military zone and military camps of the former Ethiopian rulers or regimes. Many sporadic wars, human upheavals, silenced or curbed policies etc were perpetrated against the innocent people in Ogaden.

People in Ogaden are anthropological, cultural and lingual Somali ethnic society (Somali language speaking). So that as like the other people in the globe (Africa, Europe, Australia, Asia and America) consider themselves culturally distinct from their ancestors, the Ogaden people so to consider their cultural unique after evolving their own identity over the long run of separation from the other Somalis.

After the accidental overthrow of the emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia by the military Revolution the Ogaden people took offensive to struggle the right for self-determination of their land. In order to foil and deny their right of wanting self-determination, the Ethiopian regime started to massacre and abuse the human rights of the people in Ogaden, these ugly deeds were including in discriminately killing, imprisoning without trail and inhumanely torturing the intellectual people in Ogaden. In the light of torturing the intellectual people in Ogaden. In the light of the above mentioned actions made the bloody war in 1977/78 between Ogaden and Ethiopian immutable, which became an international issue of the international arena. The war was a traumatic event in the recent history og Ogaden, thus resulting the huge exodus of over 2.5 million people from Ogaden into the neighboring countries and other parts of the world. In Somalia alone there were 1.5 million refugees in 59 different refugees camps exclusively for refugees from Ogaden. This was the main cause of the fundamental factors of the long constant problems of the Horn of Africa and in the first time in the known history of the Horn of Africa that a huge people fled from their land into another country. On the hand this was the tragically factor commencing the "domino-effect" of the refugees within Africa which is now infiltrating the remainder areas of the African continent.

[Munique05]

Official Name: Ogaden (in Somali Ogaadeenya)

Location: In the East of Africa ( Horn of Africa)

Neighbors: Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia

Colony: Presently under the colony of Ethiopia

Area: 369 000 square kilometres (approximation)

Population: 5-6 million people

Division: 9 provinces; 48 districts

Capital City: Godey

[Munique05]

Flag's Colorz Symbolize:

Green represents the fertility and richness of the land.

Blue stands for the dignity and integrity of the people.

Red symbolizes the continuity of the struggle for self-determination and freedom

The white star represents the commitment and unity of the people.

[Munique05]

Political Background Of The Ogadenia Struggle

Ogaden is the land of hundreds of thousands of martyrs in the name of freedom and justice. It is the cradle of revolutionary heroes as well as the centre of Somali culture and heritage. It is situated at the junction between Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.

In the middle of the 16th Century, Ahmed Ibrahim, better known as Ahmed Guran and his men fought with Abyssinian aggressors in order to avers the latter's permanent threat to the land of the Somalis. After the defeat of the Abyssinians, a European colonial power, Portugal, quickly came to their aid. In the conflict that followed, Ahmed Guran was killed by Portugese troops. However the precedent of external involvement at the expense of the Somalis had already been set.

At the advent of the colonialist scramble for Africa, three colonial powers, namely Great Britain, France and Italy, with clashing interests, simultaneously invaded the Horn of Africa. Great Britain in pursuit of it quest to create an unbroken link from Capetown to Cairo saw this region as merely another link in the chain. France wished to extend her West African possessions to the Red Sea. Italy had the intention of linking Eritrea with Southern Somaliland thereby creating an Italian East African Empire. The objectives of Great Britain, France and Italy were in direct conflict with each other making Abyssinia the key for the execution of their objectives. In order to avoid military conflict among themselves, the European powers each campaigned to win the friendship of Abyssinian (Ethiopian) rulers. This lobbying effort included the supply of large quantities of weapons and other military aid hence turning Abyssinia into the most profitable East African market for European weapons.

After amassing a large number of relatively modern arms, Ethiopia was able to conquer Harar in 1887 for the first time. This was seen as a stepping stone for eventual Ethiopian occupation of Ogaden.

In 1896, an agreement was signed between Great Britain and the Ogadenia chiefs which was thought to be a guarantee of Ogaden sovereignty. However, the people of Ogaden soon realized that the partner in the accord, Great Britain had no intention of living up to the agreement.

[Munique05]

Great Britain continued to arm Ethiopia who had made it's intentions toward expanding into Ogaden well known.

In 1897 Great Britain signed an agreement with Ethiopia in which it recognized the Ethiopian claims on Harar which it had occupied a few years earlier. This act appeared to be the beginning of a British retreat from the Ogaden and eventual transfer to Ethiopia.

Finally on September 24th, 1948 Britain withdrew it's treaty of protection over Ogaden and recognized Ogaden to be a possession of Ethiopia despite never having been under the administration or physical occupation of the Empire of Ethiopia.

This act was widely recognized by the people of Ogaden as a breach of the 1896 agreement entered into by Great Britain and the Ogaden Chiefs. It was undertaken without consulting the leadership and people of Ogaden who are the sole possessors of the right to self-determination in accordance with international codes, norms and principles of justice. In addition, this action was taken by great Britain after the issuance of the United Nations Charter and formal insertion of the right of self-determination for all peoples who had not yet achieved independence.

This 1896 agreement, which constituted the basic principle of British protection over Ogaden, aimed at preserving the territory and peoples of Ogaden against foreign aggression. Particularly from Ethiopia which made no secret of it's intent to expand it's empire.

The agreement also plainly and implicitly stipulated the sovereignty of the people of Ogaden over their territory. In essence, Britain had recognized the transfer of a territory with which it had entered into a treaty of protection, to an existing undemocratic empire which had never administered or occupied it. The finalization of the transfer occurred in 1954 after which Great Britain formally recognized Ogaden and all the people within as subjects of the Ethiopian Empire.

The 1896 agreement of protection between Ogaden and Great Britain had been completely shattered. The people of Ogaden now found themselves under the occupation of an alien power at a time when much of Africa was on the verge of breaking the shackles of colonialism.

It must be noted however that before the independence of the Somali Republic in 1960, the struggle of the people of Ogaden was not separate from other Somali people's struggles for Independence. At that period, the Ogaden liberation struggle was not intended for the liberation of Ogaden alone, but for the liberation of all the lands inhabited by Somalis from the yoke of European and Ethiopian colonialism. The Somali Dervish Liberation Movement (1895-1922)led by the celebrated Somali liberation leader Sayid Mohamed Abdulla Hassan, fought for more than two decades against all colonialists in Somali lands

[MzBeautiful]

Lool ala munique ilaahay ha ku da'ayo gacan ba ku tagay..well Somali_Jaceel take notes from that girl