Socialist Somalia

Socialist Somalia

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"Siad Barre above all is a chauvinist": Fidel Castro on his meeting with the Somali leader
Castro was part of a delegation that visited Somalia and Ethiopia on the eve of Mogadishu's failed invasion in 1977
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Faisal Ali
"On almost every issue, you oppose us": Kissinger's bizarre meeting with a Somali minister
In a surreal meeting Henry Kissinger and Hussein Abdulkadir Kassim attempted to iron tensions between Mogadishu and Washington
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Siad Barre speaks to BBC Somali (1972)
Siad Barre spoke to BBC Somali in 1972, giving a wide-ranging interview on everything from Somali foreign policy to his hobbies and family life.
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Conquests, rents and state collapse
In his book Conquests and Rents, Faisal Ahmed attempts to present a political economy argument for the collapse of the Somali state.
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Understanding Somalia’s Destruction
How democracy and the post-independence ‘romance of the state’ gave way to disillusionment and a ruinous civil war.
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Siad Barre speaks to BBC Somali (1972)
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Somalia's 'crucial' role in Eritrea's liberation struggle
 • Faisal Ali and Mohamed Kheir Omer
Somalia Trys to Live by Both the Koran and ‘Das Kapital’ (NYT, 1977)
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Don't aid Somalia, Hussein Abdilahi Bulhan (1982)
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US Losing Interest in Military Bases in Somalia (LA Times, 1985)
In the early 1980s, Somalia pitched itself as a possible host for a US base in Berbera, but after a careful assessment, the Americans weren’t so keen.
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Siad Barre obituary: Architect of misery (The Guardian, 1995)
Siad Barre died in exile in Nigeria in 1995. The Guardian published this obituary for him.
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How Somalia embraced socialism: notes from a minister's memoir
Mohamed Aden Sheikh served in the civilian component of Siad Barre's socialist government as a health minister. He was a key part of the governing…
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Somalia Trys to Live by Both the Koran and ‘Das Kapital’ (NYT, 1977)
Somalia's socialist leaders had a vision for the country in which religion did not play such a prominent role in public life. That vision for Somalia…
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Why some Somalis don't like Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter’s decision not to arm Somalia in its struggle against a Soviet-backed Ethiopian army nourished feelings of abandonment.
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Somali diplomat on his time in 1980s Turkey
Hussein Mohamed, a former Somali diplomat who served in Turkey in the mid-1980s, speaks about his time there and the ties between Mogadishu and Ankara…
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Ethiopia Worried by Coming Vote On Independence in French Colony – NYT
As Djibouti's independence loomed officials in Addis Ababa, stills struggling to stabilise their new revolutionary regime, were anxious that it would…
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Don't aid Somalia, Hussein Abdilahi Bulhan (1982)
Hussein Abdilahi Bulhan, a Somali psychologist and Fanon scholar wrote a NYT article warning the US against aiding the Barre regime.
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'The Arabs and Somalis need each other': Barre's speech as Somalia joins Arab League
Barre told an audience that Somalis and Arabs had strayed from one another during the colonial era, but adding there would be no more straying
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Socialist Somalia
Socialist Somalia
This Substack will document and archive all things from Somalia's brief experiment with socialism between 1969 and 1991 before the state collapsed.
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