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.

I didn’t know Nigeria was in the business of hosting ousted dictators until a few years ago, when I learned that it was where Siad Barre went after his government fell in Somalia in 1991, and after he lost all hope of ever to power. I never quite discovered why that was the safest place for him, but it was there that he spent the final years of his life, after a career that saw him move from being an Italian colonial police officer, to the head of the Somali police, then the head of the army, and, eventually, Somalia’s longest-serving leader yet.

There wasn’t much in Somalia before Siad Barre, it must be said. Many of the roads that connect its cities, and the ports that allow it to import goods, were built under his socialist regime. But as a religious activist who frequently protested against and was arrested by his government reflected: “The problem with dictators is that they destroy everything they build.” When he eventually left, he basically took everything with him.

Somalis mainly remain divided over his legacy along predictable lines. His victims abhor him and his era and think things are obviously much better now. You’re unlikely to find many people in Somaliland, where Barre ordered a series of air raids over civilian areas and a brutal military campaign that killed thousands of civilians, who have good things to say about him. But staunch Somali nationalists, and those from clans who benefited from his regime, look back more nostalgically to a time when at least Somalia had a government and they were on the in.

This obituary of Siad Barre, from where I work by day, is written by Patrick Gilkes, a long-time prominent expert on the Horn of Africa, who has worked in both government circles and academia. This article is good because it offers a kaleidoscopic reflection on Siad Barre’s life and the impact he had on the rise and fall of the Somali state. Gilkes concludes that: “Siad Barre's overwhelming desire was to have, and hold on to, power at all costs. It was this that brought him down, and ultimately lies behind the disastrous events, and the ongoing civil war in Somalia since he fell.”

Architect of Misery
By Patrick Gilkes, January 1995 (The Guardian)

President Mohammed Siad Barre's dictatorial and tyrannical regime in Somalia came to a predictable end in January 1991, when he was forced to flee from his capital, Mogadishu, after months of fighting. It was typical however that he refused to accept the inevitable and retreated to his own home area in the west of the country from where he made several efforts to fight his way back.

He was only forced out in April 1992, first into Kenya, and then to Nigeria after Kenyan MPs forced President Daniel Arap Moi to give up the idea of providing a refuge for such a discredited figure. 

Siad Barre, who had died aged 74, came to power in rather different circumstances. Originally he was a policeman for the Italians before the second world war, then for the British, and again under the Italian mandate over Somalia. After independence in 1960, he became cheif of police and was appointed vice-commander of the Somalian army and commander-in-chief in 1965. At the time of the constitutional crisis of 1969, following the assassination of President Abdel-Rashid Ali Sherkmarke he seemed a natural choice as figure-head for the army officers who had seized power. 

The coup was bloodless, and popular in a contry tired of the anarchic pluralist politics of the Somali clans. But its leaders underrated Siad Barre. Never highly regarded and referred to, somewhat disparagingly, as a "man of average intelligence and no formal schooling", he proved far more adept at political manipulation. It was not long before he had seized full control of the supreme revolutionary council.

His regime originally claimed it had come to remove tribalism, or its Somali equivalent, clanism, but it soon became apparent that little had changed. Siad Barre's regime, particularly, particularly when opposition appeared, was swift to reactivate clan links, and the alliance of is own Marehan, his uncle's Ogaden clan, and Dolbuhanta clan of his son-in-law, formed the basis of his power. 

In the first years he introduced an element of efficiency into Somali bureaucracy, coupled with his moves towards "scientific socialism", though he was never a convert to socialism, as his alliance with the Soviet Union, was valued as a way to achieve control. He never managed to produce an acceptable blend of Marxism and Islam to satisfy the high individualistic and Muslim Somalis. 

He did, however, preside over the important introduction of a written Somali language, forcing acceptance of a Latin script. Literacy campaigns were a considerable success, but they were coupled with huge a huge personality cult. Siad's gaunt features loured over all offices and buildings and enormous hand-painted posters became a familiar sight in streets. 

Like others in the Horn of Africa he also managed to play off the great powers during the Cold War, having a close alliance with the Soviet Union until 1977, when Somalia went to war with Ethiopia over the Ogaden desert and the Soviets changed sides. Siad Barre then looked to the United States for support and, to a limited extent, obtained it. His attack on Ethiopia had been popular and , surprisingly for a military dictatorship, he survived Somalia's defeat. But opposition increased as his regime became ever more ruthless in suppressing criticism and opposition. The US was not impressed by his human rights record and his support crumbled. When Siad Barre came to power he found a capital that was rundown and shabby: when he fled, 21 years later, he a left a city still shabby and rundown, but with additional serious damage brought about by the artillery fire of his own troops. He had achieved little except to exacerbate Somalia's intractable clan differences. He had tried to project himself as a wise, avuncular leader, but his secretive repressive and extensive security forces, gave the lie to the image. 

He lived in constant fear of assassination, and his personal guard, drawn from his own clan were almost as paranoid. Although substantial funds found their way abroad during his regime, it was largely at the hands of his family. He himself lived frugally in Villa Somalia, the presidential palace. An insomniac and chain-smoker, he delighted in calling people for interviews in the middle of the night. It was an off-putting tactic that underlined the security and police background from which he never escaped. 

Siad Barre's overwhelming desire was to have, and hold on to, power at all costs. It was this that brought him down, and ultimately lies behind the disastrous events, and the ongoing civil war in Somalia since he fell.