Youth Development

Foreign relations characterized by tension with neighboring states and economic dependence on aid from Arab and Western nations. Relations with neighboring states gradually improved as irredentist claims dating from Ogaden War period (1977-78) formally abandoned during 1980s; relations with Ethiopia remained strained despite 1988 peace agreement resulting from mutual harboring of foreign guerilla forces and uncontrolled mass migration.

Politics was at once the Somalis' most practiced art and favorite sport. The most desired possession of most nomads was a radio, which was used to keep informed on political news. The level of political participation often surpassed that in many Western democracies.

Firm evidence for the history of the Somali people dates back to only about AD 1000. There are folk genealogies tracing certain Somali clans to the Arabian Peninsula and associating their ancestors with the Sharifs, the family of prophet Mohammed.

Lawlessness and clan warfare has been rife since a military government collapsed in 1991. UN estimates 1 million people have become refugees. Sadly, inter-clan tensions, radical socialism, rearmament by the USSR and the occasional (often disastrous) war with Ethiopia helped tear the country apart.

Somaliland became British and Italian colonies in the 1880's, although it was ruled solely by the British from 1941 to 1950. In 1960, Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland were united to form an independent Somalia.

The rare findings and evidences of archeology, anthropology, historical linguistics, and related disciplines have provided insights of the origins and evolution of the Somali people. For example, where historians once believed that the Somalis originated on the Red Sea's western coast, or perhaps in southern Arabia, it now seems clear that the ancestral homeland of the Somalis, together with affiliated Cushite peoples, was in the highlands of southern Ethiopia, specifically in the lake regions.

The Somalis are most closely related to the Rendille and the Afar, and distantly related to the Oromos, all Eastern Cushite peoples. Somalis are not a unitary people group, but a grouping of broad clan federations divided by language and by clan conflicts. Although all Somalis profess strong allegiance to Islam, they hold stronger primary loyalties to self, family and clan, in that order.

Somalia, the Horn of Africa nation, is finally recovering from recent wars and famine. The ancient land occupies an important geopolitical position between sub-Saharan Africa and the countries of Arabia and south-western Asia. Somalis probably hail from the southern Ethiopian highlands, and have been subject to a strong Arabic influence ever since the 7th century, when the Somali coast formed part of the extensive Arab-controlled trans-Indian Ocean trading network.

Basic details about Somalia