Siad Barre

Mohammed Siad Barre (Maxamed Siyaad Barre, Osmanya script: 𐒑𐒖𐒄𐒖𐒑𐒗𐒆 𐒈𐒘𐒕𐒛𐒆 𐒁𐒖𐒇𐒇𐒗, محمد زياد بري Muhammad Siad Bariy; 6 October 1909 – 2 January 1995) was a Somali military officer, politician, and revolutionary who served as the Head of state of Somalia from 21 October 1969 to 26 January 1991.

Speculations have been cast upon his exact birth year ranging from 1909 to 1921; nevertheless, it is generally agreed that he was born to pastoral parents circa 1910.

His unofficial birthplace is said to be in Las Ga'al, which is a district of the El-Gab region, presently known as Shilavo (Shilabo) in the Ogaden Region of Ethiopia.

His official birthplace is recorded to be the city of Garbahare, which is a part of the provincial capital of the Gedo region of Somalia.

Mohammed was born to a Marehan father and Ogaden mother of the greater Darod clan.

The colonial powers prevented ethnic Somalis born outside the two protectorates (Italian and British) from conscribing into their respective territorial forces.

By concealing his unofficial birthplace like many others, it enabled him to be eligible for the Italian colonial police force and military in Somalia.

Barre’s father and brother died when he was ten years old as a result of a raid by the Habr Yunis in the early 20th century, and this event is posited by some scholars to have deeply affected him.

"Many who knew Barre from his boyhood and during his stint in the colonial police under the Italians were not that surprised. Barre was not a normal person; he was a psychopath whose mercurial spirit vacillated between raving hatred in one moment and words of praise and reconciliation the next moment. He was said to have witnessed the murder of his own father when he was only ten years old during the turbulent year of 1921, when the clan conflicts instigated by Mohamed Abdulle Hassan were raging across the land.. Barre was reportedly forever after deeply marked by the murder of his father. He became sadistic.."

In The History of Somalia Raphael Njoku says:

"According to his biographers, at the tender age of 10, young Muhammad first witnessed the murder of his own father...The shock and impact of this life experience and the difficult circumstances of life as an orphan put a very deep scar in his psyche. It is from this difficult childhood that Barre developed a complex sense of cunning, sadism, insecurity, and vengeance. These behavioural traits were exacerbated and solidified under the Italian fascist colonial rule."

He was given the childhood nickname Barre, referring to extrovertedness.

Barre later on participated as a Zaptié in the southern theatre of the Italian conquest of Ethiopia in 1936.

In the 1940s he completed secondary school education.

In 1941, Mohammed, aged twenty, joined the police force which was then under the authority of the British military, who occupied it since the initiation of World War II hostilities.

Mohammed's career in the police force led him to the capital city, Mogadishu, to pursue his education both in the public and private sectors.

In 1946, Barre supported the Somali Conference (Conferenza Somala), a political group of parties and clan associations that were hostile to the Somali Youth League and were supported by the local Italian settlers.

The group presented a petition to the "Four Powers" Investigation Commission in order to allow that the administration of the United Nations Trust Territory could be entrusted for thirty years to Italy.

Throughout much of his life, Mohammed Siad Barre dedicated himself to both formal and self-taught education whilst gradually advancing his prospective career.

Mohammed, as a child and orphan by the age of 10, attended the elementary school in the town of Lugh (Luuq) in the Gedo Region, formally known as the Upper Jubba Region.

He acquired the usual grounding in Islam at a qur'anic school there.

By 1950, when the British transferred their administration to Italy, Mohammed Siad had achieved the highest rank possible for an indigenous, that of chief police inspector.

Between 1950 and 1960, Mohammed Siad heavily pursued studies in languages, ultimately mastering Italian, English and Swahili.

After finishing his course he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.

In 1952, he and several of his colleagues, including Hussein Kulmiye Afrah, Liiq-Liiqato, Shegow and Daud Abdulle, attended military academy in Italy where he chiefly studied politics and administration.

Barre, a major general of the gendarmerie by profession, became President of Somalia after the 1969 coup d'état that overthrew the Somali Republic following the assassination of President Abdirashid Shermarke.

The Supreme Revolutionary Council military junta under Barre reconstituted Somalia as a one-party Marxist–Leninist communist state, renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic and adopted scientific socialism (with support from the Soviet Union).

Barre spoke three languages, English, Somali and Italian.

Barre's early rule was characterised by attempts at widespread modernization, nationalization of banks and industry, promotion of cooperative farms, a new writing system for the Somali language, and anti-tribalism.

It declined from the late-1970s following Somalia's defeat in the Ogaden War, triggering the Somali Rebellion and severing ties with the Soviet Union.

Somalia then allied itself with the Western powers and especially the United States for the remainder of the Cold War, although it maintained its Marxist–Leninist regime and also drew close to China.

The Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party became Somalia's vanguard party in 1976, and Barre started the Ogaden War against Ethiopia on a platform of Somali nationalism and pan-Somalism.

Barre's popularity was highest during the seven months between September 1977 and March 1978 when Barre captured virtually the entirety of the Somali region.

Opposition grew in the 1980s due to his increasingly dictatorial rule, growth of tribal politics, abuses of the National Security Service including the Isaaq genocide, and the sharp decline of Somalia's economy.

In 1991, Barre’s government collapsed as the Somali Rebellion successfully ejected him from power, leading to the Somali Civil War and a massive power vacuum in its wake.

The Middle East monthly in their March 1991 issue stated:

"Barre came from a humble background, deeply rooted in the Marehan sub-clan of the Darod. He had seen his father killed by Isaqs and the impression never left him. His clan straddled the British and Italian segments of Somalia, forming a minority in each. He was worried that the country could split in two and in either case, his clan, as a minority, would be shut out of power. He became an inspector of police and later went to Italy to attend a military academy. On his return, he rose through the ranks quickly to become Commander."

Author Mohamed Diiriye in his book Culture and Customs of Somalia, writes:

Barre was forced into exile in Nigeria, where he died in 1995 on the way to the hospital after suffering a heart attack.

Mohamed Siad Barre was born at a time when birth records were unknown in Somalia.