Somali Republic, 1960 to 1969

How it was formed

In April 1960 leaders of British Somaliland and the Trust Territory of Somalia met in Mogadishu and agreed to form a single state. An elected president would be head of state, and a prime minister answerable to an elected National Assembly of 123 members from both territories would hold executive power (Wikipedia: Somali Republic). British Somaliland became independent as the State of Somaliland on 26 June 1960, and on 1 July 1960 it united with the Trust Territory, which became independent the same day, to form the Somali Republic (Wikipedia: Somali Republic). See independence and union.

Its first leaders

• President of the National Assembly: Haji Bashir Ismail Yusuf, the speaker who had led the act of union (Wikipedia: Somali Republic).
• President: Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, from 1 July 1960; his appointment was confirmed in a national referendum a year later (Wikipedia: Somali Republic).
• Prime Minister: Abdirashid Ali Shermarke, appointed on 22 July 1960. His coalition was led by the Somali Youth League (SYL) and supported by the two northern parties, the Somali National League (SNL) and the United Somali Party (USP) (Wikipedia: Somali Republic).

The constitution

A constitution drafted in 1960 was approved in a national referendum in 1961. Most voters in the former Somaliland voted against it (Wikipedia: Somali Republic; Wikipedia: State of Somaliland). See the 1960 constitution.

Two systems in one state

At the union the north and south had different administrative, legal and school systems, run in different languages, with different police, taxes and currencies, and little trade between them (Wikipedia: Somali Republic). In 1960 the UN set up the Consultative Commission for Integration, led by the UN official Paolo Contini, to merge the legal systems; a Somali-led Consultative Commission for Legislation took over its work in 1964 (Wikipedia: Somali Republic; Contini, The Somali Republic: An Experiment in Legal Integration).

The political scholar Janina Dill is quoted as writing that British rule in the north kept traditional self-government, while Italian rule in the south wore it down and centralised administration (Wikipedia: Somali Republic).

Parties and voting

At independence the north had two parties: the SNL, with its main support among the Isaaq, and the USP, supported largely by the Dir and Darod. In the united state the northern Darod joined the SYL. The southern opposition Greater Somalia League drew support from the SNL and USP against the SYL (Wikipedia: Somali Republic). Women had voted in the south since the 1958 municipal elections; the northern assembly extended the vote to women in the former British Somaliland in May 1963, by 52 votes to 42 (Wikipedia: Somali Republic). Sources describe politics in these years as a national pastime followed closely on the radio (Wikipedia: Somali Republic). See the 1964 parliamentary election.

The end of the republic

Abdirashid Ali Shermarke later became President (1967–1969). The parliamentary period ended in 1969, when the Supreme Revolutionary Council took power in a coup without bloodshed and renamed the country the Somali Democratic Republic (Wikipedia: Somali Republic; Wikipedia: State of Somaliland). For the whole period see the civilian era, 1960 to 1969.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Somali Republic
• Wikidata Q7559152
• Paolo Contini, The Somali Republic: An Experiment in Legal Integration, Internet Archive
• Wikipedia: State of Somaliland