A Modern History of the Somali. I. M. Lewis
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no other articles of traffic, 500 slaves of both sexes were in the market. Long lines of laden and unladen camels were to be seen pacing the glaring yellow shore: . . . . . . already small parties of travellers had broken ground for their return journey: and the foul heap of mat hovels, to which this celebrated mart had been reduced, was steadily shrinking in dimensions.’13
Burton and his companions were not allowed long to contemplate this scene. On 19 April, 1855, in the early hours of the morning, several hundred Somali spearmen launched a savage attack upon Burton’s camp. In the ensuing mêlée, Lt Stroyan was killed, and Lt Speke (later to gain fame for his explorations of the Nile source) severely wounded: Burton himself received a spear-thrust in the mouth. Yet despite the numerical superiority of their assailants, Burton and his companions managed to escape to Aden, and the expedition was abandoned: Burton never returned to Somaliland. He is still remembered, however, with a mixture of amusement and admiration as ‘Haji ‘Abdallah’, the guise he assumed for his journey to Harar, and as one who regularly led the prayers in the mosques, and could hold his own with any sheikh.
The British authorities at Aden reacted promptly to the incident in the manner of the times. Two vessels of the India command were dispatched to blockade the coast until Stroyan’s murderer and Speke’s attacker were surrendered to justice. The following year the elders of the Habar Awal clan announced that Stroyan’s assailant had been executed by his own kin and offered 15,000 dollars as compensation. Then in November, a treaty was signed with the Habar Awal in favour of British commerce at Berbera and to provide for the eventual appointment of a British Resident. Much the same series of events had followed the plunder of the brig Mary Anne off Berbera in 1825 when Shirmarke ‘Ali had intervened. Now, however, the link between Aden and the northern Somali coast had been strengthened and the basis laid for future British activity. Conditions on this remote coastline were no longer a matter of indifference to the Imperial Powers.
Meanwhile the southern Somali coast had similarly become exposed to new foreign interests. Here, in contrast to Zeila with its long tradition of far-flung connexions between Abyssinia and Arabia, the local ports had generally a narrower sphere of influence. Events in the Christian kingdom of Abyssinia hardly impinged upon them, and the chief external factors affecting their fortunes were the political situation in the Indian Ocean and that in their Somali hinterland.
Thus Mogadishu, which in the tenth century consisted of a loose federation of Arab and Persian families, had by the thirteenth become a sultanate ruled by the Fakhr ad-Din dynasty. Three centuries later these rulers were supplanted by the Muzaffar Sultans and the town had become closely connected with the related Ajuran Sultanate in the interior. In this period Mogadishu was attacked but not occupied by the Portuguese. The true conquerors of the ancient city were those new Hawiye Somali settlers who defeated the Ajuran and brought the downfall of the Muzaffar dynasty in the early seventeenth century. By this time Mogadishu had split into two rival quarters, Hamarweyn, and Shangani in which the new invaders were established.
At this time the rise of Omani influence in the Indian Ocean introduced an important new factor into the situation; and by the close of the seventeenth century Mogadishu, with the other East African ports, had come under the protection of Oman. In 1814, however, the governor of Mombasa declared his town independent and sought British support from Bombay. After a delay of nine years, Captain Owen’s fleet arrived off the East African coast and in 1824, Owen established his famous but short-lived ‘Protectorate’. Mombasa’a rebellious example now affected the people of Mogadishu, and in 1825 Owen obligingly visited the port offering British protection against the anticipated Omani reprisal. This was refused, but at the port of Brava to the south of Mogadishu, Owen was more successful.
In the following year the situation changed radically, and with the refusal of Owen’s government to ratify his protectorate, British intervention disappeared as suddenly and almost as inexplicably as it had come. The rebellious towns of East Africa were now left to face their Omani overlords alone. In 1828, Mogadishu was bombarded and compelled to capitulate. But when, shortly after, the Muscat state was divided, Mogadishu and her sister ports of the southern, or ‘Benadir’,14 Somali coast passed under the jurisdiction of the Sultan of Zanzibar.
Meanwhile, beyond the Benadir Coast to the north, the Majerteyn Sultanate had apprently retained its independence from outside interests. In 1839, however, for an annual allowance of 360 dollars, the Sultan signed a treaty at Aden with the British, guaranteeing to protect the lives and property of ships wrecked off his coast.16 By this time the Sultanate was also in contact with Oman, though not it seems formally under Omani jurisdiction.
These various centres along the coast were visited by the French explorer, Charles Guillain, captain of the brig Ducouedic, between 1846 and 1848. As a whole the Benadir ports, Guillain found, acknowledged both the authority of the Sultan of Zanzibar and that of the Somali Geledi clan in the hinterland who, as masters of the Shebelle, were now at the height of their power. And while the Sultan of Zanzibar was no doubt potentially more powerful, because better armed, than his Geledi colleague, it was easier for the latter to give direct effect to his authority. Thus it was typical of the delicate distribution of power between the two Sultans that, when in 1870 the Sultan of Zanzibar wished to build a fortress for his representative at Mogadishu, this required the consent and assistance of the Geledi.
At the time of Guillain’s sojourn, however, although the ancient cotton-weaving industry was still profitable,15 Mogadishu was largely in ruins. A recent scourge of plague and famine had reduced its population to a mere 5,000; and Hamarweyn and Shangani, the two quarters of the city, were at variance and each under a separate leader. The Sultan of the Geledi had in 1842 been invited to mediate and his action then had led to an uneasy truce between the two factions. By contrast, the Sultan of Zanzibar’s authority over the town was slight and hardly more than nominal. In 1843, a Somali had been appointed as governor by the Sultan of Zanzibar and furnished with two soldiers to collect the taxes; but after a short time this official had relinquished his office, and now at the time of Guillain’s visit, the only Zanzibari representative was an old Arab with an Indian assistant as tax collector.
The governor for the Benadir coast as a whole was stationed at Brava which, compared with Mogadishu, impressed Guillain with its prosperity. This city of 5,000 souls, while acknowledging the overlordship of Zanzibar, was effectively led by two personages, one a Somali, and the other an Arab who spoke some English. Finally, between Brava and Mogadishu, at Merca, the Somali intrusion was complete and this port was led by a member of the local Bimal clan; here the only Zanzibar representative was an aged customs official. Recently the town had been devastated by the Sultan of the Geledi in the course of strife between his clan and the Bimal, and the citizens of Brava were now preparing to counter-attack: in this situation Guillain wisely decided not to prolong his visit.
Thus by the middle of the nineteenth century, the southern Benadir coast as a whole recognized the suzerainty of Zanzibar, although the Sultan’s power was vague and uncertain compared with the direct influence exerted by the Geledi who dominated the hinterland. Yet the Geledi did not generally dispute Zanzibar’s position, and the two Sultans were friends rather than rivals maintaining between them a delicate balance of control over the Benadir. Farther to the south the Sultan of Zanzibar’s writ ran more directly, so that, for example, when in 1868 after the rout of the Galla Warday, new Darod reinforcements arrived to swell the further Darod thrust south, and came from the north by sea to Kismayu, they sought and obtained the Sultan’s authority.
To the north beyond the Benadir ports, the Majerteyn Sultanate, while having connexions with Oman, remained politically independent. Zeila, and less definitely Berbera, however, were still formally part of the Turkish Empire, though both were now heavily involved in trade with the British at Aden, and in the case of Berbera linked with Britain by commercial treaties.
Thus by the middle of the nineteenth century the Somali coast was no longer isolated, and locally it was now rather the nomads of the hinterland who controlled the ports than the other way about. To a large extent the coastal and hinterland traditions had merged, and the centre of political pressure had swung from the coast to the interior. The new external links between the coast and the outside world, however, served in the following decades of the nineteenth century to pave