Mogadishu under Italian rule

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Downtown Mogadishu in 1936. At the left can be seen the "Arch of Umberto" and to the centre the "Catholic Cathedral". The main Mosque to the right.

Mogadishu under Italian control was the capital of Italian Somalia during the nearly eighty years of Italy's colonial rule in Somalia. In those years the city grew from a medieval village of a few thousand inhabitants in the late 19th century to a modern capital with a population of nearly 150,000 "mogadiscians", nicknamed "the pearl of the Indian ocean" in 1960.

History[]

The city of Mogadishu came under Italian control in the 1880s after they acquired the territory of Italian Somaliland. In 1905, it was made the capital of the territory. The Italians subsequently referred to the city as Mogadiscio. After World War I, the surrounding territory came under Italian control with some resistance.[1][2]p. 28

Thousands of Italians settled in Mogadishu and founded small manufacturing companies. They also developed some agricultural areas in the south near the capital, such as Janale and the Villaggio duca degli Abruzzi (present-day Jowhar).[3]p. 233 In the 1930s, new buildings and avenues were built. A 114 km (71 mi) narrow-gauge railway was laid from Mogadishu to Jowhar. An asphalted road, the Strada Imperiale, was also constructed and intended to link Mogadishu to Addis Ababa.[4]p. 41

Remains of Italian era Arch in 2007 Mogadishu

In 1940, the Italo-Somali population numbered 22,000, accounting for over 44% of the city's population of 50,000 residents.[5][6] In the late 1930s nearly all the economy of Italian Somalia was concentrated in the area around the triangle Mogadishu – Merca – Jowhar (the most developed region in those years).

Mogadishu remained the capital of Italian Somaliland throughout the latter polity's existence. In February 1941, during World War II it was captured by British forces.

Because of security reasons, nearly all the Italians of Somalia moved to live in Mogadiscio after the British conquest, so consequently in 1942 it was a city where the Italians were nearly half the population and where the Catholicism was the religion of nearly 60% of the inhabitants. According to reports of the British authorities, Mogadiscio in 1942 looked mostly like a European city (nicknamed "the white pearl of the Indian Ocean").

After World War II Mogadishu was made the capital of the Trust Territory of Somaliland, an Italian administered fiduciary political entity under the ONU mandate, for ten years (1950–1960).

  • Mogadishu Market, 1882

  • Mogadiscio cathedral, before the beginning of the Somali Civil War

  • Porta ai Giardini, 1931

  • Cinema Italia in Mogadiscio, 1937

  • Fiat building in Mogadiscio, 1940

  • Italian stamp from Mogadiscio, 1936

References[]

  1. ^ Ade Ajayi, J. F. Africa in the Nineteenth Century Until the 1880s. UNESCO. p. 387.
  2. ^ Hamilton, Janice. Somalia in Pictures. Twenty-First Century Books.
  3. ^ Bevilacqua, Piero; Clementi, Andreina De; Franzina, Emilio (2001). Storia dell'emigrazione italiana (in Italian). Donzelli Editore. ISBN 978-88-7989-655-9.
  4. ^ Eichstaedt, Peter H. (1 October 2010). Pirate State: Inside Somalia's Terrorism at Sea. Chicago Review Press. ISBN 978-1-56976-774-0.
  5. ^ Termentin, Fernando (13 May 2005). "Somalia, una nazione che non esiste" (in Italian). Pagine di Difesa. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  6. ^ "Il Razionalismo nelle colonie italiane 1928-1943 - La "nuova architettura" delle Terre d'Oltremare" (PDF). Fedoa. Retrieved 2 January 2014.

Bibliography[]

  • Hess, Robert L. "Italian Colonialism in Somalia". University of Chicago P. Chicago, 1966.
  • Tripodi, Paolo. "The Colonial Legacy in Somalia". St. Martin's P Inc. New York, 1999.

See also[]

  • Italian Somalia
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