This chapter investigates how the Italian trusteeship over southern Somalia (Amministrazione Fiduciaria Italiana della Somalia – AFIS) affected both the reunification of the country and its following social and political troubles. AFIS was a peculiar case among the United Nations Trusteeship System, both because Italy, the trustee, was not a UN member yet and it was invested of a trusteeship over a NSGT that once was its former colony. When the Trust Territory of Somaliland was reunited with the former British Somaliland in 1960, it appeared clearly how the different governances of Rome and London affected the relations among Somali clans, de facto laying the foundations for the instability of the country. Not only, in fact, the Somali case represents a clash between two different ‘civilizing missions’ of Western countries, but also it revealed how both the Italian and British governments encouraged the emergence of multiple Somali nationalisms. In particular, AFIS imposed an Italian way to ‘Somalization’, which contributed to the destabilization of the socio-political panorama of the country. In that sense, the case of the Trust Territory of Somaliland is probably the most emblematic example of the failure of the UN supervision over African decolonization, whose problematic legacy manifested itself multiple times in the recent decades.
Colonial Legacies of Decolonization: The Trust Territory of Somaliland and the Italian Behavior toward the Horn of Africa
Alessia Tortolini
2022-01-01
Abstract
This chapter investigates how the Italian trusteeship over southern Somalia (Amministrazione Fiduciaria Italiana della Somalia – AFIS) affected both the reunification of the country and its following social and political troubles. AFIS was a peculiar case among the United Nations Trusteeship System, both because Italy, the trustee, was not a UN member yet and it was invested of a trusteeship over a NSGT that once was its former colony. When the Trust Territory of Somaliland was reunited with the former British Somaliland in 1960, it appeared clearly how the different governances of Rome and London affected the relations among Somali clans, de facto laying the foundations for the instability of the country. Not only, in fact, the Somali case represents a clash between two different ‘civilizing missions’ of Western countries, but also it revealed how both the Italian and British governments encouraged the emergence of multiple Somali nationalisms. In particular, AFIS imposed an Italian way to ‘Somalization’, which contributed to the destabilization of the socio-political panorama of the country. In that sense, the case of the Trust Territory of Somaliland is probably the most emblematic example of the failure of the UN supervision over African decolonization, whose problematic legacy manifested itself multiple times in the recent decades.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
