By Adan Makina

Editor’s Note: WardheerNews proudly presents to its readers the historical struggles of the former leader of the now defunct Northern Frontier District Liberation Front (NFDLF) that fought for separation from the Republic of Kenya. Septuagenarian Sultan Deghow Muhumed Sambul threw in the towel in the early nineties after the collapse of Somalia’s central government, and accepted defeat after combined fifty-years of struggle against British colonialism and against independent Kenya. In a long and ongoing exclusive research on Sultan Deghow Muhumed Sambul’s historical struggles that touch on the political, social, and historical past of the former Northern Frontier District (NFD), WardheerNews editor, Adan Makina, shares with our readers, his first compilation which he expects to turn in to a historical text in the future.

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While European colonialism was exiting the Horn of African nation of Somalia and Kenya in East Africa respectively in the early 19^th century after inflicting irreparable damage that continues to this present day, the dismemberment of the vast territories inhabited by people of Somali origin agitated a few courageous men who selflessly fought tooth and nail to free their people from the shackles of British colonialism in the Somali peninsula. The combined efforts of these freedom fighters laid down concrete foundations that consequently led to the establishment in 1943 of a unifying political force that came to be known as the Somali Youth Club (SYC). It was in that same year when the concept of liberating Somali territories from colonialism catapulted to greater heights thus strengthening Somali political determination and universal resistance to foreign domination of their lands.

Spreading like wildfire, the political manifestations of the newly-created SYC attracted a good number of loyal followers in the former Northern Frontier District, hereafter referred to as NFD. Influenced by the religious zeal of the famous Somali freedom fighter, Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan, the ferocious bitter rival of British colonialism in British Somaliland, SYC proliferation gained momentum when it changed name to Somali Youth League (SYL) in 1948. Unfortunately, as recorded by history, the man the British Somaliland administration pejoratively nicknamed “Mad Mullah” and who was a role model for the followers of SYL, died of natural causes nineteen years earlier in 1929 in Imey, a small town in Ethiopia-occupied Somali region. However, almost two-decades later, the earth was rent asunder in the Somali Peninsula when Somalis rose up to challenge the presence of Italian and British colonial forces.

The landing of the Four-Power Commission in Somalia in 1948 to deliberate on the political ramifications of the SYL brought a twist in Somali politics. The Four-Power Commission representing the U.S., Soviet Union, Great Britain and France, overshadowed every Somali effort to garnering freedom and self-determination, self-rule and the right to form political parties. The unified might of these four great powers placed a wedge between the five Somali regions by intentionally obstructing Somali regional unity and plainly objecting to the diversification of a unified political party which primarily was the SYL-the strongest Somali political party of that time. According to Sultan Deghow, the representatives of the Four-Power Commission recommended the complete disbandment and the total nullification of the SYL as a representative political party in the former NFD and in the predominantly Somali populated Ethiopia-occupied region.

Ironically, Southern Somalia, an Italian colonial entity by the time the Four-power Commission sprang into action, was placed under a United Nations Trusteeship. Lasting a decade, this trusteeship would place southern Somalia under a U.N. mandate from 1948 to 1958. After a prolonged political hiatus, Somali leaders-especially the founders of SYL reinforced by a new surge of political juggernauts, constituent aspirants and voluntary recruits from every age group including a foray of new women leaders-generated a symbolically novel political upheaval never before seen in global Africa.

Among the few figureheads who took the pains to challenge British colonization of the former NFD, was a young lad named Deghow Maalim Sambul. In the Somali language, the name Deghow or Deeqow denotes to mean ‘a gift from the Almighty God’ and is derived from the word ‘Deeq’ which means a present or gift. Though tender in age, Deghow’s strong political desire or determination to jump on to the secessionist bandwagon at a time when nothing significant glittered like gold except a vast stretch of arid or semi-desert land filled with numerous wildlife and livestock and plenty of pasture, is itself worthy of historical attention.

Deghow’s fight for self-determination was in par with what any other African leader strived to achieve at that time when the entire African continent with the exception of Ethiopia was under direct European colonial rule. He displayed the character of an ebullient adolescent having magnificent ambitions in an arena dominated by towering adult chieftains, tribal leaders or clan representatives struggling to achieve prestige and honor in a completely volatile, nomadic society driven by pride and religious gallantry.

Read More: LOOK AT SULTAN DEGHOW MUHUMED SAMBUL

Adan Makina
Email: adan.makina@gmail.com
WardheerNews