Italian Somaliland - Colonial Development and The Early Fascist Era: 1920 - 1935

1935

In 1920, the Società Agricola Italo-Somala (SAIS) was founded by Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, in order to explore the agricultural potential of Africa. On December 5, 1923 Fascism came to Somalia with Governor Cesare Maria De Vecchi di Val Cismon. He brought with him forceful ways of colonial rule and ideas.

After World War I, Jubaland, which was then a part of British East Africa, was ceded to Italy. This concession was purportedly a reward for the Italians having joined the Allies in World War I.

In 1926, after a some resistance, southern Somalia was fully pacified. The Somali colonial troops called Dubats (and the gendarmerie Zaptié) were extensively used by De Vecchi in this military campaign.

In the early 1930s, the new Italian governors, Guido Corni and Maurizio Rava, started a policy of assimilation of the Somalis and their clans. Many Somalis were enrolled in the Italian colonial troops. Some thousands of Italian colonists moved to live in Mogadishu, which became a commercial centre with some small manufacturing companies, and in some agricultural areas around the capital such as the "Villaggio duca degli Abruzzi" (or "Villabruzzi", today Jowhar) and "Genale").

In 1920, the Italian explorer and nobleman Luigi Amedeo Savoia-Aosta founded the Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi as an agricultural settlement in Italian Somaliland, growing bananas, cotton and sugar.

In 1926, the colony comprised 16 villages, with some 3,000 Somali and 200 Italian inhabitants, and was connected by a 114 km new railway to Mogadishu. Italian colonial policy followed two principles in Somalia: preservation of the dominant clan and ethnic configurations and respect for Islam as the colony's religion.