Aden Osman’s formal schooling began through an Italian teacher’s patronage in Baidoa

Evidence

An Italian public school was established in Baidoa while Osman was there, and he enrolled in it on his own initiative. This was Osman’s first opportunity to attend school. The resident commissioner’s accountant, Giuseppe Tusso, was the school’s only teacher, and the school had an irregular schedule. Tusso noticed Osman’s aptitude and enthusiasm for his studies because the young boy asked him many questions. Despite his satisfactory performance in class Osman could not afford to stay in school as he had to earn his keep. He reported this circumstance to the teacher, who was moved by Osman’s plight. Tusso instructed his domestic worker, Abukar Haylow, that the young boy would assist him in his duties and go to school at the same time. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 136

Categorization

• XREF: The pattern of a poor Somali boy gaining education through a benefactor’s patronage anticipates the later self-made nationalist leaders of independent Somalia — a thread the reader is tracking chronologically.