Aden Osman steered the SYL to accept UN trusteeship rather than armed resistance

Evidence

Reeling from the depressing news from New York, the SYL immediately convened a national meeting in Mogadishu. … The key question that most engaged the delegates was what could Somalis do now that the UN ignored their rights? This was an emotionally charged meeting, and many members passionately argued that the party should organize the people to fight against Italy’s return to the country. Osman shared the prevailing sentiment but challenged the strategy many of his colleagues proposed. … He warned that Somalia’s landscape was not conducive to guerrilla warfare and that Italian troops would simply besiege major water wells, with devastating effects on the nomads. The delegates solicited Osman’s views regarding the way forward for the party. He reminded them of the conditions stipulated in the trusteeship agreement, which provided for independence in ten years, for an advisory council to oversee whether the administering authority was fulfilling its agreements, and that Italy was obligated to develop the country and prepare it for independence. In other words, he insisted that a UN trusteeship would be qualitatively different from former fascist rule and therefore the SYL should cooperate with the administration as long as the latter fulfilled its trusteeship mandate. The conference accepted Osman’s propositions, although many had little faith that the Italians would honor the trusteeship agreement. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 280