Italian mission schools taught Christian doctrine that troubled Muslim Somali parents

Evidence

Osman’s family stayed in Belet Weyne, but he kept an apartment in Mogadishu. His two older sons went to Italian schools in Mogadishu. One day the father asked his younger son what he was taught in school and Mohamed responded that he learned that Maria was the mother of God. Osman, a devout Muslim, was troubled by the response and immediately took the children back to Belet Weyne. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 182

Categorization

• SEED: Illustrates how colonial-period mission schooling pushed Somali families away from Italian institutions — a small personal episode that mirrors broader religious resistance to Italian rule.