Italian trusteeship administration staffed itself with former fascist colonialists and persecuted SYL members

Evidence

This is how Pankhurst characterized the Italian administration: “The new regime as it took up the task of governing the country … was manned by old colonials who had served in Ethiopia; for instance, the Secretary General of the new government was the Fascist Governor of Harar… . A ruthless persecution of members of the Somali Youth League … is underway. In the first forty-seven days after the British hand-over to the Italians more than three hundred Somali Youth League members had been thrown into prison. All senior police officers … and others employed by the British have been dismissed or imprisoned… . The trials are in secret, the courts being closed to the public.” — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1243

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader anticolonial narrative of Somalia’s pre-independence years and earlier chapters’ accounts of Italian fascist rule over Somaliland.