Italy trained Somali natives only for the lowest colonial administration posts

Evidence

Nuns at the school taught natives rudimentary Italian, a bit of Italian history centered on Mussolini, and arithmetic to prepare them to staff lower rungs of the colonial administration. The school closed after only two years, in 1939, as the war intensified. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 192

Nuns at the school taught natives rudimentary Italian, a bit of Italian history centered on Mussolini, and arithmetic to prepare them to staff lower rungs of the colonial administration. The school closed after only two years, in 1939, as the war intensified. While in the Italian school, Hussen was given a job in a major store owned by an in-law. This was his first paying job and provided him a certain degree of security, which he had not had since he left his nomadic home. But this happy condition did not last long. The war drained all resources of the colony and nearly all stores folded. As the British forces closed the noose on the Italians, the economy came to standstill. Whatever little formal employment existed in the colony declined sharply during the hostilities. Many young Somalis were desperate for jobs and enlisted in the colonial military. Three of Hussen’s brothers and two of his cousins enlisted, and Hussen was drafted, but he was released after his community elders confirmed his young age. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 192

Categorization

• XREF: Reveals the ceiling Italy placed on Somali education, contrasting with the British colonial approach and contextualizing later Somali political struggles.
• SHARE: This fits a Somalia-history enthusiast’s interest in how colonial-era employment desperation drove Somali enlistment in the Italian military — and the detail that elders could vouch for a drafted boy’s age.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 192