Northerners’ grievances stemmed from psychological distance from government, not real misrule

Evidence

Received Haji Jirde Hussein from Hargeisa, rich merchant, politically close to the NUF [National United Front]. He talked about the situation in the Northern Regions and said that during the last year and a half the prosperity acquired by the population is unprecedented. The discontent of the population is, therefore, a psychological fact connected with the falsity of the members of parliament who invent nonexisting misrule and the distance from the central government of the people who were accustomed to being close to the administration. For such distance they have a feeling that they are not able to obtain prompt response to their applications. Haji Jirde suggests transferring the civil servants from there to the south and those from here to the north, mainly police and civil servants. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 638

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme of north-south integration problems in post-independence Somali state that likely recurs across Samatar’s chapters.