Somali constitution debates pitted S.Y.L. centralism against H.D.M.S. federalism
Evidence
In the light of the prevailing Pan-Somali aim shared by all nationalists, the constitution had to provide for the possibility of the eventual union of Somalia with other Somali territories. and provisions fulfilling this requirement were incorporated in the final proposals. Here the S.Y.L. government and the H.D.M.S. opposition held very different views. The League favoured, indeed insisted upon, a unitary state with a high degree of centralized authority. In the light of its own particularistic interests, the H.D.M.S. on the contrary sought a federal relationship which would permit a high degree of regional autonomy. Already the opposition had advocated the creation in its own southern area of a separate Digil-Mirifle state, and in conflict with the government’s firm repudiation of them had expressed sympathy towards the Ethiopian Emperor’s overtures contained in his speech at Qabradare. Here as in other matters such as the discrimination against Digil and Rahanweyn clansmen alleged to exist in the public service, the H.D.M.S. position proceeded directly from its own particularistic interests and general opposition to the S.Y.L. But with only thirteen members in the Assembly its voice was naturally weak. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 409
Categorization
- XREF: The unitary-federal clash and Digil-Mirifle particularism anticipate Somalia’s later political fragmentation central to the book’s climax and fall. — connects to: S.Y.L. internal Darod-Hawiye rivalry split it into moderate and militant factions; Somali constitution debate pitted unitary against federal visions; the MOC “The Nation That Couldn’t Hold: How Somali Clanship, Colonial Partition, and Pan-Somali Dreams Pulled the Seams Apart” (+1 more)