Southern floods and salary raises deepened northern alienation from Mogadishu

Evidence

With this success to its credit, and with work proceeding on the preparation of a unified legal code and other measures designed to integrate more fully the two regions, the government apparently felt little need to give urgent consideration to the situation in the north. Attention was in any case soon sharply diverted by the disastrous floods which swept the south of the Republic in the autumn and which, following hard on the heels of two exceedingly poor rain seasons, threatened widespread hunger and disease. Such sympathy as this unkind stroke of fortune aroused in the north was scarcely strengthened when the members of the National Assembly chose this moment to pass legislation doubling their salaries to a figure (£100 monthly) considerably in excess of that received by southern Provincial Commissioners and other senior officials. Despite the participation of their elected representatives, to northerners this was but one of a long series of irresponsible actions taken by the government in distant Mogadishu. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 439

Categorization

• XREF: Pattern of Mogadishu-centrism recurring later, up to Barre era; connects to broader arc of state collapse. — connects to: Northern Somalis quickly grew disillusioned with union as Mogadishu dominated — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 436

Related

• Northern Somalis quickly grew disillusioned with union as Mogadishu dominated (similarity 0.84)
• Union with Somalia reshuffled the northern clan political hierarchy (similarity 0.79)
• Isaaq loss of faith in their elected representatives fueled northern discontent (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Northern Somalis quickly grew disillusioned with union as Mogadishu dominated #expands (0.70) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 436