Young Somalis founded their political club on their own initiative, not British prompting

Evidence

Contrary to the claims of earlier scholarship (see, e.g., Touval, Somali Nationalism), the British did not prod the young Somalis to form an organization, but the initiative came from the Somalis themselves. The British were keen that the organization not be a political party, as they did not want a political challenge from the natives in case British colonial tenure was prolonged. The aims and objectives of the club were as follows: “fraternity, equality, liberty and progress in that order, and in the expression ‘Somalia for the Somalis.’ The fundamental policy is considered to be the complete unification of the Somali race.” — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1192

Categorization

• XREF: Directly corrects an earlier scholarly source (Touval, Somali Nationalism) the reader may have encountered in other readings on Somali nationalism.