Zeila’s Somali governor Shirmarke lived modestly and was illiterate despite grand ambitions
Evidence
In 1854, Burton records that Haji Shirmarke, tall and, despite his sixty-odd years, strong and active, had not forgotten the military exploits of his youth and contemplated the conquest of Berbera and Harar. He lived modestly, however, in an indifferent mud and wattle ‘arish, and not in one of the grander double-storeyed stone houses of the town. His ‘secretary’ was a Swahili slave; and although he was himself illiterate, his eldest son Muhammad, married to an Arab woman, had been educated at Mukha and proved to be something of a scholar. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 119
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: President Shirmarke’s assassination triggered the army’s decision to seize power; A Somali captain rose to govern Zeila through wealth, reputation, and British favor; Zeila’s Somali governor governed with a light hand and forty mercenaries