They had ties to both the west and the ussr, they were a gaajo republic with majority nomads and were desperate for funding from anyone to modernize the country,
The civilian government wasn’t impoverished simply because Somalia had a large pastoralist population. It was because the Italians and British left nothing behind and actively undermined Somalia’s economy.
They built no meaningful infrastructure or useful industry beyond banana plantations. The wealth generated from livestock and agriculture never stayed in Somalia, it was extracted abroad. Colonial authorities consumed all the tax revenues they squeezed out of the population without delivering services. They also blocked Somalia from independent trade or wider economic participation.
We discussed this in detail here:
More money was spent on the military than on education. Somalis maintained their economic self-sufficiency, colonial settlers were dependent on imports. Somalis were not allowed to form trade unions Somalis went out of their way to help fellow somalis when they were not restricted...
www.somalispot.com
But here is short summary
Here’s a short video summary on Britain’s even worse record than Italy:
This is why Somalia turned toward the Soviet Union and China. Both were more willing to offer military assistance and real economic development projects.
The reasoning is straightforward: Britain and the United States had deeper interests in Kenya and Ethiopia, and they consistently backed those countries at Somalia’s expense, regardless of Somali outreach. Somalia reached out to America a lot , even the Kacaan did in the mid 70s and it countinued into the 80s.
kacaan was a full on marxist and defined himself as the defender of Leninism
The Soviets often complained that the Kacaan was only putting on a socialist or Marxist façade. To them, it looked more rhetorical than real.
If you read the government’s own policies, you can see why they thought that
I more or less cover it all here: You can read them, its a mix of diplomatic assessment and government documents:
I have argued many times before that they operated more like mixed socialist-capitalist country economically and Islamically ideologically and the perception from both the American and Soviet's side of things was that Siad Barre was not motivated by ideological application of it but more so saw it as a tool for economic development. Which is correct.
You can see this echoed here:
''we found in Mogadishu signs of capitalism which was preserved during 8 years Russian influence.
''we saw Somali leaders pre-occupied with the Ogaden war and economic development than with a brand of socialism''
''Somalia seems an unlikely convert to communism''
You can also see it in the practical application that they allowed private ownership and livestock remained in private hand and small business was left untouched. While schools, electricity and petroleum were nationalized.
They also encouraged private trade/investment and allowed Somali businesses to operate and promised to safeguard it from nationalization.
The government also built malls with dozens of shops and businesses to boost trade.
So needless to say Siad Barre was a pragmatic man motivated by economic development and not ideological considerations for socialism or marxism.
It's part of the reason why a section of the military like the SDSF turned against him in 1978 and betrayed Somalia after they cut off relations with the Soviet and they protested it. They were more loyal to the soviet and communism than the Somali nation , bunch of traitors.
They also despised the government because of lack of marxist application and ''international capitalism'' loool
Siyaad Barre encouraged free trade and private investment. In 1972 the government built a commercial mall with over 100 shops to bolster free trade in the country
. In 1976 Siyaad Barre stated the following in a speech regarding private investment.
"We have no new nationalizations in view. Our goal was, and it remains, to nationalize the firms of those who exploit the Somali people. But we have never had the intention of attacking private property as such Private property has been nationalized only when it constituted an element of exploitation”.
“No one here, for example, has ever thought about nationalizing agriculture or industry. On the contrary, we encourage private enterprise in that area. In any case, there is no question of nationalizing land, because we have enough arable land for everyone who needs any”.
It was socialist only in so far as it attempted to curtail exploitation and private abuse and was re-distrubutive, restrict wealth accumilation at the top and pro social programs. Otherwise it had many capitalist driven elements that promoted private sector development and tried to create a balance between private sector and public sector regulatory mechanisms.
1970 clarification by the government:
Some more explanation of their philosophy:
Somalia in many ways operated more like a mixed economy. You have to understand that Somalia was in an inferior position, and in order to be more forthcoming with economic/military aid, the Soviets pressured the SRC to make the economy more socialist oriented. This ended after 1977.
People also forget how badly the 1975 drought hit the country. It was a massive setback that derailed the government’s push for self-reliance.
Like I mentioned before with Japan gaining revenue from agriculture which they used to fund development/modernization, Somalia had the same potential. Just to put it into perspective, in 2013 the livestock economy alone generated $8.9 billion.
Because of the Abaartii Dabadheer, the Kacaan had to temporarily step in with price and market controls to ease the hardships and stabilize living standards. Once the drought passed, those controls were lifted.
That’s why it makes sense how Somalia managed to become food self-sufficient in the 1980s. A lot of that came down to policies like rangeland management and environmental protection programs the government had set up and the recovery and steady growth of agriculture and livestock sector.
theconversation.com
