Abkaal
Mudug menaces don't mince their words
The Banadir Resistance
The “Bandar Resistance,”¹¹ though religious in origin, was also based on economics
as the Bandar ports played a significant role in the region’s internal and external
trade, supplying the hinterland with imported commodities as well as providing
markets for livestock and major local products. Moreover, it was only in these
coastal towns where significant commercial life existed and cottage industries
like the production of Banadiri cloth and the manufacture of utensils and other
indispensable tools fl ourished. It was, therefore, essential to defend these vital
economic resources.
The Banadiri traders of the interior were also concerned that foreign occupation
of the ports would not only mean they would be put out of business as
independent agents, but indeed that internal trade would be completely dislocated
because inevitably farms and grazing lands whose coastal pastures and wells the
nomads used during the dry season would also be occupied. The Banadiris ambushed
the Italians at Lafoole, in 1896, when the Wa’dan clan attacked the first
Italian expedition on the Shabelle River led by Antonio Cecchi, the Italian general
consul in Zanzibar. Cecchi and all, but three members of his expedition were killed:
Th e Italian media dubbed it La Strage di Lafole, Massacre at Lafoole! For Banadiris,
Lafoole was as glorious a victory as the Ethiopian triumph over the Italians at Adowa
in the same year. Banadiris call 1896 Ahad Shekki, the Sunday year of Cecchi.
Th e Italian colonial advance was halted for the next ten years.¹²
In the early 1890s, another Banadiri group, the Biamal, joined the resistance.
Italy occupied Marka, the center of Biamal culture, but in 1904, the Markans assassinated
the first Italian resident of the city, Giacomo Trevis. Th is action triggered the
Italian occupation of another port town, Jazira, about 30 miles south of Mogadishu.
Biamal leaders called for a shir, “clan assembly,” mobilizing the Banadiri clans,
mainly Biamal, the Wa’dan, the Hintire and other clans of the Geledi confederacy,
against the Italian advance and decided to isolate the ports from trade with the
interior.¹³ Th e ma’allims “Qur’anic school teachers” and imams “religious leaders” of
Marka led the war of resistance to colonial occupation of the interior, but they and
their followers paid dearly. A local lashin poet who attacked those who refused to
take up arms said: Reer Janna waa jid galeen, Reer Jahima iska jooga: “those who resist
are heaven bound. Th ose who submit can stay home in Hell where they belong.”
Italian garrisons in both Marka and Jazira were under siege and barely survived.
Though Italy sent support troops, they suffered considerable losses. In February
1907, at Turunley, also known as Dhanane, north of Marka, some 2,000 Banadiri
warriors, led by Sheikh Abdi Abiikar Gaafle¹⁴ fought 1000 Italian troops, assisted
by some 1,500 Arab, Eritrean, and Somali mercenaries led by Lieutenant Gustavo
Pesenti. The attack started after midnight, February 9, 1907 and lasted to the noon
of the 10t. The Banadiri warriors retreated, leaving behind several hundred dead
and as many wounded. Although the Italians had high casualties, they considered
Turunley a major military victory, one which Lieutenant Pesenti, the commander of
the regiment, celebrated in an eyewitness account, Danane (Dhanane).¹⁵ Turunley
marked the end of the of the mighty Banadir resistance. On July 1908, at Finlow,
the Biamal avenged Turunley defeating some 500 Italian troops. However, by
1908, major centers such as Afgoy capitulated to the Italians. However, the Italian
conquest was not complete, and from 1910 to the 1920s, under the leadership of
Sheikh Abdi Abikar Gaafl e, the Banadiri coalition remained the leading opponent
of Italian rule in the Riverine region.¹⁶