1945 Sheikh Bashir Rebellion
Sheikh Bashir prayingSunnah prayer, 1920[1]
Date 2–7 July 1945 (5 days) Location British Somaliland (nowSomalia) Result British victory
Belligerents
Isaaq Sultanate Habr Je'lo	United Kingdom British Somaliland
Commanders and leaders
Sheikh Bashir † Alin Yusuf Elmi (Qaybdiid) †	Major Chambers † James David †
Units involved
Habr Je'lo tribesmen	Police guards,Sepoys and South African troops
Strength
25 armed followers	Unknown
Casualties and losses
2 killed, 3 captured	2 killed, several injured

The1945 Sheikh Bashir Rebellion was a rebellion waged by tribesmen of theHabr Je'lo clan in the cities ofBurao andErigavo in the formerBritish Somaliland colony and protectorate against British authorities in July 1945 led bySheikh Bashir, He is from the Sheikhal tribe aSomali religious leader. This rebellion occurred two months after the end of theSecond World War in Europe, and post-war conditions, and the impending collapse of theBritish Empire, may have been the reasons for the rebellion in the first place.^[2]

The situation in theBritish Somaliland protectorate during the 1920s until the rebellion was tense. Several other revolts had taken place both in urban and rural areas in the protectorate during the time period between the rebellion and the defeat of theDervish movement led byMohammed Abdullah Hassan, the most serious of which was the1922 Burao Tax Revolt led by tribesmen of theRer Ainanshe sub-division of theHabr Yunis clan who refused attempts by the British authorities to tax them, and the 1944Somaliland Camel Corps mutiny in response to the British authorities attempting to send the camel corps abroad to serve in other British colonies.^[2][3][4] During that time several organizations were formed that articulated and promoted Somali nationalism, such as the Somali Islamic Association led byHaji Farah Omar in 1920 inAden.^[3][5][6]

Somalis feared European conquest of their land as early as the early 19th century, when in 1825 theHabr AwalIsaaq sacked a British merchant ship that had attempted to dock in the important trading port ofBerbera, which lead to theBritish attack on Berbera in 1827 in response, as well as Somalis attacking British explorers on expeditions inZeila,Berbera andLas Khorey.^[7][8] Another example of the Somali distrust of Europeans is when, in 1855, the governor of ZeilaHaji Sharmarke refused to sell a house to a French agent in the town, and claimed that he preferred a significant loss over the presence of dangerous friends.^[9][10]

Yet another example of the distrust of the Europeans is when massive riots throughout the entire protectorate had taken place in 1945 in response to the British authorities putting poison bait in grazing lands as part of an anti-locust campaign aimed at combatting locust swarms.^[11] The violent demonstrations spread to different parts of the vast protectorate, from Zeila in the far west toBadhan in the far east.^[12]

Sheikh Bashir was born in 1905 inTaleh,British Somaliland. Taleh was known as the Dervish capital and is located in theSool region ofSomaliland. Sheikh Bashir was a nephew ofMohammed Abdullah Hassan and was named by him. He hails from theYeesif subclan of theHabr Je'loIsaaq clan. Sheikh Bashir was cultivated at the Markaz (Centre) located in the village ofBeer east ofBurao and studied there in succession to his father. This Markaz was first established by Sheikh Bashir's grandfather Sheikh Hassan Fiqi Abdi as an educational centre where the Quran, hadith and other Islamic sciences were taught.

According to the Somali historian and novelistFarah Awl the Sayyid had a significant influence on Sheikh Bashir through listening to his poetry and conversations, an influence that impelled him to a "war with the British". After studying in the markaz in Beer he opened a Sufi tariqa (order) sometime in the 1930s, where he preached his ideology of anti-imperialism, stressing the evil of colonial rule and the bringing of radical change through war. His ideology was shaped by a millennial bent, which according to Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm is the "hope of a complete and radical change in the world shorn of all its present deficiencies".^[13]

Sheikh Bashir had been arrested multiple times before the revolt itself had occurred for challenging the authority of the British protectorate. He reached prominence in 1939 when he played a prominent role in a riot in Burao that happened that year as a result of a new educational policy the British authorities had announced, and which it had put an end to after the riots. The British had also at the same time announced a new disarmament policy directed at armed pastoralists. In response, Sheikh Bashir organized a group of some hundred armed tribesmen and dared the British authorities to enforce the policy, which resulted in him being arrested at the end of 1939 and sentenced to a minor term of imprisonment. After his release he returned to his tariqa in Beer, where he continued to preach and encourage his followers to resist all policies of the British authorities. He continued to resist the British authorities through preaching until 1945, when he decided to take arms.^[14]

One day, according to a well known story, he challenged sheikhs who were fulminating against the British to actually do something about it. The exchange between Sheikh Bashir and the sheikhs was passed over into history in a poem composed by Yasin Ahmed Haji Nur in January 1980,Muruq Baa Dagaal Gala (Muscle Partakes in War), where he describes the incident:

On 2 July, Sheikh Bashir collected 25 of his followers in the town ofWadamago and transported them on a lorry to the vicinity ofBurao, where he distributed arms to half of his followers. On the evening of 3 July the group entered Burao and opened fire on the police guard of the central prison in the city, which was filled with prisoners arrested for previous demonstrations. The group also attacked the house of the district commissioner ofBurao District, Major Chambers, resulting in the death of Major Chamber's police guard. A party of 30 police were immediately mobilized and tasked with perusing the group.^[15] Sheikh Bashir and his followers subsequently escaped to Bur Dhab, a strategic mountain south-east of Burao and north of Aynaba, where Sheikh Bashir's small unit occupied a fort and took up a defensive position in anticipation of a British counterattack.^[15]

The British campaign against Sheikh Bashir's troops proved abortive after several defeats as his forces kept moving from place to place and avoiding any permanent location. No sooner had the expedition left the area, than the news traveled fast among the Somali nomads across the plain. The war had exposed the British administration to humiliation. The government came to a conclusion that another expedition against him would be useless; that they must build a railway, make roads and effectively occupy the whole of the protectorate, or else abandon the interior completely. The latter course was decided upon, and during the first months of 1945, the advance posts were withdrawn and the British administration confined to the coast town ofBerbera.^[16]

Sheikh Bashir settled many disputes among the tribes in the vicinity, which kept them from raiding each other. He was generally thought to settle disputes through the use of IslamicSharia and gathered around him a strong following.^[17]

Sheikh Bashir sent a message to religious figures in the town ofErigavo and called on them to revolt and join the rebellion he led. The religious leaders as well as the people of Erigavo heeded his call, and mobilized a substantial number of people in Erigavo armed with rifles and spears and staged a revolt. The British authorities responded rapidly and severely, sending reinforcements to the town and opening fire on the armed mobs in two "local actions" as well as arresting minor religious leaders in the town.^[18]

The British administration recruitedIndian andSouth African troops, led by police general James David, to fight against Sheikh Bashir and had intelligence plans to capture him alive. The British authorities mobilized a police force, and eventually on 7 July found Sheikh Bashir and his unit in defensive positions behind their fortifications in the mountains of Bur Dhab. After clashes Sheikh Bashir and his second-in-command, Alin Yusuf Elmi, nicknamed Qaybdiid, were killed. A third rebel was wounded and was captured along with two other rebels. The rest fled the fortifications and dispersed. On the British side the police general leading the British troops as well as a number of Indian and South African troops perished in the clashes, and a policeman was injured.^[17]

After his death, Sheikh Bashir was widely hailed by locals as a martyr and was held in great reverence. His family took quick action to remove his body from the place of his death at Geela-eeg mountain, about 20 miles fromBurao.^[19]

Despite the death of Sheikh Bashir and his second-in-command, the British authorities were not finished with the rebels and continued its counter-insurgency campaign. The authorities had quickly learned the names and identities of all the followers of Sheikh Bashir and tried to convince the locals to turn them in. When they refused, the authorities invoked theCollective Punishment Ordinance, under which the authorities seized and impounded a total of 6,000 camels owned by theHabr Je'lo, the clan that Sheikh Bashir belonged to. The British authorities made the return of the livestock dependent on the turning over and arrest of the escaped rebels.^[20] The remaining rebels were subsequently found and arrested, and transported to theSaad-ud-Din archipelago, off the coast of Zeila in northwestern Somaliland. Despite the death of Sheikh Bashir and his followers resistance against British authorities continued in Somaliland, especially in Erigavo where his death stirred further resistance in the town and the town ofBadhan and lead to attacks on British colonial troops throughout the district and the seizing of arms from the rural constabulary.^[3]

Sheikh Bashir appears as a significant figure in Somali popular culture, this is seen in references to his life and struggle in Somali poetry, with many poems describing his rebellion and calling on local Somalis to avenge him. InRaqdii Bashiir (The Corpse of Bashir), a poem composed by the famousHabr Yunis poet Haji Adan Ahmed Af-Qallooc (Somali:Xaaji Aadan Axmed Af-Qallooc), he describes the aftermath of Sheikh Bashir's death and the British mistreatment of his body, and called on the people to continue the rebellion, and to avenge Sheikh Bashir and his followers as well as warning them of British settlers taking over the land, something which the British authorities denied^[21] and which led to his arrest for attempting to re-ignite the rebellion. In the poem, he said:^[3][22]

Adan Ahmed Af-Qallooc also composed another poem in Sheikh Bashir's honour, titledGobonimo (Freedom). In it, he said:^[23][22]

Sheikh Bashir's rebellion can also be credited for contributing to the rise ofbalwo andheello, two famous styles of music and poetry practiced in modern-daySomaliland as well asDjibouti. Anti-colonial poets that arose after his rebellion played a crucial role in the anti-colonial nationalist movement, as famous poetHadrawi maintained in his poem, "The Poet".^[24]

Two secondary schools inHargeisa andBurao, both called the Sheikh Bashir Secondary School, are named in his honour.^[25][26]

• Farah Omar
• Deria Arale
• Abdallah Shihiri

• Wars involving Somaliland
• Conflicts in Africa
• Wars involving the United Kingdom
• Conflicts in 1945

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