Greater Somalia sometimes also calledGreater Somaliland^[1] (Somali:Soomaaliweyn;Arabic:الصومال الكبرى,romanized: al-Sūmāl al-Kubrā) is the geographic location comprising the regions in theHorn of Africa in which ethnicSomalis live and have historically inhabited.^[2][3]

During theScramble for Africa at the end of the 19th century, Somali inhabited territories were partitioned between imperial powers. The unification of these territories became a focal objective of an independentSomalia. Referred to as 'Greater Somalia', these regions at the outset of Somali independence encompassedBritish Somaliland andItalian Somaliland, which had successfully merged into a single nation in 1960.French Somaliland, theNorthern Frontier District (NFD) inKenya and theOgaden region inEthiopia were placed under the control of neighboring states, despite the pre-independence unification efforts ofSomali nationalists.

The post-independence governments of theSomali Republic (1960-1969) and theSomali Democratic Republic (1969-1991) expended significant effort towards the unification of the NFD and French Somaliland with Somalia, however their primary focus was theOgaden region, which had been occupied byEthiopia sinceMenelik's invasions in the 1890s.^[4] From 1960 and onwards, Somalis in Ethiopia seeking theirself-determination have waged several insurgencies with the support of neighboring Somalia, escalating into several major interstate conflicts including theOgaden War in Ethiopia and theShifta War in Kenya.^[1][5]

However, following the breakout of theSomali Civil War and the splintering of Somalia into various autonomous polities, the concept of Greater Somalia has seen a sharp decline in support with someSomali diaspora communities advocating for autonomy or independence rather than a full fledged union.^[6][7][8]

Since the beginning of the 20th century the concept of Greater Somalia started to be developed with the birth of the nation of Somalia, as a united country inhabited by all the Somalis in their "Horn of Africa" areas.Pan-Somalism refers to the vision of reunifying these areas to form a single Somali nation. The pursuit of this goal has led to conflict: Somalia engaged afterWorld War II in theOgaden War with Ethiopia over theSomali Region, and supported Somaliinsurgents against Kenya. In 1946 theSomali Youth League selectedHarar as the future capital of Greater Somalia and subsequently sent delegates to theUnited Nations office inMogadishu to reveal this proposal.^[9]

Italians occupied theBenadir in 1890 and soon started to enlarge theirSomalia italiana (Italian Somaliland): they created their colony in the first years of the 20th century.

DuringWorld War I, Britain secretly reached an agreement with Italy to transfer to the Italians 94,050 square kilometers of theJubalandprotectorate, which was situated in present-day southwestern Somalia. This was Italy's reward for allying itself with Britain in its war against Germany. The treaty was honored, and in 1924, Britain ceded Jubaland.

In 1926, the northern half of Jubaland was incorporated into Italian Somaliland, and was later re-dubbedOltre Giuba by the Italians.^[10][11] Britain retained control of the southern half of the partitioned Jubaland territory, which was later merged into theNorthern Frontier District (NFD).^[11]

After its conquest of Ethiopia in 1936, Italy also annexedthe Huwan region.^[12] In this way Italian Somaliland, with capitalMogadishu, was enlarged once more.

In earlyWorld War II, Italian troops invadedBritish Somaliland and ejected the British.^[13]Benito Mussolini annexed the conquered area to the Italian Somalia and added even the area of Moyale and Buna near the Jubaland in eastern Kenya (with somesouthern borders of French Somalia).

Mussolini told to a group of Somali clan leaders in September 1940 that Italy has realized their dream of a "Greater Somalia", conquering the British Somalia and areas of Kenya around Moyale. Also some southern borders of French Somalia were united. He received a very warm acclamatio from these leaders. Tripodi, Paolo. "The Colonial Legacy in Somalia"

In August 1940 Mussolini boasted to a group of Somalis inRome that with the conquest of British Somalia (that he annexed to Italian Somalia) nearly all the Somali people were united, fulfilling their dream of a union of all Somalis.^[14] In September 1940 he even announced to theSomali people in Italy of having created an ItalianGrande Somalia inside hisItalian Empire.

Indeed, in early World War II, Italian troopsinvaded British Somaliland and ejected the British.^[13] However, Britain retained administration of most of theNorthern Frontier District.^[15] Italians even did a tentative to occupy French Somaliland in summer 1940.

However the British regained control of British Somaliland in the spring of 1941, and conquered Italian Somaliland and the Somali Region. In 1945, thePotsdam conference was held, where it was decided not to return Italian Somaliland to Italy.^[13] The UN opted instead in 1949 to grant Italy trusteeship of Italian Somaliland for a period of ten years, after which time the region would be independent.^[16]

Meanwhile, in 1948, under pressure from their World War II allies and to the dismay of Somalis,^[13] the British "returned" theHaud (an important Somali grazing area that was presumably "protected" by British treaties with the Somalis in 1884 and 1886) and the Somali Region to Ethiopia, based on a treaty they signed in 1897 in which the British ceded Somali territory to the Ethiopian EmperorMenelik in exchange for his help in evacuating British garrisons in theSudan.^[17] Britain included the proviso that the Somali residents would retain their autonomy, but Ethiopia immediately claimed sovereignty over the area.^[16] This prompted an unsuccessful bid by Britain in 1956 to buy back the Somali lands that it had turned over.^[16] Britain also granted administration of the Northern Frontier District to Kenyan nationalists despite an informalplebiscite demonstrating the overwhelming desire of the region's population to join the newly formed Somali Republic, predominantly the North Eastern region.^[18][19]

The first armed conflict following the independence and unification of the former British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland territories, known collectively as theSomali Republic, began in 1963 in an ethnicOromo and Somali district,Elekere, then part ofBale province, instigated by the Oromo founder of theUnited Liberation Forces of Oromia,Waqo Gutu. TheBale revolt, a peasant revolt stemming from issues involving land, taxation, class, and religion,^[20] raged in the province for several years until a number of developments took the energy out of the militants, as well as the decision of Somali Prime MinisterMuhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal to focus his country's resources on economic development.^{[citation needed]} Rebels began to surrender to the Ethiopian government at the end of 1969; Waqo Gutu, who had been the foremost of the insurgents, was surrounded with his command of barely 200 men inArana by the Ethiopian army in February 1970 and surrendered. Pacification was complete by the next year.^[21]

Djibouti gained its independence in 1977, but a referendum was held in 1958 on the eve of Somalia's independence in 1960 to decide whether or not to join the Somali Republic or to remain with France. The referendum turned out in favor of a continued association with France, largely due to a combined "yes" vote by the sizableAfar ethnic group and resident Europeans. However, the majority of those who voted "no" were Somalis who were strongly in favor of joining a united Somalia as had been proposed byMahmoud Harbi. Harbi was killed in a plane crash two years later, andHassan Gouled Aptidon, a Somali who campaigned for a yes vote in the referendum of 1958, wound up as Djibouti's first president post-independence (1977–1991).^[22]

Between 1977 and 1978, Somalia and Ethiopia waged a war over control of the predominantly Somali Ogaden region. In 1978 and with the help ofSoviet andCuban troops, Ethiopian troops drove back the Somali army from the Ogaden, effectively marking the end of theOgaden War. In 1981,Siad Barre visitedNairobi, and asserted that Somalia was suspending its claim on the North Eastern Province (NFD). Improved relations with Kenya led to the signing of a pact in December 1984 agreeing to cease hostilities along the border. Following renewed hostilities in the Ogaden with an August 1982 border clash,^[23][24] Ethiopia and Somalia signed a peace treaty in 1988.

With the start of theSomali Civil War, the vision of uniting the various historically and predominantly Somali-inhabited areas of the Horn of Africa into a Greater Somalia was temporarily sidelined. Thousands of refugees have been granted political asylum in Kenya.^[25] Talk of pan-Somali unification movements for the moment took a backseat, as the Republic splintered into a few autonomoussmaller regional or clan-based governing zones. The northern regions of the Somali Republic, which previously was aBritish protectorate, declared independence as the Republic ofSomaliland in 1991, shattering the dream of a greater Somalia now that the two regions that previously united split apart.^[26] Though there was no unified government and thus no formal policy towards irredentism, individual militia leaders clashed with Ethiopian troops between 1998 and 2000.^[27]

In late 2006,Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, head of theIslamic Courts Union (ICU) which then controlled much of southern Somalia, declared;

"We will leave no stone unturned to integrate our Somali brothers in Kenya and Ethiopia and restore their freedom to live with their ancestors in Somalia."^[28]

• North Eastern Province
• Pan-nationalism
• Irredentism
• Ethnic nationalism
• Somali nationalism

• Pierre Petrides,The Boundary Question between Ethiopia and Somalia. New Delhi, 1983.
• Abdi, Mohamed Mohamud (2021).A History of the Ogaden (Western Somali) Struggle for Self-Determination: Part I (1300-2007) (2nd ed.). UK: Safis Publishing.ISBN 978-1-906342-39-5.OCLC 165059930.
• Lewis, I.M., ed. (1983).Nationalism & Self Determination in the Horn of Africa. Ithaca Press.ISBN 978-0-903729-93-2.
• FitzGibbon, Louis (1985).The Evaded Duty. London:Rex Collings.ISBN 0860362094.OCLC 15018961.
• Drysdale, John (1964).The Somali Dispute. New York:Frederick A. Praeger Inc.LCCN 64-13122.OCLC 467147.
• Weitzberg, Keren (2017).We Do Not Have Borders: Greater Somalia and the Predicaments of Belonging in Kenya.Ohio University Press.ISBN 978-0-8214-4595-2.