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Colonial Origins of the Public Domain in Southern Somalia (1892–1912)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Marco M. G. Guadagni
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Extract

This essay is part of a study on the development of land law in Somalia from the end of the last century up to present times. In the following pages an attempt is made to illustrate some of the legal problems connected with the grafting of Western law onto an African land tenure system in a colonial setting. Originally agricultural development and exploitation was not the determining aim of the Italian occupation on the Indian Ocean Coast. In the early Italian plans for colonial expansion on the Horn of Africa, Somalia was primarily regarded as an important political and commercial area. The ultimate goal of these plans was the fertile lands of the Ethiopian plateau, towards which Eritrea and Somalia contained respectively, the Northern and Southern access routes. Occupation of the upper and lower regions of what would be the Italian East Africa colony (Africa Orientale Italiana) was the political and military preliminary to conquering the Ethiopian highlands, the produce of which, once the conquest of the whole Horn of Africa had been completed, would find its natural outlets through Eritrean and Somali ports.

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Research Article
Information
Journal of African Law , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , Spring 1978 , pp. 1 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1978

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References

2 Negri to Mancini, Berlin, December 2nd, 1884, in Giglio, C, Oceano Indiano, 3 vols., Rome, 1965.Google Scholar

3 For a short account of such explorations see recently Boca, A. Del, Gli italiani in Africa Orientale, Rome, 1976, Chap. 10.Google Scholar

4 Bricchetti, L. Robecchi, “La Somalia Italiana”, in La Nuova Antologia, Rome, 1892, P. 339.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., p. 341.

page 2 note 1 Gioli, G. Bartolomei, “L'importanza agraria del Benadir. Conversazione con l'exGovernatore Cerrina”, in L'Agricoltura Coloniale, Florence, 1907, p. 151Google Scholar and Martino, G. De, La Somalia Italiana nei tre anni del mio governo, Rome, 1912, p. 59Google Scholar. For export of cotton see Chiesi, G., Note per lo sfruttamento agricolo, commerciale, industriale del Benadir, Milan, 1905, p. 19.Google Scholar

page 2 note 2 Explorations and occupation were often connected: “With Bottego … explorations turn into military expeditions, surveys prelude to occupations”. (A. Del Boca, op. cit., p. 426).

page 2 note 3 “Administration in the Benadir is at present a customs office only, which collects import and export duties, without taking care of anything else” (Bricchetti, L. Robecchi, Dal Benadir: Lettre illustrate alla Società Antischiavista d'Italia, Milan, 1904, p. 116).Google Scholar

page 2 note 4 “…while reports (from the Benadir Company) showed that profit of shareholders was higher than it should have been, due to the absence of any risk and to the scarcity of the work from which that profit derived, in vain the Government several times reminded the Company of the fulfilment of its contractual obligations for agricultural and economic development of the Colony” (“I provvedimenti per la Somalia Italiana Meridionale’, in La Nuova Antologia, Rome, 1905, p. 175).

page 3 note 1 In Italy ideas about the agricultural future of Somalia were still vague at that time. Only a short passage was devoted to agriculture in Government directives given by Foreign Minister Tittoni to Governor Carletti: T. Tittoni, Discorso sulla questione del Benadir pronunciato alla Camera dei Deputati il 13 Febbraio 1908, s.l., s.d., p. 17. Agriculture, however, was regarded as being of primary concern for the proposed (but never realized) new Benadir Company, to which the State should have entrusted the economic administration of the Colony: G. Chiesi, op. cit., p. 19.

page 3 note 2 “Meanwhile explorations, studies, publications, to which peculiar authority came from declarations made to the Parliament by the Foreign Minister about the fertility of lands along the Juba and the Webi Shebeli, raised individual energies and requests for land concession for agricultural cultivations were many…“. G. De Martino, “Gli inizi della politica fondiaria al Benadir”, in Rivista Coloniale, Rome, 1909, p. 292. As examples of these publications see G. Gorrini, Per il Benadir e la sua messa in valore, Rome, 1906 and A. Baldacci, “I progressi agricolo-coloniali nel Protettorato dell'Africa Orientale Inglese e il Benadir”, in Bollettino Ufficiale del Ministero di Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio, Rome, 1906 (comparison to the British and German Protectorates in East Africa was a leit-motif in early Italian works on the Benadir). See also Leonardi, E., Del possibile sviluppo agrario della Somalia Italiana, Rome, 1908.Google Scholar

page 3 note 3 G. Carparnetti, “Il cotone nella valle del Giuba”, in L' Agricoltura Coloniale, Florence, 1907, pp. 51–53.Google Scholar

page 3 note 4 For the result of these concessions see Hess, R., Italian colonialism in Somalia, Chicago, 1966, p. 112.Google Scholar

page 3 note 5 Rossetti, C., Manuale di legislazione della Somalia Italiana, (3 vols.), Rome, 1912–14, p. 21.Google Scholar

page 4 note 1 This provision must have served as a basis for art. 6 of the Convention signed by the Italian Government and the Italian Commercial Benadir Company (April 15th, 1896): “The Government will grant… the Company the free and gratuitous use of all lands that are or will be declared as belonging to the domain…”. (C. Rossetti, Manuale … cit., vol. 1., p. 29). The text of this article was slightly modified in the new Convention (May 25th, 1898): “The Government will grant … the Company the gratuitous faculty of occupying all lands that will be recognized as belonging to the domain at the time when the Company takes possession (of the Benadir) …” (ibid., p. 61).

page 4 note 2 On Filonardi's activity in the Benadir see the rather apologetic work by Finazzo, G., L'ltalia nel Benadir. L'azione di Vincenzo Filonardi, 1884–1896, Rome, 1966.Google Scholar

page 4 note 3 Filonardi became administrator of the Benadir on July 16th, 1893 and on September 16th he sent the Foreign Minister his draft Regulations (R. Hess, op. cit., p. 43), which were approved by the Minister on October 24th, 1893 (C. Rossetti, Manuale. cit., vol. 1, p. 21).

page 4 note 4 Rainero, R., I primi tentativi di colonizzazione agricola e di popolamento dell'Eritrea. 1890–1895, Milan, 1960.Google Scholar

page 4 note 5 Filonardi to Crispi, Zanzibar, September 16th, 1893, in Libro Verde. Somalia Italiana. 1885–1895, Rome, 1895.

page 5 note 1 Lindley, M. E., The acquisition and government of backward territory in international law, London, 1926.Google Scholar

page 5 note 2 For the English version of treaties dealing with Italian Somaliland the following collection has been used here: Hertslet, E., The map of Africa by treaty, (3 vols.), London, 1909 (3rd ed.).Google Scholar

page 5 note 3 Ibid., p. 1094.

page 6 note 1 C. Rossetti, op. cit., vol. 11, p. 6.

page 6 note 2 This negotiation can be followed through official documents collected by C Giglio.

page 6 note 3 E. Hertslet, op. cit., p. 339.

page 8 note 1 Roberts-Wray, K., Commonwealth and Colonial Law, London, 1966, Chap. 14, “Sovereignty and title to land”.Google Scholar

page 8 note 2 Hall, W. E., Foreign powers and jurisdiction of the British Crown, London, 1894, p. 220.Google Scholar

page 9 note 1 Catellani, E., Le colonie e la Conferenza di Berlino, Turin, 1885, p. 591.Google Scholar For the French doctrine see Salomon, V., Occupation des territoires sans maître, Paris, 1889: “… à 1'égard des territoires dépourvus de toute civilisation et vacants au point de vue de la souveraineté, une Puissance peut seulement acquérir des droits souverains, mais non se constituer protectrice d'un Etat qui n'existe pas”, (p. 230).Google Scholar

page 9 note 2 For German attitude toward protectorates see Brunschwig, H., L'expansion allemande outre-mer du XV siecle à nos jours, Paris, 1957, pp. 129–131Google Scholar. Particularly on treaties of protection signed by native chiefs see Henderson, W. O., Studies in German colonial history, London, 1962, pp. 12–13Google Scholar. For the German text of some of such treaties see Kurtze, B., Die Deutsche-Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft, Jena, 1913, p. 178.Google Scholar

page 9 note 3 Treaties signed by Italy with Somali chiefs are reported in Libro Verde … cit., pp. 51–56 and in Direzione Centrale degli Affari Coloniali, Trattati, accordi, protocolli ed altri documenti relativi all' Africa, (3 vols.), Rome, 1906, pp. 336–693, passim.

page 9 note 4 Treaties signed by Great Britain with local chiefs are reported in E. Hertslet, op. cit., passim.

page 9 note 5 C. Rossetti, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 13.

page 9 note 6 [1921] 2 A.C. 399. Literature dealing with this case is quite abundant. Among others see A. E. W. Park, “The cession of territory and private land rights. A reconsideration of the Tijani case”, in (1964) Nig. L.J., 38–49; McDowell, “An introduction to the problems of land ownership in Northern Nigeria”, ibid., 1965, pp. 210–212; Elias, T. O., Nigerian land law, (4th ed.), London, 1971, pp. 8–10.Google Scholar

page 9 note 7 E., Cerulli, Somalia, 3 vols., Rome, 1959Google Scholar; Lewis, I. M., A pastoral democracy, London, 1961.Google Scholar

page 9 note 8 Branchi to Crispi, March 13th, 1890, in C. Giglio, op. cit, III, p. 134.

page 10 note 1 Filonardi to Crispi, February 16th, 1890, id., p. 128.

page 10 note 2 Porcessi to Brin, April 9th, 1889, id., p. 79.

page 10 note 3 Amoretti to Brin, March 26th, 1889 in C. Giglio, op. cit., vol. III, p. 79. Contrary to Italian ones, British treaties of protection for Northern Somaliland were signed by local “elders” and not by chiefs only. For the text of the short treaty signed by the Habr Tojaala tribe see M. E. Lindley, op. cit., pp. 183–184.

page 10 note 4 Catalani to Crispi, London, November 11th, 1889, in C. Giglio, op. cit., vol. II, p. 213; reported also by R. Hess, op. cit., p. 37. These treaties are to be found in the Archivio Storico del Ministero dell'Africa Italiana (ASMAI), pos. 55/6, f. 42. Subject to criticism was also Carl Peters' authority while signing treaties on behalf of a “sovereign” Society for German Colonization, without having any Governmental approval for doing so: see W. O. Henderson, op. cit., pp. 12–13.

page 10 note 5 Townsend, M. E., The rise and fall of Germany's colonial empire, New York, 1930: “Their technique with the native chiefs was simple and direct: it consisted of a judicious distribution of childish presents plus an injudicious application of grog. In the happy and somewhat hazy mental state produced by the latter medium, the chiefs listened to the treaty articles, drawn up by Peters and read to them in the unknown, sonorous German tongue; then the German flag was ceremoniously raised and saluted with a salvo of gunshots; and the impressed and slightly befuddled chiefs obediently affixed their marks on the dotted line which signed away their rights” (pp. 132–133). On other occasions violence was threatened: “… at the point where negotiations are stuck (for the Mijerteen Protectorate), there is no other alternative but to use force, if we want to solve immediately the question” (Amoretti to Brin, quoted in n. 3, above).Google Scholar

page 11 note 1 M. E. Lindley, op. cit., pp. 329–336.

page 11 note 2 G. Bovio, Il diritto pubblico e le razze umane. For the debate about Bovio's views see A. Ghisleri, Le razze umane e il diritto nella questione coloniale, (ed. R. Rainero), Milan, 1972. Bovio's theory was expressly mentioned in order to justify Italian colonization in Somalia, for instance, byRossetti, C., “Colonizzazione italiana agricola nel Benadir”, in Italia Coloniale, Rome, 1900, p. 19.Google Scholar

page 11 note 3 Austin, J., Lectures on jurisprudence or the philosophy of positive law, (5th ed.), London, 1911, vol. 1, p. 252.Google Scholar

page 11 note 4 Gairal de Serezin, F., Le protectorat international, Paris, 1896, p. 58.Google Scholar

page 11 note 5 Ibid., p. 59.

page 11 note 6 K. Roberts-Wray, op. cit., p. 114.

page 11 note 7 Johnston, W. R., Sovereignty and protection: a study on British jurisdictional imperialism in the late nineteenth century, Durham, 1973.Google Scholar

page 11 note 8 Jenkyns, H., British rule and jurisdiction beyond the seas, London, 1902, p. 179.Google Scholar

page 11 note 9 Cucinotta, E., Istituzioni di diritto coloniale, Rome, 1930, p. 65.Google Scholar

page 12 note 1 It should be noted, however, that resistance movements in the North and in the South were often connected: see A. Del Boca, op. cit., p. 807. The basic work on the Sayyid's activities is still the military report by Jardine, D., The Mad Mullah of Somaliland, London, 1923. Further studies on Sayyid Mohamed Abdullah Hassan are at present under way at the Somali Academy in Mogadishu. So far only a collection of his poems (almost all concerning his war activities) has been published.Google Scholar

page 12 note 2 C. Rossetti, “la colonizzazione ” cit., pp. 15–16.

page 12 note 3 Mantegazza, V., Il Benadir, Milan, 1908, pp. 170–171Google Scholar and Sorrentino, G.Ricordi del Benadir, Naples, 1912, pp. 27–28.Google Scholar

page 12 note 4 A. Del Boca, op. cit., p. 806.

page 12 note 5 Ibid., p. 807.

page 13 note 1 V. Mantegazza, op. cit., p. 42.

page 13 note 2 Chiesi, G., La colonizzazione europea nell' Est Africa, Torino, 1909, p. 445.Google Scholar

page 13 note 3 Ibid.

page 13 note 4 Ibid.

page 13 note 5 For a reference to Roman Law in connection to colonial land regulations see Ascoli, A., “L'ordinamento fondiario per la colonia Eritrea”, in Rivista di Diritto Civile, Milan, 1910, p. 203. See also M. E. Lindley, op. cit., p. 337.Google Scholar

page 13 note 6 For similar local response to colonial land policy in West Africa see Asante, “Interests in land in the customary law of Ghana”, in (1969) U.G.L.J. 111: “The Public Lands Bill (introduced in Ghana by Governor Maxwell in 1897) sought to declare Crown ownership of all unoccupied lands in the Country. The Bill was dropped in the face of fierce opposition by the indigenous people, who castigated the Bill as confiscatory, invoking the customary doctrine that unoccupied lands were not ownerless, but vested in the stools in whose jurisdiction they were situated”. For East Africa see Sorrenson, M. P. K., Origins of European settlement in Kenya, Nairobi, 1968, p. 51 and pp. 177–179.Google Scholar

page 14 note 1 Italian legal literature on the topic is quite vast. For a retrospective summary of arguments used in the dispute, see Barassi, L., La proprietà nel nuovo codice civile, Milan, 1961, pp. 395–399Google Scholar. For a short bibliography of authors on the two sides of the dispute see Stolfi, N., Il possesso e la proprietà, Turin, 1926, p. 382.Google Scholar

page 15 note 1 For the origin of the rural public domain in French colonies see, for instance, Ruedy, J., Land policy in colonial Algeria, Los Angeles, 1967. The wording of art. 1 of Filonardi's Provisional Regulations was literally the same as the definition of vacant lands given by the Decree issued on July 1st, 1883, in the Belgian Congo: see E. Catellani, “La protezione dei diritti privati degli indigeni nella colonizzazione Africana”, in Rivista Coloniale, 1908, p. 512.Google Scholar

page 15 note 2 Filonardi to Crispi, Zanzibar, September 16th, 1893, in C. Giglio, op. cit. For the text of the IBEA land regulations, see F.O. 2/74.

page 15 note 3 Cammeo, “Demanio”, in Digesto Italiano, Rome, 1890, p. 293.

page 15 note 4 Salmond, Jurisprudence, (10th e0d.), London, p. 544.

page 16 note 1 M. P. K. Sorrenson, Origins… cit., pp. 44–58.

page 16 note 2 Brugi, La proprietà (2 vols.), Milan, 1918, p. 434.

page 16 note 3 A. Ascoli, “L'ordinamento …”, cit., p. 195. R. Sertoli Salis, L'ordinamento fondiario eritreo, Padua, 1932.

page 17 note 1 On the disputed question about how far the Government could legislate in colonial matters without Parliamentary approval, see, in general, E. Cucinotta, op. cit., pp. 59–66 and authors quoted there. With particular reference to protectorates, see Schanzer, “Regia prerogativa o competenza parlamentare ? Recenti questioni di diritto coloniale”, Spedalieri, 1891, p. 95.

page 17 note 2 Later on “land at the free disposal of the State” had been classified as belonging to the State patrimony (not to the domain): see C. Bertelli, “Demanio pubblico e beni patrimoniali nell' Africa Italiana e nel Regno nei loro caratteri differenziali di amministrazione”, in Rivista di Diritto Coloniale, …., 1938, pp. 367–390.

page 17 note 3 Ranelletti, O., “Concetto, natura e limiti del demanio pubblico”, in La Giustizia Italiana, Rome, 1897, PP. 325–375.Google Scholar

page 18 note 1 For qualities peculiar to colonial land domain see A. Gabrielli, “Natura giuridica delle concessioni agrarie in Libia”, in Rivista di Diritto Agrario, Florence, 1942, pp. 214–231; M. Colucci, Il regime della proprietà fondiaria nell Africa Italiana. Volume I: Libia, Bologna, 1942; more recently: A. Carrozza, L' assegnazione delle terre di reforma, Milan, 1957, p. 26.

page 18 note 2 For a precedent in French colonial legislation see arts. 1 and 2 of the Decree, March 1st, 1833, quoted by J. Ruedy, op. cit., p. 22.

page 18 note 3 E. Cucinotta, op. cit., Chap. 11.

page 19 note 1 C. Rossetti, Manuale …cit., vol. 11, p. 5.

page 19 note 2 Even those who advocated the extension of the State domain over the whole colonial territory (basing such extension both on the right of conquest and/or on Islamic law) assumed that an ad hoc proclamation was necessary. See, for instance, G. Chiesi, “Per la messa in valore della Somalia meridionale italiana e Benadir”, in Atti del I Congresso degli Italiani all'Estero, Rome, 1908, p. 22.

page 19 note 3 T. Carletti, I problemi del Benadir, Viterbo, 1912, pp. 245–246.

page 19 note 4 M. Guadagni, “Islamic Land Law and Colonial Domains” in Rafforti Italiani al X Congresso Internazionale di Diritto Comparato, Milan, 1978, pp. 239–274.

page 20 note 1 Catellani, E., “La protezione dei diritti privati degli indigeni nella colonizzazione Africana”, in Rivista Coloniale, Rome, 1908, p. 510.Google Scholar

page 20 note 2 Not everyone, however, shared Parliament's views: “The study of land rights …is very complicated for those territories in the hinterland that are almost completely unknown to us, especially as far as legal institutions are concerned. Due to the agricultural nature of tribes inhabiting them, however, it is easy to assume a very extensive occupation of those territories, either under tribal or family property …[Therefore] as the limiting into reserves of land property of agricultural tribes would be an unjust dispossession, [land] acquisition could be done by means of agreements with only the natives themselves”. (Mori, A., Il Benadir nella politica coloniale italiana, Rome, 1907, p. 52.)Google Scholar

page 20 note 3 Royal Decrees authorizing some of these grants, together with the Government draft of the deed of concession, are published in C. Rossetti, Manuale …vol. 11, pp. 45–53, 97–104, 108–112 and 133. See also the dispatch sent by Foreign Minister Tittoni to Governor De Martino on July 9th, 1908, published on the Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 187, August 11th, 1908 and reported in “Notizie ed informazioni sul Benadir”, in Rivista Coloniale, …., 1909, p. 4, together with the list of the nine applicants.

page 21 note 1 G. Rossetti, Manuale …vol. 11, p. 365.

page 22 note 1 G. De Martino, “Le concessioni fondiarie e l' organizzazione della colonia del Benadir”, in Il Messaggero, Rome, April 13th, 1909, and in Rivista Coloniale, …., 1909, p. 290. Talking about land granted before any land regulations had been enacted, De Martino declared it to be expedient that European colonization started “before land regulations were established in the Colony, [and] even before any preparatory work on the part of the State had taken place, in order not to discourage energies and capitals that spontaneously turned to the Benadir…. The delay in improving the land would have been too great, if it had had to wait for the compilation of land regulations …after the adjudication of land at the free disposal [of the State]”: “Gli inizi della politica fondiaria al Benadir secondo l'on. De Martino”, in Rivista Coloniale, …., 1909, p. 292.

page 22 note 2 G. Ciamarra, “La struttura giuridica della Somalia”, Annex B to G. De Martino, Relazione sulla Somalia Italiana per l' anno 1910, Rome, 1911, pp. 28–49.

page 22 note 3 Reported in the Preface to R. Onor, La Somalia Italiana, Turin, 1925, pp. xiii-xvii. The Governor's lack of understanding for Onor's views and initiatives concerning Somali agricultural future played a determining role in the latter's suicide.

page 22 note 4 Later on Ciamarra bitterly complained about land regulations adopted in Somalia: “Nobody objects to the right of the State to assume property of really vacant lands, but only when the State is regarded as being the representative of the natives' interests and not of interests foreign to the colonized country. This is the crux of the matter. Pressed by capitalistic exigencies, the State easily regards as unoccupied lands even insufficiently occupied ones, only because the natives, at the time of the Europeans' arrival, used them simply for transit or hunting or gathering wild produce…. [L]and regulations, with their foreign device of vacant lands belonging to the State, become the main instrument for an unjust policy of expropriation and dissolution. What should be done, on the other hand, is a reversal of the presumption of our land regulations, and to start from the idea of occupation, instead of vacancy of lands, in order to organize a land tenure system that preserves, together with the reasonable exigencies of colonization, collective rights of native communities”. (“La terra, il villaggio, la tribù”, in L'agricoltura Coloniale, Florence, 1921, p. 14).

page 23 note 1 Martino, G. De, La Somalia Italiana nei tre anni del mio governo, Rome, 1912, p. 62.Google Scholar

page 23 note 2 The idea of conquest being the sole basis for State land domain in colonial territories was later on maintained by M. Colucci, “Elementi per lo studio degli ordinamenti fondiari nell'Africa Orientale Italiana: I presupposti storici e giuridici”, in Rivista di Diritto Agrario, Florence, 1937, pp. 180–182.

page 23 note 3 C. Rossetti, Manuale …cit., vol. III, p. 658.

page 23 note 4 G. De Martino, La Somalia …p. 63. The Governor had sent his agricultural adviser, R. Onor, to study land tenure conditions in neighbouring German and British East African colonies: see R. Onor, “Il regime delle terre nelle colonie dell'Africa orientale inglese e tedesca, con speciale riguardo alle condizioni della Somalia italiana meridionale”, Appendix F. to G. De Martino, Relazione …pp. 81–94.

page 24 note 1 Carletti, T., Relazione sulla Somalia italiana per l' anno 1907–1908, Rome, 1910, p. 15. G. Ciamarra, “La struttura…” cit., p. 40. T. Tittoni, op. cit., p. 30. G. Bartolomei Gioli, “L'importanza …” cit., p. 156: “…apart from the Goscia and a few other regions along the lower Shebeli, where there are still large areas of vacant land, as one gradually travels upstream into more densely populated territories, the best lands have been in the possession of local people since old times. Land available for agricultural colonization, therefore, is deemed to be limited to few areas”. G. Gerrina, Benadir, Rome, 1911, p. 179: “Although we could not even summarily adjudicate native land rights, still …we can already state that in some of the most fertile regions there are no relevant extensions of land available for being regarded as State domain”.Google Scholar

page 24 note 2 “Peculiar” is the legislative technique adopted by De Martino, not the aim that such technique intended to pursue and which was shared by almost all those who advocated agricultural colonization of Somalia. See, for instance, G. Chiesi, La colonizzazione …pp. 448–450.

page 25 note 1 A. Carrozza, L'assegnazione …18 and P. Grossi, Un altro modo di possedere, Milan, 1976.

page 26 note 1 E. Colucci, “Element …”, cit., p. 179.

page 28 note 1 Manni, E., Manuale di legislazione della Somalia Italiana, (7 vols.), Rome, 1931, p. 248.Google Scholar

page 28 note 2 Ibid., p. 272.