Sheikh Ali Giu­male, the only child of Giu­male Bar­ale and Ghe­dia Roble was born in 1905 in the vil­lage of Omaad, near Belet Uen. The son of a vil­lage herds­man, he moved to Mo­gadis­cio where he at­tended Quran School be­fore en­rolling in the gov­ern­ment run schools. In 1934 he joined the colo­nial troops, known as “Du­bat”. He took part in the Italo-Abyssin­ian war, and within two years he reached the rank of “Capo Banda”, the high­est mil­i­tary rank a na­tive sol­dier in the “Du­bat” con­tin­gent could reach. In 1938, at his re­quest, he left the Ital­ian mil­i­tary forces to serve in the Civil Af­fair De­part­ment of the Ital­ian colo­nial ad­min­is­tra­tion. He was first based in Wardeer, and later trans­ferred to Qabri­darre as se­nior in­ter­preter. Fol­low­ing the British Mil­i­tary Oc­cu­pa­tion of So­ma­lia, he es­tab­lished his own com­mer­cial busi­ness in Belet Uen

Ali Gru­male’s long po­lit­i­cal ca­reer started in 1946 when he be­came mem­ber of the So­mali Youth Club, the pre­cur­sor of the So­mali Youth League (SYL), Belet Uen branch.

From 1946 to 1955 he served, sev­eral times, as Sec­re­tary of the lo­cal branch of the party in Belet Uen.

From Jan­u­ary 1953 to March 1956 he rep­re­sented Hi­ran re­gion at the Ter­ri­to­r­ial Coun­cil (Con­siglio Ter­i­to­ri­ale), a con­sul­ta­tive Coun­cil ad­vic­ing the trustee­ship Ad­min­is­tra­tion on do­mes­tic pol­icy

In March 1956, fol­low­ing the first po­lit­i­cal elec­tions in So­ma­lia, he was elected Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for the elec­toral dis­trict of Belet Uen..

From May 1956 to July 1959 he served as Min­is­ter of So­cial Af­fairs (Min­istro per gli Af­fari So­ciali);

From July 1959 to Au­gust 13, 1960, he served as Min­is­ter of Health, Labour and Vet­eri­nary Ser­vice.

From Au­gust 13, 1960 to No­vem­ber 30, 1961 he served again as Min­is­ter of Health, Labour and Vet­eri­nary Ser­vices.

On No­vem­ber 30, 1961, Sceikh Ali Giu­male was re­lieved of his du­ties fol­low­ing long stand­ing feud with the Prime Min­is­ter, Ab­di­ras­cid Ali Scer­marche. Giu­male’s re­moval sparked off a wide­spread protest in the Hi­ran Re­gion, par­tic­u­larly in his po­lit­i­cal strong­hold of Belet Uen, where peo­ple clam­oured against their Min­is­ter’s dis­missal. Mes­sages of sol­i­dar­ity came par­tic­u­larly from para­mount chiefs, no­ta­bles and re­li­gious lead­ers, as well as from SYL branches in Belet Uen and Bulo Burti; these mes­sages ac­cused the Prime Min­is­ter of al­legedly prac­tic­ing trib­al­ism. The dis­missal of the Min­is­ter raised also se­cu­rity con­cerns to the point that the Min­is­ter of the In­te­rior of the time, Ab­di­razak Haji, paid an unan­nounced visit to Belet Uen. The Min­is­ter took a tough line, warn­ing the pub­lic in Bulo Burti and Belet Uen that the gov­ern­ment would take grave mea­sures against those who, in sol­i­dar­ity with Sheikh Ali Giu­male, may stir up trou­ble in the re­gion.

Sheikh Ali Giu­male was known for his ac­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion in the de­bates taken place in the Par­lia­ment, ir­re­spec­tive of whether he was mem­ber of the rul­ing party or in the op­po­si­tion ranks. He never lost touch with his roots and elec­toral base. A shrewd politi­cian with pow­er­ful or­a­tory, well ca­pa­ble of cap­ti­vat­ing his au­di­ence, Giu­male saw his pop­u­lar­ity sky-rocket when cam­paign­ing against the ref­er­en­dum on the Con­sti­tu­tion in 1961, the ‘no’ vote out­num­ber­ing the ‘yes’ in Hi­ran re­gion.

In 1962, Sheikh Ali Giu­male, to­gether with a num­ber of other long time SYl as­so­ci­ates, quit the party to es­tab­lish a new op­po­si­tion party they called So­mali Na­tional Con­gress (SNC) The new party won 22 seats in the 1964 gen­eral elec­tions.

The man whose close friends re­ferred to him as “Il Duca del Hi­ran” (‘The Duke of Hi­ran’), passed away at Belet Uen on No­vem­ber 24, 1979.. That day, Belet Uen mourned the death of its dis­tin­guished son. I was among the thou­sands who gath­ered at the bur­ial site to bid farewell to the great man.

---

Mo­hamed Trunji
 e-mail: trunji@ya­hoo.co