History
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Prehistory[edit]
Rock art from the Laas Geel complex on the outskirts of Hargeisa.
Numerous cave paintings from the Neolithic period are found in the Laas Geel complex, on the outskirts of Hargeisa. During November and December 2002, an archaeological survey was carried out in the area by a French team of researchers. The expedition's objective was to search for rock shelters and caves containing stratified archaeological infills capable of documenting the period when production economy appeared in this part of Somaliland (c. 5th and 2nd millennium BCE). During the course of the survey, the French archaeological team discovered the Laas Geel rock art, encompassing an area of ten rock alcoves (caves). In an excellent state of preservation, the paintings show human figures with their hands raised and facing long-horned, humpless cattle.
The rock art had been known to the area's inhabitants for centuries before the French discovery. However, the existence of the site had not been broadcast to the international community. In November 2003, a mission returned to Laas Geel and a team of experts undertook a detailed study of the paintings and their prehistoric context.
Somaliland generally is home to numerous such archaeological sites, with similar rock art and/or ancient edifices such as the Dhambalin rock art. However, many of these old structures have yet to be properly explored, a process which would help shed further light on local history and facilitate their preservation for posterity.
The Big Commune & Sheikh Madar[edit]
Close-up of an 1885 Royal Geographical Society map, showing Hargeisa (Harrer-es-Sagheer) as well as the Eidagale subtribe (Eed-a-galleh) residing within and around the town. The Naasa Hablood hills (Nas Hubla) can also be seen in the map
According to traditional poetic (gabay) oral accounts, Hargeisa was founded by the Arap as a watering and trading stop for passing nomads and caravans. It is believed that and the Habar Yoonis and the Eidagale subtribes were amongst the early settlers of Hargeisa. Hargeisa continued to grow with the arrival of Sheikh Madar Shirwa, widely considered to be the founder of Hargeisa religious commune and the modern iteration of the settlement.
Sheikh Madar (right) and Sultan Deria Hassan in Hargeisa 1912
Madar Shirwa was born in Berbera and belonged to the Nuh Ismail subdivision of the Sa'ad Musa Habr Awal. Madar arrived in Harar to study the Islamic Sciences under the top ulema of Harar, which consisted of Harari and Somali scholars. Sheikh Khalil, one of the ulema of Harar, advised Sheikh Madar to establish a Qadiriyya tariqa commune in present-day Hargeisa and spread the teachings he was taught, which lead Sheikh Madar and his companions to found the Big Commune (Jama'a weyne) of Little Harar (Hargeisa) in c. 1860. Somali pastoralists heavily follow rain and pastures this would change with the agricultural and stationary lifestyle Madar would introduce on the back of large sorghum plantations. This was to maintain self-sufficiency and Sheikh Madar and the other Mullahs would take care of the sick and elderly inhabitants of the growing settlement. Lastly, Sheikh Madar pushed towards a common religious identity rather than identifying solely by tribe. Stone houses and other structures would be built and Hargeisa would develop into a large permanent settlement irrespective of the caravan trade that defined it in decades prior. Sheikh Madar met with the 4th Isaaq Grand Sultan Deria Hassan outside Hargeisa in a famous 1870 shir (meeting) to discuss issues regarding the new town of Hargeisa and agreed that poaching and tree cutting in the vicinity should be banned.
H. Swayne, a British soldier and explorer who traversed the Somali peninsula between the 1880-1890s wrote about Hargeisa in his journals:
This town is built some five hundred yards from the right bank of the Aleyadera nala, and at an elevation of thirty or forty feet above it. Round the place is a patch of jowari (sorghum) cultivation, two and a half miles long and a quarter of a mile broad. Quantities of livestock of all kinds graze on the low undulating hills for half a mile from the Aleyadera nala on either bank. Hargeisa is situated on two important caravan routes, one from Ogaden and the other from Harar. There are good direct camel-roads to Berbera and Bulhar. Supplies of rice, tobacco, and dates can sometimes be bought here in the trading season. Some four hundred people are employed looking after the jowari fields, and may be seen sitting on platforms, shouting and throwing stones to scare birds from the crops. There is abundance of good water in the bed of the river, and a masonry well has been built, and is kept in order by an Arab from Aden. The town is full of blind and lame people, who are under the protection of Sheikh Mattar and his mullahs.
British Somaliland[edit]
Women's market in Hargeisa, British Somaliland protectorate.
In 1888, after signing successive treaties with the then ruling Somali Sultans and chiefs, the British established a protectorate in the region referred to as British Somaliland with Berbera becoming the capital. The British garrisoned the protectorate from Aden in present-day Yemen, and administered it from their British India until 1898. British Somaliland was then administered by the Foreign Office until 1905 and afterwards by the Colonial Office.
The capital was moved from Berbera to Hargeisa, and the city was granted capital status in 1941. During the East African Campaign, the protectorate was invaded by Italy in August 1940, but recaptured by the British in March 1941. In 1945 the British administration had grown weary of the influence wadaads had wielded in the protectorate and moved to arrest several in Hargeisa. They had been deemed nuisances to implementing 'modern education' and agricultural reforms in Somaliland. Following their arrests on June 4, a mob formed and temporarily freed the imprisoned wadaads who were recaptured the next day. Religious leaders motivated the city's inhabitants and a crowd of several thousand rioters marched on the Hargeisa District Headquarters determined to free the imprisoned wadaads. They were fired upon by the District Commissioner's troops with one dying and dozens imprisoned for trying to free the Sheikhs.
The protectorate gained its independence on 26 June 1960 as the State of Somaliland, before uniting as planned days later with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic.
1960–1991[edit]
MiG monument in Hargeisa commemorating Somaliland's breakaway from the rest of Somalia during the 1980s.
In the post-independence period, Hargeisa was administered as the capital of the Woqooyi Galbeed province of Somalia. Numerous new development projects were subsequently launched in the city by the Somali government. Among these initiatives was the creation of the Hargeisa Provincial Museum. It was the first museum to be established in Somalia since independence in 1960. The Hargeisa International Airport was also renovated and modernized, with the ultimate aim of equipping the facility to accommodate larger aircraft and offer more flight destinations.
SNM offensive[edit]
Main articles: 1988 Hargeisa-Burao offensive and Somaliland War of Independence
On 31 May 1988, at 2:15 a.m, the Somali National Movement (shortened SNM) attacked Hargeisa. With two Habar yunis leaders, one in Burco and the other in the capital city Hargeisa. The SNM force attacking Hargeisa was estimated at 500 men equipped with 84 vehicles, of whom only 14 were left due to vehicles being sent to the front in Adadley. The SNM captured the headquarters of the 26th Division, as well as capturing the Birjeex arms depot where the SNM collected ammunition. An SNM fighter who partook in the Hargeisa offensive described Somali troops dropping their uniforms on the ground and fleeing. The SNM encountered stiff resistance from the Somali Army as they surrounded Radio Hargeisa's headquarters. Due to heavy bombardment from Somali heavy artillery and tanks, the SNM force tasked with capturing Hargeisa airport fell back and retreated to Adadley.
By 1 June, with the exception of Hargeisa Airport, the SNM overran the city. During the Somali army counterattack the SNM line of defense in the city was behind Hargeisa's radio station.
Hargeisa campaign[edit]
Up to 90% of Hargeisa (2nd largest city of the Somali Republic) was destroyed.
Dictator Siad Barre's response to the SNM attacks was of unparalleled brutality; with explicit aims of handling the "Isaaq problem", he ordered "the shelling and aerial bombardment of the major cities in the northwest and the systematic destruction of Isaaq dwellings, settlements and water points. In one of the most brutal episodes of the Isaaq genocide, the regime targeted civilian members of the Isaaq group specifically, especially in the cities of Hargeisa and Burco and to that end employed the use of indiscriminate artillery shelling and aerial bombardment against civilian populations belonging to the Isaaq ethnic group. Up to 90% of the city was destroyed.
Reconstruction[edit]
After the collapse of the Somali central government and the unilateral declaration of independence of the Republic of Somaliland, a slow process of infrastructural reconstruction subsequently began in Hargeisa and other towns in the country.
Since 1991, Hargeisa has undergone a large-scale facelift. The renovations have been largely financed by local entrepreneurs, as well as Somali expatriates sending remittance funds to relatives in the region through some of the various Somali-owned money transfer operators. Most of the destroyed residential and commercial buildings have since been reconstructed, with many newer structures erected. Single-storey buildings downtown are also progressively giving way to multi-storey high-rises.
