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Afwayne and Scientific Socialism Somalia's adherence to socialism became official on the first anniversary of the military coup when Siad Barre proclaimed that Somalia was a socialist state, despite the fact that the country had no history of class conflict in the Marxist sense. For purposes of Marxist analysis, therefore, tribalism was equated with class in a society struggling to liberate itself from distinctions imposed by lineage group affiliation. At the time, Siad Barre explained that the official ideology consisted of three elements: his own conception of community development based on the principle of self-reliance, a form of socialism based on Marxist principles, and Islam. These were subsumed under "scientific socialism," although such a definition was at variance with the Soviet and Chinese models to which reference was frequently made. The theoretical underpinning of the state ideology combined aspects of the Quran with the influences of Marx, Lenin, Mao, and Mussolini, but Siad Barre was pragmatic in its application. "Socialism is not a religion," he explained; "It is a political principle" to organize government and manage production. Somalia's alignment with communist states, coupled with its proclaimed adherence to scientific socialism, led to frequent accusations that the country had become a Soviet satellite. For all the rhetoric extolling scientific socialism, however, genuine Marxist sympathies were not deep-rooted in Somalia. But the ideology was acknowledged--partly in view of the country's economic and military dependence on the Soviet Union--as the mostconvenient peg on which to hang a revolution introduced through a military coup that had supplanted a Western-oriented parliamentary democracy. More important than
Marxist ideology to the popular acceptance of the revolutionary regime in
the early 1970s were the personal power of Siad Barre and the image he
projected. Styled the "Victorious Leader" (Guulwaadde), Siad Barre fostered
the growth of a personality cult. Portraits of him in the company of Marx
and Lenin festooned the streets on public occasions. The epigrams,
exhortations, and advice of the paternalistic leader who had synthesized
Marx with Islam and had found a uniquely Somali path to socialist revolution
were widely distributed in Siad Barre's little
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EAST AFRICA SOMALILANDOnline |