ABSTRACT
In 1963, in attempting to sum up her own experience in Somaliland, with independence and union already a fact, Margaret Laurence wrote:
The Arabs came and went, and they left their religion and their sons. The British came and soon would go, too, leaving for what they were worth, some ideas of an administration different from the tribal patterns, some knowledge of modern medicine, some ability to read and write in a European language. But the bulk of the Somali people were not greatly affected by these things. They still built their round grass huts, and herded the camels, and told tales around the fire at night, and scorned the settled life, just as they did before the Arabs came, a thousand years ago or more’. 1
