ABSTRACT
The subject of this manuscript is the Administration of the British Protectorate in Somaliland from the time when, Abdullah Hasan’s movement having been destroyed, administration became possible and what had been a ‘protectorate’ in name only outside a few small coastal ports began to become effective in the interior. The story ends at independence when the Protectorate became the Northern Province of the new nation, Somalia. The focus throughout, both geographically and topically, remains on the Protectorate without much attempt to discuss peripheral issues like, for example, the tangled and unfortunate relationship with neighbouring Abyssinia. The rationale behind what might seem to be a blinkered approach is to avoid being pulled down historical rabbit holes which, while of considerable historical and contemporary interest, can do little to illuminate the principle question to be addressed here: ‘How was the Protectorate administered?’ As well, writers who go down those holes invariably conclude by offering recommendations on how to improve the circumstances of what remains an unfortunate region inhabited by a hard-luck people. Historians can have no recommendations to make if they remember their place.
