IOR/R/15/2/545

The file consists of two documents:

1. A letter dated 19 December 1941 from the Chief Secretary to the Government, Government of Aden, to the Political Agent, Bahrain. The letter encloses the pamphlet The Tribes of British Somaliland and advises that 'difficulty is frequently experienced with identifying individual Somalis or in deciding their nationality by passport authorities' and that the pamphlet may assist with this task.

2. The pamphlet entitled The Tribes of British Somaliland by Lieutenant-Colonel R H Smith. The report is dated 30 January 1941, and was printed by the Caxton Press at Aden. The pamphlet consists of a report and geneaological diagrams of the tribes:

The pamphlet commences with a list of the British Protected tribes and their geographical distribution noting that the grazing grounds of the British protected tribes are not all contained in British Somaliland. Furthermore their lands straddle adjacent frontiers of French Somaliland and Ethiopia and far into Italian East Africa. The pamphlet notes (folio 4) that the 'arbitrary boundary which divides the Somali grazing grounds into two, has been the chief cause of our administrative difficulties in the past.' The means of contact between the [British] Government and the tribes is through 'Akils, and where they exist, hereditary chiefs i.e. Sultans or Gerads'.

There follows a description of each British Protected tribes, their tribal sub-divisions, grazing grounds, towns and ports, and chief means of subsistence: the Warsangeli; the Dolbahanta; theHabr Toljaala; the Habr Yunis; the Habr Awal; the Edagalla; the Arab; the Gadabursi; the Esa.

British Somaliland was divided into five administrative districts each with a District Officer. District boundaries are given for Erigavo District; Burao District; Berbara District; Hargeisa District; Buramo District.

The file includes genealogical diagrams showing the lineage and tribal sub-divisions of the Warsangeli; Arab; Habr Yunis; Eida Galla; Habr Awal; Habr Toljala; Dolbahanta; Esa; Gadabursi.