" but others
joined the Somaliland Camel Corps, set up by Britain to take advantage
of Somali skills with camels."
- Brent’s Somali population doesn’t always feel like it gets a good press, but its First World War history is a proud one.
That’s
according to the people behind a travelling exhibition – Somali People
and the First World War – sharing Somali neighbours’ memories of their
relatives’ service in the 1914-1918 conflict.
Curator Rhoda
Ibrahim said: “We organised this because we have second generation
British Somalis here who can feel a lack of direction. Children who feel
they don’t belong.
“We want people to feel part of this country. Their grandparents contributed so much in the First World War.”
The exhibition’s story begins after the lands inhabited by the Somali
people were carved up between the British, Italians and French.
This
country’s share was named British Somaliland and when war broke out in
1914 it was drawn into the conflict on Britain’s side.
Some
wanted to stay neutral and some were opposed to foreign rule, but others
joined the Somaliland Camel Corps, set up by Britain to take advantage
of Somali skills with camels.
The corps saw action, often in the
Far East, as well as at home serving against the “Mad Mullah”, Mohammed
Abdullah Hassan, a patriotic leader who fought a 20-year battle against
the British, French and Ethiopian empires.
On Somali involvement on Britain’s side, Ms Rhoda, director of
support group Somali Advice and Forum of Information (SAAFI), said:
“Some people felt it was taking the coloniser’s side.
“But it was
our grandparents who did it. I haven’t met anyone who said it was wrong.
Some people say, ‘Why remember colonial history?’ But we are part of
that history. We live in Britain. We are British. It’s something to be
proud of.
“We should tell that story to our children.”
Dorian
Knight, heritage officer with Brent Museum which helped with the
project, said the exhibition was a great way of highlighting an
invisible story.
“There’s a shared history here which a lot of people
won’t have realised before,” he said.
The exhibition is on show at Willesden Green Library until January.
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