Grandiose Socialist Reforms by the Military
The
military regime embarked on making changes. The inter-clan system of
payment of blood-money as an atonement for murder was done away with;
and it was substituted with the death penalty. Somalia was declared a
socialist state. Hospitals, schools, banks, and other private
enterprises were nationalised in scores.
In 1972, the government decided to terminate generations of controversy
by announcing the adoption of a modified Roman alphabet for writing the
Somali language, the nation's official and national language. The
government then embarked on a massive and largely successful campaign
to eliminate illiteracy.
The regime moved closer to the USSR and other communist countries,
while its links with the West were teetering on the brink of collapse.
But relations with Italy, the country's major supplier of imports,
remained (and have remained) unaffected. Communist countries stepped up
economic and military aid to Somalia.
In 1976, the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP)- the only
officially recognised party in the country - was formed. The SRSP
drafted a new constitution which was overwhelmingly approved in the
1979 referendum. The constitution provides for an elected parliament;
declares Islam the state religion; declares Somalia a socialist state
led by the proletariat; outlaws all other political parties apart from
the SRSP; pledges the country's support for the "liberation of Somali
territories under foreign occupation"; and calls for all people of the
Somali tribe to be united.
National Movements and New States in Africa