Once the arrival of the first British agents in the region, colonial policy unsuccessfully [End Page 7] sought to halt continued westward migration of Darood Somalis across the Juba as well as to stem the flow of firearms into the north. Thus, local affairs increasingly ensnared frontier officials. Despite these considerations, the British were preoccupied with the perceived "Tigre" threat, so when trouble occurred with the Aulihan, it took imperial administrators largely unawares. Added to these problems, budgetary constraints and confused and inconsistent policies had earlier led to the withdrawal of colonial troops from Jubaland, after which only a company of Armed Constabulary (AC) remained at Serenli. Finally, the advent of the First World War had left British officers and men, as one contemporary critic described them: "more or less marooned in the desert," short on provisions and instructions. 4 Consequently, an almost complete collapse of colonial authority followed the Aulihan rebellion in the northeastern frontier region and the fundamental weakness of the British rule over Somalis was unmasked. It would take a full two years for the British to reestablish control over the Aulihan.
The Aulihan disturbances have received some attention in unpublished dissertations by Thomas Cashmore and E. Romily Turton and relatively brief treatment in monographs by Moyse-Bartlett and Charles Chenevix Trench. 5 The wider, colonial historiography of Kenya, lamentably, has neglected the Somali unrest. Those familiar with Kenya's past, thus, know much about the hardships endured by Kenyan peoples such as the Kikuyu and Luo, who served in the Carrier Corps during the First World War, and perhaps also about the Giriama uprising. Fewer are acquainted with what took place in the sparsely populated and vast semi-arid NFD and Jubaland regions. 6 Yet, an understanding of the Aulihan emolué and its suppression is important not only for filling a missing gap in our knowledge of one particular Somali clan, but also for interpreting the history of British-Somali relations as a whole.
The Somali raid on the Samburu
The first major blow to colonial authority in the northeast occurred in December 1915 when Aulihan Somalis residing in the area between the Lorian Swamp and Wajir mounted a huge raid on the Samburu to their west. Since the commencement of colonial rule in the north during the first decade of the twentieth century, the British had left the Samburu almost without administration. The government transferred its official in what then was Southern Samburu District to the NFD in 1915. 7 Conducted mainly by the Reer Tur Adi section of [End Page 9] the Aulihan but also with Jibrail participation, the attack had devastating results. The Samburu lost 54 persons, including babies speared on their mothers' backs, according to one lurid account. 8 Besides the Samburu, three Meru also perished, and the Somalis took thousands of cattle, small stock, and donkeys. A British officer joined the party of Samburu murran, or warriors, who chased and overtook the assailants. These so-called southern Aulihan turned and routed their pursuers, however, and forced them to quit the field in what another colonial officer described as "rather a bad show."
The Somali sacking of SerenliEthel Rayne, wife of a King's African Rifles, (KAR), lieutenant assigned to the north, later remembered being reassured by a British officer left in charge of the boma, or government post, where she was staying. He told her that she could sleep secure in the knowledge that if Somalis attacked the outpost in the night, he would shoot her and the children. 11 Things were not much better at Wajir. On 18 December, there was an alarm in the night owing to the garrison being jumpy about the intentions of some Aulihan who were roaming about the boma. A couple of days later, a runner arrived with a note from another British official inquiring whether the Aulihan had killed John Llewellin, the Wajir Assistant District Commissioner (ADC). 12
On 2 February 1916, the disaster that British officials had feared would one day happen in the NFD occurred in neighboring Jubaland. There, a large party [End Page 11] of northern Aulihan led by Hajji 'Abdurrahman Mursaal surprised and killed the Serenli DC, Lieutenant Francis Elliot, and many of the British garrison. It is important to understand the motives that lay behind the sack of Serenli. The incident actually arose from a dispute between Aulihan and Marehan Somalis not long after the outbreak of the First World War and from which a series of raids and reprisals had followed. Following the deaths of nine Marehan at the hands of northern Aulihan and the looting of hundreds of camels, Lieutenant Elliot had publicly given 'Abdurrahman Mursaal an ultimatum to surrender the stolen animals to him within three days. Instead, the government-paid Reer Waffatu headman defiantly delivered a gift of black animals that, by Somali custom, constituted an open challenge to the Serenli DC. 22 The undaunted, but injudicious, Elliot apparently was contemptuous of the threat and failed to take precautions. Instead, he continued his incredible practice of locking the garrison's rifles in the guardroom each evening before sunset. 23 Moreover, he allowed a large contingent of Aulihan to camp just 100 yards from the boma.
Man this is comedy, Somalis used to be crazy beforeAt 7 p.m., while the askaris, or African soldiers, were settling down to evening meals, the Aulihan burst upon the British post. The Somalis set the surprised soldiers' huts on fire, and killed many of them as they fled the flames. By one account, 'Abdurrahman Mursaal himself is said to have shot Elliot beneath the ear with a revolver, and by another, to have donned Elliot's sun helmet after the raid. Dozens of Elliot's men were killed in the attack, while the survivors escaped across the Juba River to the nearby Italian post at Baardheere. The Somalis captured the company's maxim gun along with large quantities of arms and ammunition. 24 For the next 18 months, 'Abdurrahman Mursaal's northern Aulihan, strengthened by the acquisition of British weapons, held free reign over much of Jubaland and threatened British rule in the NFD as well. Indeed, a British officer with service in the region would later describe the Ogaden, of whom the Aulihan were a part, as "one of the most formidable fighting tribes in Africa" because of their mobility with their ponies, remarkable endurance, and the skill with which they wielded their spears. 25
Mashallah our ancestors were great warriors.