Author : Ghazi Abuhakemaa and Tim Carmichael
Year : 2010
The group founded in 1943 as the Somali Youth Club (SYC) and reorganized in
1947 as the Somali Youth League (SYL) dominated Somali politics for decades,
yet has been subjected to little focused scholarship. This article briefly
summarizes the SYL’s history; reproduces and translates an Arabic copy of the
party’s constitution which is housed in the Hara¨rge´ branch of the Security Forces
Archives in neighboring Ethiopia; and comments on the problematic nature of
the document’s Arabic. This version of the SYL constitution is part of the SYL’s
history in Ethiopia, as well as the group’s changing and poorly understood
relationships with the Addis Aba¨ba government and Ethiopia’s security forces
headquarters in Jijjiga and Hara¨ r.