The Catholic Church in Somalia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
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The Catholic Church in Somalia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome.
There are very few Catholics in Somalia, with only about one hundred practitioners, with one priest, as of 2020. [1] [2]
The whole of the country forms a single diocese, the Diocese of Mogadishu. During the pre-independence period, there were, at its peak in 1950, 8,500 Catholics in the Diocese of Mogadishu (0.7% of the nation's population), almost all of whom were expatriate Italians. [2]
Catholicism was introduced in Italian Somaliland in the late 19th century. [3] Initially, it was only practiced by the few Italian immigrants in Mogadishu and the Shebelle River farmer areas, thanks to some missionaries of the Trinitarian Fathers. [4]
In 1895, the first 45 Bantu slaves were freed by the Italian colonial authorities under the administration of the chartered Catholic company Filonardi. The former were later converted to Catholicism. Massive emancipation and conversion of slaves in Somalia [5] only began after the anti-slavery activist Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti informed the Italian public about the local slave trade and the indifferent attitude of the Italian colonial government toward it. [6]
After obtaining Jubaland from the British, the Italian colonial administration gave land to Italian settlers for the production of cash crops that would then be exported to Italy. Requiring labor to work these plantations, the Italian authorities attempted to recruit Bantu ex-slaves, singling out the latter community for this purpose. However, the Italians soon also had to resort to forced labor (essentially slavery) when they found that volunteers, many of whom found it more profitable to work as free yeoman, were not forthcoming. [7] This forced labor came from the Bantu populations that were settled along the Shebelle River, and not from the nomadic Somalis. [8]
Slavery in southern Somalia lasted until early into the 20th century, when it was finally abolished by the Italian authorities in accordance with the Belgium protocol and with the Diocese of Mogadishu.
After World War I, many Bantus, the descendants of former slaves, became Catholics. [9] They were principally concentrated in the Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi and Genale plantations. [10]
In 1928, a Catholic cathedral was built in Mogadishu by order of Cesare Maria De Vecchi, a Catholic governor who promoted the Christianization of Somali people. [11] The cathedral, the biggest in Africa in the 1920s and 1930s, was later destroyed during the Somali Civil War.
The Bishop of Mogadishu, Franco Filippini, declared in 1940 that there were about 40,000 Somali Catholics due to the work of missionaries in the rural regions of Juba and Shebelle, but WWII damaged them irreversibly. [12] Most members were Somali Bantu, [13] but some thousands were illegitimate sons of Italian soldiers and Somali girls (who received Italian citizenship when baptized).
In the 1950s Indro Montanelli wrote in Il Borghese that Italian Mogadishu in 1942 after the arrival of the British was an African capital where most of inhabitants were Catholics: he indicated that of the 90,000 inhabitants, more than 40,000 were Italians, while among the 50,000 Somalis there were nearly 7,000 Catholics. From this, he concluded that nearly 3 out of 5 city inhabitants were Catholics. [14]
Since the end of the colonial period and the departure of the Italians, Catholicism has experienced a nearly complete disappearance in Somalia. [15] In 2023, the country was scored zero out of 4 for religious freedom. [16] In the same year, the country was ranked as the second worst place in the world to be a Christian, just behind North Korea. [17]
Italian Somaliland was a protectorate and later colony of the Kingdom of Italy in present-day Somalia. Ruled in the 19th century by the Somali Sultanates of Hobyo and Majeerteen in the north, and in the south by political entities such as the Hiraab Imamate and Geledi Sultanate.
Indro Alessandro Raffaello Schizogene Montanelli was an Italian journalist, historian, and writer. He was one of the fifty World Press Freedom Heroes according to the International Press Institute. A volunteer for the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and an admirer of Benito Mussolini's dictatorship, Montanelli had a change of heart in 1943, and joined the liberal resistance group Giustizia e Libertà but was discovered and arrested along with his wife by Nazi authorities in 1944. Sentenced to death, he was able to flee to Switzerland the day before his scheduled execution by firing squad thanks to a secret service double agent.
Economic history of Somalia is related to the development of Somalia's economy in the last two centuries.
The Somali Bantus are a Bantu ethnic minority group in Somalia who primarily reside in the southern part of the country, primarily near the Jubba and Shabelle rivers. The Somali Bantus are descendants of enslaved peoples from various Bantu ethnic groups from Southeast Africa, particularly from Mozambique, Malawi, and Tanzania. The East African slave trade was not eliminated until the early parts of the 20th century.
Christianity is a minority religion in Muslim-majority Somalia. According to a report by the Somali Bible Society in 2023, there is estimated population of 178,869 Christian practitioners in Somalia. The Somali population is about 19 million as of 2024.
The Trust Territory of Somaliland, officially the "Trust Territory of Somaliland under Italian administration", was a United Nations Trust Territory situated in present-day Somalia. Its capital was Mogadishu and was administered by Italy from 1950 to 1960, following the dissolution of the former British Military Administration. It gained independence in 1960.
Italian Somalis are Somali-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Somalia during the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Somalia. Most of the Italians moved to Somalia during the Italian colonial period.
The Mogadiscio–Villabruzzi Railway is an historical railway system that ran through southern Somalia. It was constructed between 1914 and 1927 by the colonial authorities in Italian Somaliland. The railway connected the capital city Mogadishu with Afgooye, and subsequently with Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi – usually called "Villabruzzi". The line was later dismantled by British troops during World War II. Plans for re-establishing the railway were made in the 1980s by the Siad Barre administration, but were aborted after the regime's collapse.
Railway transport in Somalia consisted of the erstwhile Mogadishu–Villabruzzi Railway and secondary tracks. The system was built during the 1910s by the authorities in Italian Somaliland. Its track gauge was 950 mm, a gauge favoured by the Italians in their colonies in the Horn of Africa and North Africa. The railway was dismantled in the 1940s by the British during their military occupation of Italian Somaliland, and was subsequently never rehabilitated.
Mogadishu Cathedral is a ruined Catholic cathedral located in Mogadishu, Somalia. Between 1928 and 1991, it served as the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mogadiscio. Built in 1928 by Italian colonial authorities, much of the building was destroyed in 2008 by al-Shabaab. In 2013, the diocese announced plans to refurbish the building.
Somalia Governorate was one of the six governorates of Italian East Africa. It was formed from the previously separate colony of Italian Somalia, enlarged by the Ogaden region of the conquered Ethiopian Empire following the Second Italo-Ethiopian War.
Sports in Somalia are regulated by the Ministry of Sports of Somalia. The government ministry works closely with the Somali Olympic Committee and various sports governing bodies, including the Somali Football Federation. Abdi Bile from Las Anod is Somalia's most decorated athlete in history; Abdi Bile also holds the highest number of Somali national records. The longest continuously serving national team captains of Somalia's two most popular sports, basketball and football, are Yusuf Qaafow and Hasan Babay respectively.
The Somali slave trade existed as a part of the East African slave trade. To meet the demand for menial labor, Bantus from southeastern Africa slaves were exported from Zanzibar and were sold in cumulatively large numbers over the centuries to customers in East Africa and other areas in Northeast Africa and Asia. Ethiopians, especially Amharas and Tigrayans were also captured and sold to traders from Arabia, India, Greece, and beyond.
Ganale Doria is a dam located near Genale on the river Shabelle. It was built in the south of Somalia in the 1920s along with an extensive network of canals. The dam was strongly promoted by Cesare Maria De Vecchi - Italian governor of Italian Somalia from 1924 to 1928 - in order to provide water for irrigation of a vast territory between Genale, Merca and Vittorio di Africa, to be given in concession to colonists.
Storia d'Italia is a monumental work of the journalist and historian Indro Montanelli, written in collaboration with Roberto Gervaso and Mario Cervi from 1965 to 1997. The idea of a series of books about the history of Italy came to Montanelli after a conversation with Dino Buzzati. Montanelli initially proposed the idea to Mondadori, who wasn't interested. Montanelli then spoke to Longanesi, who agreed to publish the prologue, Storia di Roma in 1957. Following the success of the book, Rizzoli purchased the rights of the work and republished it in 1959. In 1965 Rizzoli, satisfied with the cultural impact of the book and its commercial success, agreed to publish the ambitious Storia d'Italia.
The Mogadiscio Circuit was formerly a car race through the main streets of Mogadiscio, Italian Somaliland, being first run in 1938.
Vittorio di Africa was a small town in southern Italian Somalia, created by Italian colonists in the late 1920s near the southern Shebelle river.
Genale is a town founded by Italian colonists in the southeastern Lower Shebelle region of Italian Somalia. Currently it is called Janaale.
Villaggio Duca degli Abruzzi was a village that was founded as an agricultural settlement in Italian Somalia.
The Hiraab Imamate, also known as the Yacquubi Dynasty, was a Somali kingdom that ruled parts of the Horn of Africa during the 16th century till the 19th century until it was incorporated into Italian Somaliland. The Imamate was governed by the Hiraab Yacquub Dynasty. It was founded by Imam Omar who successfully rebelled and defeated the Ajuran and established an independent kingdom.
