Introduction: The myth of 'Somalia'

?Somalia? a number-seven-shaped country on the north-eastern horn of the African continent, as long been a contested concept, even amongst Somalis. For example, at independence in 1960 when British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland united to form The Republic of Somalia, some Somalis agitated for a much larger version of a country. Their country, a Greater Somalia would have included Somali brethren in what is today Djibouti, eastern Ethiopia and northern Kenya. Indeed, it was in part with an eye to expand the contours of Somalia? that the Mogadishu-based dictator General Mohamed Siyaad Barre invaded the Ethiopian Ogaden in 1977/78. After suffering some 25,000 casualties in less than a year and losing the war, an array of opposition forces rose up, all intent on overthrowing the Barre regime. It ultimately fell after many bloody years, in January 1991. Thus began a definitive fragmentation of Somalia?.