It is necessary to make one clarification immediately. Prior to Italian colonisation, Somalia as a political entity did not exist. With Art.1 of the law 161 of the 5th April 1908, the Italian colonial government gave Somalia its name. Incautious or deliberate, the name “Somalia” throws the history of this state in to confusion by disregarding completely the ancient history of other peoples living in the same territory. If this name makes sense in the