Road to Somewhere

Somalia not only produces fine leopard skins but the bulk of the world's frankincense and myrrh. That about takes care of its distinctions. Hardly more than a stretch of East African desert, the country is sun-scorched and poor and was, until recently, hopeless as well. At last, though, someone in Somalia has decided to do something about the country's parlous state. Premier Mohammed Ibrahim Egal, 39, who took office only nine months ago, has created the most hopeful atmosphere since Somalia won independence in 1960 simply by facing up to problems that everyone else had long ignored. This week, in recognition of his efforts, Egal will be received by President Johnson in Washington.

Egal, a portly, fast-talking merchant's son who was educated in Britain, has called a halt to the guerrilla war that Somali tribesmen have waged for years over disputed land with neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia. He has dismissed 3,000 troops from his 11,000-man army and put the rest to work part-time clearing land and building roads. He has asked to join the newly formed East African Economic Community (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) because he feels that Somalia has a better chance of building a viable economy by cooperating with Black Africa rather than with his Arab neighbors to the north. "Look," says Egal, in what must rank among the most candid statements ever made by a government leader, "it has taken us seven years to reach nowhere. Give me three years to get somewhere."

A Collection of Wishes. Formed by the 1960 union of British and Italian Somaliland, Somalia is populated by blacks of the Moslem faith who are largely illiterate nomads. While some Somalis in the north speak English, many southerners rattle off Italian with ease--and are only slightly less adept at the appropriate hand gestures. Italian influence also remains in the crumbling old arches and seaside villas, the pasta and Italian wines served in restaurants and the 1934 Fiat trucks that disgorge angry clouds of billowy, greasy smoke in the streets of the capital of Mogadishu.

Less than 13% of its land is arable, only about 66,000 of its 2,500,000 citizens have paying jobs and the average income is only $60 a year. The country's only export earners are bananas, hides and scrawny cattle fed on thorn scrub. The only "pipelines" for drinking water are the donkeys that carry it on their backs to the cities from nearby water holes. The country's first five-year economic plan was so modest that Planning Ministry Director Ahmed Botan described it as "a collection of wishes dependent wholly on foreign aid."

The U.S. has not always gotten along with Somalia's rulers; it regarded the guerrilla fighting as wasteful and dangerous and looked askance at the Somali willingness to bring in scores of Russian technicians, along with Communist military hardware. Vice President Hubert Humphrey expected to have a rough time on his visit to Somalia during his African tour in January, but was so surprised by the warmth of his reception that he proffered an invitation to Egal to visit the U.S. The U.S. already gives some $4,000,000 a year in aid to Somalia, has a 98-man Peace Corps contingent at work there. In Washington, Egal is expected to discuss his country's requests for U.S. surplus food and for a second batch of Peace Corpsmen. Even if he does not come bearing frankincense and myrrh, his pleas are sure to fall on sympathetic ears.

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