As in other French territories, this canalization of political activity towards the metropolitan country, profoundly affected the later development of political parties, serving to insulate political movements in French Somaliland from those in other parts of Somaliland. The general effect of French policy was thus the isolation of the Côte from the tenor of Somali advancement elsewhere.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 372