In the Protectorate itself, under much the same kind of inspiration as in Somalia, small groups of local merchants and traders began to organize political associations and clubs in the main centres of Berbera, Burao, and Hargeisa about 1935. From these tentative beginnings the Somaliland National Society emerged shortly afterwards. Its principal aims were to encourage modern education and progress in general and to seek to overcome the traditional particularistic rivalries which divided Somali society. Later, these general aims were elaborated into a more detailed programme which also included the aim of the unification of the Somali people and territories. While these aspirations, and particularly those approving western education, represented a distinct break with the past, the Society was in no sense anti-religious and indeed sought both inspiration and justification for many of its aims in Islam. In 1937 another movement, more limited in its political significance but still of considerable importance, came into being. This was the Somali Officials Union, formed principally to promote Somali interests in the Civil Service, and inspired by discontent at the Administration's policy of employing Indian and Arab clerks instead of training local Somali for these posts.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 316