Osman finally enrolled in the course for nurse apprentices at the approximate age of nineteen. After five months of study, the twenty recruits took their first examination, and Osman had the best grade in his cohort. He was immediately appointed as an assistant nurse with a salary of 258 Italian lire. The colonial administration considered nurses as part of the military, although they were unarmed, and supplied them with uniforms.

Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, loc. 146