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Many people have the misconception that Somalia under Siad Barre was a golden age. This couldn't be further from the truth.
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Siad Barre's Somalia had a life expectancy of just 45 years and an appalling infant death rate of 15%. Contrary to kacaan propaganda about the entire country being literate, a mere 21% of children were enrolled in school and less than 20% of adults were literate.
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Siad Barre's Somalia was one of the least industrialized countries in the world. Manufacturing made up a meager 6% of the country's GDP and only employed 15k people. During the 70s and 80s, nearly every sector was in free fall due to horrendous policy making and management.
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An example of this poor management is how Siad Barre depended on Italy to build factories and regularly donate raw materials to be able to produce any goods. Despite all this handholding, he allowed Italian built factories to fall into such disrepair they ceased to function.
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Siad Barre's tribalism was yet another economic hurdle Somalia faced. Development was deliberately concentrated in just a few parts of the country and he regularly purchased foreign wheat rather than cheaper Somali wheat because it was produced by clans he hated.
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Even though Somalia received massive injections of foreign aid for two decades, Siad Barre did not construct a power grid and left each city to figure power generation out for themselves.
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So, it's clear that Siad Barre had absolutely no idea what he was doing with respect to Somalia's economy. But, he was still a military mastermind who built the strongest army in Africa, right? WRONG. The Somali army was GLOBALLY infamous for their incompetence.
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The narrative that the country was destroyed by rebels conveniently ignores the man who precipitated their creation in the first place. Siad Barre's incompetence in everything from economy to military drove Somalia into the ground and is the actual cause of the civil war.
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