The Dysphoria of the Colonial ‘Centre’ and the Glasgow Bajuni Campaign

Ali Mohamed’s experiences of 1930s Glasgow set out quite clearly the way in which the operation of colonial power for a ‘Somali living in Scotland’ was both fragmented and fractious. As the documents suggest, his was not a straightforward case for the civil servants of the Colonial and Scotland Offices to resolve. Presenting as a person from a Protectorate rather than a colony, claiming British Protected Person status rather than colonial subjecthood, and locating himself in the administratively distinct location of Glasgow (rather than a city port in England or Wales), Ali Mohamed’s case was located outwith the usual operation of central colonial bureaucracy.