Background
Daar was born on 9 December 1908 in the town of Beledweyne, situated in the south-central Hiraan region of Somalia.
Daar was born on 9 December 1908 in the town of Beledweyne, situated in the south-central Hiraan region of Somalia.
He scarcely had any education until befriended by an Italian who sent him to school and taught him to type.
He joined the Italian administration in 1929 and served until 1941, before starting his own business at Beledwin. In 1944 he joined the Somali Youth League, but believed in co-operation with the Italian government as the best way forward to independence. He became leader of the Somali Youth
League in 1953; officially president between 1954 and 1956. Winning a seat in the 1956 elections, he became President of the National Assembly. In 1958 he was re-elected as president of the SYL when his rival Haji Hussein left to form his own party. This put him in a strong position and he was duly elected President when Somalia was united on July 1, 1960. He was re-elected after a constitutional referendum, for a six-year term on July 4, 1961.
He worked successfully through Abdirashid Shirmarke, whom he had selected as premier for the first four years of his Presidency and, later, through his old political rival, Haji Hussein, who became his premier in 1964. He supported these two premiers in fully integrating British Somaliland into the greater Somalia; he also agreed with their militant stance over the border disputes with Kenya and Ethiopia, where large tracts of land were claimed as part of “Greater Somalia”.
A few days before his term of office expired, he stepped down on June 30, 1967, to help the constitutional transition and was widely praised for his services to the nation by politicians from all sides of the National Assembly. He remained a deputy in the National Assembly but retired from high office.
This did not prevent his arrest at the time of the military coup in October 1969 and detention at Afgoi with the other political leaders. He was released with 18 others on April 1, 1973.
A widely respected father figure among Somali politicians, with moderate views and years of administrative and diplomatic experience, who rose from the humblest of origins. His consistent, moderate record led to his election by a comfortable majority as Somalia’s first President in 1960. A Hawiye of the south, he was always well placed to counterbalance the Darod politicians who came from the most numerous tribe in the country and were most divided amongst themselves.