by Andrew Seager

24 November 2007

Roy Green was agricultural officer for the Hargeisa District (as it was called in those days) between 1951 and 1956 and then in charge of agricultural development in Hargeisa and Borama Districts, now known as Galbeed and Afgal Regions, till 1959. He died on 13 November 2007, peacefully in hospital.

Gadleh is the name he is referred to in Somaliland, to this day. Some years ago I asked two professors from Ahmoud University when they visited Henley in the UK, which town is twinned with Borama, whether they remembered Roy Green; they did not, but vividly remembered Gadleh from their schooldays. He will always be remembered as one who played a major role in developing arable agriculture in Somaliland: the successful growing of sorghum, maize, bulrush millet, and khat near Gadkeowgl which was later banned. His work became the basis of two World Bank projects in 1974 and 1982.

His wife was Sally. They had two boys and two girls. The wedding was in Hargeisa, in September 1956. The Ahmoud professors remembered his marriage and the birth of Jimmy, their eldest son. Roy was transferred to Northern Rhodesia, now called Zambia, in 1959. On Zambia’s independence they came back to England and he joined the British agricultural advisory service.

1959 was not his last time in Somaliland. He went back, as a World Bank consultant in 1975, to appraise a project in the Sannag area and in 1982, to prepare the follow-on World Bank project in Galbeed and Afgal. He very much enjoyed and appreciated both trips: it brought back happy memories of what was a most successful time in Somaliland.