Barsame was born 1853 in Ubaadi, a village 68 km west of Jowhar in the Middle Shebelle region of southern Somalia. He hailed from the Gaalje'el clan. After memorizing the Quran during his youth, Barsame sought to further his religious education. He traveled to Mecca to perform the Hajj. Barsame stayed there for three years, meeting along the way Sheikh Mohammed Salih, the leader of the Salihiyah. Barsame thereafter joined Salih's movement.
Military leadership
Sheikh Barsame's forces owned an estimated 16,000 rifles. In 1905, they stopped an attempted Ethiopian expansion into southern Somalia during the battle of Gumar Sheel. The Sheikh and his men also fought various battles against Italian troops, including:
In October 1923, Cesare Maria De Vecchi was appointed the first Fascist Governor of Italian Somaliland, marking a change in Italian administration in the Horn of Africa. De Vecchi set out to subdue all who opposed his government's desire to establish a "La Grande Somalia". However, the Somalis were heavily armed and led by men who had been given advanced training during the preparation for the First World War. De Vecchi consequently adopted a policy of disarmament, particularly vis-a-vis the clans in the inter-riverine region. In March 1924, Sheikh Barsame convoked a shir, where the participants, inflamed with militant zeal, denounced the Governor's order. On behalf of the Shir, Barsame wrote the following to the Governor: "In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful … I have received your letter and understood its contents, but must advise that we cannot obey your orders and join with you in a covenant... Your government has its laws, and we have ours. We accept no law other than ours. Our law is the law of Allah and his Prophet... We are not like other people, none of us has ever enrolled in the Zaptie, never! … and if you come to our land to fight against us, we will fight you with all possible means … The world is very close to its end. We don’t want to stay in this world. It is better to die while defending our laws."
Death
After some initial success, the Somali resistance crumbled when he was captured by the Italians on 4 April 1924. He died three years later on 13 January 1927 in a Mogadishu prison. Barsame was buried in Jilyale, a small town in his native southern Middle Shebelle region.
