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Marincola was born in 1923 in Mahaday, a town on the Shebelle River, north of Mogadishu, in what was then known as Italian Somaliland.

Did you ever learn in geography class about Italian Somaliland?

I know I didn’t, perhaps for the good reason that in 1936 — a year after the Mapparium opened — Italian Somaliland merged with Italian Eritrea and the newly occupied Ethiopian Empire to become Italian East Africa.

He explained that many of the countries, like Siam and Italian Somaliland, no longer existed in the same way; the names had changed by now.

Somaliland enjoyed five days of independence from Britain in 1960, before forming Somalia in a union with Italian Somaliland.