It's funny you call a sovereign ruler a bootlicker because that renders many Somali leaders, chiefs and people as the worst bootlickers of all. Somali Sultans recognised the Italian protectorate without opposing the Italian gov in Mogadishu. Dubat were Somali soldiers

t.co/okcFVur80r
who fought for the Italians against their population.

How sad they fought for Italians

In the conquest of the northern sultanates, the Italians lost 3 officers, 4 metropolitan soldiers, 97 askaris, and 449 dubats and had 341 wounded;the Somalis had 1,236 killed and 757 wounded