I think..it is good if u use any somali online dictionary or get one..

Asalamu aliekum NOMADS REALIZE THAT THEY HAVE QABIIL BUT THEY DON'T REALIZE THAT THEY HAVE COUNTRY.

Asalamu aleikum..... YOU ARE TOTALLY MISSING WHAT'S GOING ON! all you need is to reach the unconscoius part of the girl and be yourself.. you know girls love strong guys and confident guys and some one that will take care of her.. so you don't need to think and talk like a girl man you can go so far with this and man she will take a wrong image of you. be yourself and confident and try to understand and listen.. girls love some one to listen them.Girls aren't attracted to those who pretend and act sweet. and make her realize that you are all she wanted and body langauge is evry important... girls can sense and read your body language so be confident and communicate with her wit the body langauge...plus somaligirls all they looking for trust and listening...so you don't need time to waste to find how girls think..man every girl is different and plus just be good moslim brother and strong and confident and try your best to understand thier drama..becuz it makes the relationship sweet than everythin will work out for you

Well that was a background check about the nomads and the title of the book is called Culture and Customs of Somalia

FESTIVALSAND COMMEMORATIVE DAYS Excessive public exuberance and displays are not part of Somali custom; this is due pardy to the ascetic nature of Somali pastoralist culture and pardy to the Islamic teachings of sobriety and piety. Public revelry is therefore unknown and the Somali night is one of silence, as one European expatriate opined. However, Somalis are not without joyous celebrations and commemorative days. These can be divided into ancient pre-Islamic, Islamic, and staterelated celebrations. Only one pre-Islamic celebration of importance exists-the dabshid (the lighting of the fire), which marks the beginning of the Somali solar calendar. The calculation of the start of the solar year is made by weather and stellar experts and has a practical value for stock-breeders and farmers.2oDuring the dabshid a small bonfire is lit in the evening and everyone is supposed to try to jump over it. Burning sticks from the bonfire are also thrown into the sky. The dabshid also has been referred to as neyruus, a Persian word for the Persian new year (nairuz), due to the use of fire in dabshid, which early Muslims probably took as a fire worship as was the case among pre-Islamic Persians. There is no other evidence of a relationship betWeen the dabshid and the Persian nairuz. The solar calendar, whose reckoning was aided by lunar and stellar observations, has been known among Cushitic groups such as Somalis and the Oromo for millennia. Somalis also take notice of the Arabic lunar calendar year, which is in use among Muslims, but they do not celebrate its start. Properly Muslim celebrations include the birth of Mohamed the prophet, mawliid, and the 'iid-al-jitar, marking the end of the annual fasting period. The prophet's birthday occasions the reading of hymns and a feast in Somali homes. Publicly, except for extra colored lights in urban centers, there are no celebrations or festivities on this occasion. The most publicly celebrated of Muslim holidays is the <iid-al-fitar, which comes at the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. For that day, families who can afford to buy a sheep or goat and prepare a large feast. People dress in their best and children receive gifts from parents and relatives. Small children in bright new clothes can be seen crossing the streets bound for a relative's home where they would be received with a gift, food, and cookies. Streets, given beforehand an extra cleaning, shine with colored lights.

Today, while some areas of the former Somalia are still reeling from a continuing civil war, consensual democracy through Somali values is already at work in some areas. In the Republic of Somaliland, for example, comprising the northern regions of the old Somalia, the restoration of peace and governance has largely been achieved by rekindling and institutionalizing the guurti system. The same process has also produced good results and the retUrn of law and order in the region that now calls itself the Puntland State of Somalia and whose capital is at Garowe. SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND DIVISION OF THE SECULAR AND THE SPIRITUAL The basic unit of the Somali society is the reer, the nuclear family (the parents and the children). The same word can also be used to refer to a community or a clan (qoloor qabiil). Somali clans have developed social and penal codes to solve problems between individuals as well as between clans. This is known as heer (written in Somali as xeer). Heer is a set oflaws, seldom written, that members of a clan or neighboring clans decide to respect. Heer also means precedence; thus if someone says to someone else waa inoo xeer, it means "you have set a new precedent and you will be subject to it in turn." Rural communes have therefore always avoided setting bad precedents and have respected the existing heer. Infractions to the heer are to be brought before a selected assembly (guurti) or a committee of heerbeegti(law experts) who will hand down a verdict. The guurti is therefore a kind of tribunal for judging infractions as well as a parliament that makes political decisions. Somali traditional law (heer) always coexisted with the sharia (Islamic law), since the two met each other over a millennium ago. The two legal syste~s became complementary in many respects. For example, while homicide and rape were usually treated under the heer law, family affairs such as divorce were treated under the sharia. Traditional law has also coexisted and still coexists with statUtory or state laws introduced by the colonial regimes. The division of spheres between heer and sharia followed closely the division of secular and religious domains (i.e., state and church) in Somali life. The secular world was that of politics and governance, while the religious domain was concerned with spiritUal matters. The secular world belonged to the waranle (the spearman), while the religious domain belonged to the wadaad (the priest). This separation of church and state had, therefore, happened long before the arrival of Islam among Somalis and has continued to exist despite attempts to erase this division by foreign-inspired wadaads. Of

to the people. No provisions were made for the government to consult with the people in the regions. As can only be expected in such a situation, the central government began administering the regions just as the colonial administration did-by dictating to them through directives. It sent to every region a new governor to replace the colonial governor and a new district commissioner to replace the colonial one. The new governor and the new district commissioner, most often unacquainted with the region or district they were sent to rule, put themselves up in the residences of their colonial predecessors and even retained, in most cases, the services of their European predecessors' "boys" and maids.3 When Siad Barre came into power, he inherited the existing system of governance that was extremely centralized; it suited his dictatorial temperament and his only additions to the governance system were more governors and government appointees for his loyal friends and more instruments of repression. Siad Barre himself was a product of the fascist era and his knowledge of repressive methods of governance was largely obtained during the years of fascism. The breakdown of law and order in Somalia cannot be attributed to the existence of pastoral dans, Somali republican values, or to an inborn anarchist trait of Somalis; on the contrary, today's turbulence is the result of the widespread use of violence by the Barre regime and the destruction of Somali humanitarian and republican values under the colonial regimes that had preceded it. Under Barre's two decades of brutal governance, a whole new generation of urban Somalis was born who had no benefit of the humanism, egalitarianism, and republicanism of the culture of their forefathers. Their personas took shape in an era in which experiential input came from Barre's violent state security services, and from an array of new entertainment modes such as the theaters showing films in which violence was supreme. As a result many of the youngsters that man the "technicals," a type of battle wagon bristling with machines, display bravado behavior and recklessness totally inconsistent with Somali pastoral culture. They pose for the camera in that now famous "Rambo" pose known around the world through the movie of that name starring the American actor Sylvester Stallone. (Somali nomads have no access to films at all but urban children do, and when that particular film was in theaters in 1986 in Mogadishu, police officers had to be called in to stop youngsters from breaking into already tightly packed theaters.) The Somali culture has, however, the basic elements for renewal and reconciliation. Its elements of heer (contract, common law) and guurti (assembly, parliament) are the foundations for universal democracy and with little modification they have been shown to be the means to renewal and transformation into a modern democratic society.

for example, if five Somalis from five different clans are in a foreign city and one of them needs help, the others are morally bound to act as the kith and kin of the fifth and come to his or her aid; however, if there are many Somalis, then one is supposed to seek material help first from those nearest to him or her in clan genealogy. This is a general schema and there are other venues of appeal for charity such as alms at a mosque. Against this background of Somali governance system and social solidarity, based on the principles of guurti (commission, committee, or parliament) and heer (common law), colonial rule, first imposed on Somalis in the nineteenth century, ran against the ideal of consensual governance. To the colonial power, the centralization of all powers under one governor was the most efficient way of running the colony. Centralization was therefore essential to the colonial regimes instiruted among Somalis. While both the British and the Italian colonial regimes were centralized regimes, British rule in the north was more benign and allowed some leeway for consultation with the population. In the north, district and regional governors typically consulted with the traditional leaders (akil) on important matters and with the qadi on points oflaw. Not so with the Italians, like the ancient Romans of what is now Italy, who were bent on imposing their laws through direct imposition on the Somalis-the objective being nothing less than the latinization of the Somali culture. Their system of governance was not only centralized to the extreme but was dictatorial with input always coming from the top. Additionally, the south experienced the period of Italian fascism in the 1930s when everything of Somali origin was to be replaced with Italian norms, which were thought to be superior. Colonialism, therefore, undermined the role of traditional leadership and the republican mode of governance. Somali modes of consensus building and democratization through consultations were deemed outmoded and tribal, and a system of colonial appointees and official ordinances from the top were the new norm of rule. Despite the fact that the alien norm of top-to-bottom governance was clearly a violation of Somali culture and ethos, after independence and the formation of the Somali republic, the same political system of centralized regime was kept, with the government appointing district governors. The colonial educated elites continued to function and rule in the old colonial type of administration (used largely by the Italians to govern the south as an Italian colony) with all its centralization, rigidity, and one-way communication. The government and its political appointees had all the power and the local populations had almost none. There was a parliament during the first nine civilian years, but the parliament did not initiate steps for the devolution of decision-making powers to the regions and districts, in short

The two above statements within this quote appear in many texts about Somalis and are used as anecdotes illustrating the chaotic and anarchistic cosmos of Somalis. They have become stereotypes that serve to illustrate and perpetuate a generalization that has little sociological significance. The difference between such exotic anecdotes and the tall tales of early travelers and geographers is one of time. First, Burton's depictions in the above quote of Somalis as a "race of republicans" rather than as subjects of a king was a correct observation- Somalis never had a monarch or any rigid central government prior to the nineteenth century. But Somali republicanism is not the equivalent of anarchism- to the Somalis, anarchy is as much abhorrent as absolute totalitarianism. Somalis, as Muslims, concede authority to their representative authorities as the Koran (4:60) tells them: "0 ye who believe! Obey ALLAH, and obey His Messenger and those who are in authority among you." Additionally, Somali oral literature itself teaches in adages and proverbs the importance of leadership. One example of such proverbs gives the following wisdom: "No one can live in a country or city without a ruler or government" (Balad aan boqor lahayn laguma galo). As for the Ugandan colonial sergeant quoted above, it is essential to put his words in the context of his own culture. The sergeant was from the Buganda kingdom of what is now Uganda, a society in which the Kabaka, the king, held life and death authority over his subjects, and where the death of a king called for the sacrifice of a large number of commoners. Even the chiefs of the Buganda would have looked like tyrants to the Somalis that the sergeant met, for Somali clan chiefs, unlike the traditional chiefs in other places, were and are mere ceremonial heads of committees. Decisions are made by a committee (guddi) or by selected representatives (guurti), the pastoral parliament. No doubt then that the Ugandan sergeant was greatly astonished at the egalitarianism of Somalis who had fealty neither for kings nor for men of religion, although they had a healthy respect for just authority and pious men of religion. The Somali clan is itself a product of the pastoral democracy of Somalis. The clan, in its essence, is a minimalist association in which members agree to adopt a common social pact (heer) for dealing with community problems and for helping each other; for example, when a family loses its animals to a drought, the clan members pitch in with donated animals, or when rustlers steal a family's animals, the clan members take action to seek restitution first by negotiation. In urban areas, the clan, as an extended family, provides a social net, and sums of money are collected for an indigent person (qaadhaan). The concept of who might appeal for help is very flexible; for ex

subserviency and strong political and religious hierarchies were the norm. Even the nation-state is a new concept to the Somalis and other peoples in the Horn, the prior political history of the Horn being about loose empires, sultanates, and city-states. The nation-state is also a relatively recent concept, in comparison to the multiethnic empire-state. The prior history of Somalis is more about independent pastoral clans, sultanates, and city-states whose leaders were never absolute potentates and where there were no estates or classes of people such as nobility or commoners, but only professional classes such as religious men, blacksmiths, pastoralists, merchants, and so forth. Consensual rather than coercive governance is more appealing to Somalis, and Somalis expect their leaders to be persons capable of persuasion by having the oral skills required for "disputation, litigation, negotiation, agreement, and consensus."! Somali egalitarianism is therefore about basic rights; it does not mean equality of capital or riches, for there have always been poor and rich Somalis, whether the riches were camels or another form of wealth. Indeed, as far as capital accumulation and entrepreneurship are concerned, Somalis have always been traders, merchants, and entrepreneurs. Somali entrepreneurs and merchants are even important in the economies of East Mrican countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, and to a lesser extent in several other Mrican countries. Somali refugees who have recently immigrated to South Mrica typically started street vending enterprises to support themselves as a first step toward larger enterprises. Somalis immigrating to Western countries such as the United States have opened restaurants and markets. Entrepreneurial dynamism and adaptation are therefore elements of Somali culture. But is that enough to depict Somalis as rugged individualists who shun authority and control of any kind-in other words, as anarchists? Or are Somalis people who developed democratic norms respectful of human dignity and rights when other peoples were under feudal lords? Unfortunately, too many analysts and writers tended to see "anarchy" in Somali culture and then went on to attribute the present total collapse of the central authority as the product of the anarchistic and individualistic nature of Somalis of pastoral culture. For instance, I. M. Lewis, the best known anthropologist on Somalis, who described Somali society as a "pastoral democracy," wrote: "The first thing to understand about the Somalis is that they are not as other men. Richard Burton, the famous Arabist and explorer who trekked across their lands in the 1850s, called the Islamic Somali nomads a 'fierce and turbulent race of republicans.' More pungently, a Ugandan sergeant with the British forces fighting the Mad Mullah went on record as telling his officer: 'Somalis, Bwana, they no good: each man his own sultan.' "2

AN EGALITARIANISM CUSTOM OF GOVERNANCE SOMALIS have, perhaps too often, been described by Western writers, as an egalitarian people of nomads, or as an acephalous nation of bards, in other words as anarchists who value personal freedom and oral skills such as poetry. Indeed, to some visitors, Somali society might seem to have traversed the ages without much change in lifestyles or customs-nomads draped in flowing robes and tending sheep evoke a bucolic image right out of the Bible in most Western minds. Another recurring image of Somalis is that they are divided into independent clans headed by traditional patriarchs-again biblical imagery for Westerners. For sure, there are a lot of nomads in flowing robes tending sheep and camels; but not all Somalis tend herds of livestock, neither are stock-raising and other economic activities mutually exclusive. For example, the transport entrepreneur who owns his or her bus or the restaurant owner or even the airport official who stamps your passport might have been a former livestock owner or herder and may still keep a few sheep or camels in the country to supplement his or her income. Somali values of egalitarianism are embedded in both Islam and in Somali pastoral culture, which is itself grounded in pastoral Cushitic culture. Somalis tend to think that humans are equal before Allah, the creator, and will be rewarded or punished for their deeds. The ruler is not thought of as superior to the average individual and Somalis have never known the rule of divine kings or divine priests nor have they had slavery or institutionalized inequity of humans from birth. Somalis have never known a culture in which feudal

to do with Arabic and its use for both religious and official purposes-until the nineteenth century, the learning of Arabic and the religious books were the core of education just as learning Latin, Greek, and the scriptures were for a long time the core of European education. The average Somali, a pastoralist, had little incentive to write; if a Somali wanted to have a letter composed, he or she would turn to one of the learned men of religion who knew how to read and write. These men of religion were the custodians of the cult but also of the occult, and writing was both part of the cult and the occult. Reading and writing in Arabic was the key to their profession and to their status in the society; therefore, they saw no urgent need to vulgarize their science in the language of the common people just as the church in Europe for centuries saw no need to vulgarize its religious works in the local tongues. The lack of a strong centralized state, and it might be said that writing and accounting systems, being the backbone of a taxation system, are essential to a centralized state, contributed to the lack of a common writing code for Somali. For comparison, we may note that the largely agriculturist Amhara, neighbors of the Somalis, developed a writing system and a feudal system of governance as well as land ownership; but Somalis did not develop any powerful systems where hierarchy and class were of importance. They were, despite the existence of numerous sultanates and city-states, "a race of fierce and turbulent republicans,"until the arrivalof the colonialEuropean state.I The story of the codifiers of Somali (i.e., those who attempted to invent a script for Somali) is long and includes both Somalis and non-Somalis. Among the Somalis were Sheikh Mohamed Abdi Makahil, Muse H.I. Galal, Sheikh Abdirahman Sheikh Nur, Yusuf Keenadiid Osman, Shire Jama Ahmed, and Sheikh Ahmed Kadare. Among the non-Somalis were notably such persons as J. K. King (1887) and B. W. Andrzejewski.These variousscripts fell into three types according to the characters they used: Arabic, Latin, and unique. Sheikh Abdirahman Sheikh Nur and YusufKeenadiid Osman's systems were unique endeavors of their own making. However, the unique scripts did not make much headway, and by the 1950s, the promoters of a script for Somali were in two camps: Arabic and Latin. These two script camps began ideological battles in which linguistic and nonlinguistic arguments were exchanged.2 For example, those who were favoring the Arabic script took pleasure in pointing out that their characters had the advantage of being largely known to the public through the teaching of Arabic as a liturgical language as well as of being of Muslim origin-in fact, they predate Islam. The confrontation between the two groups, in the

baby's neck. The amulet is at once a receipt of service and a talisman (hirsi) against evil spirits. If the -aadoqaate is not paid, it is believed harm might come to the baby. According to the legend of Sheikh Y usuf al- Kownin and Mohamed Hanif, this tradition was instituted as a compensation for the death of the latter, as has been mentioned above, entombed inside a mountain by vinue of the former's prayers. However, this tradition is much older than Islam itself. Already, the ancient Egyptians knew such talismans as serna. What this tells us is that at it widest limits, traditions among the Somalis link up with those in the whole region and are due to common cultural origins that go back thousands of years, something that is not surprising as the languages of the region belong for the most pan to one super-family of languages known today mostly as the Mroasiatic family of languages.

Divination, Magic, and Myth Traditional diviners, faaliye ifaaliso for a female), practice the art of faa4 divination, and use different mediums to interpret the esoteric and the future. Among these mediums are cowrie shells, geometric designs on fine sand, and smoke from burning incense. Crystal balls and palm reading are unknown among Somalis. Certain women diviners known as taawilo make noises and belches while in the process of divination. Officially, religious leaders frown upon faal; but nevertheless, it continues uninterrupted as it did centuries ago, mainly because it is seen as harmless and not a threat to Islam. Especially, in southern Somalia, among the riverine populations or people from a Bantu cultural heritage, one finds persons who openly claim to be sorcerers and sorceresses. For a fee, they would perform magic (sihir) or cast a spell (qataar) on a third person. The magicians (sihirlow) keep a low profile and would not confess to engaging in magical practices in public for fear they would run afoul of religious authorities or local administrations. Some riverine villages are well known or feared for their magicians. A small group of riverine dwellers, also Bantu of origin, are feared for their crocodile cult. They are believed to communicate with the crocodiles of the Shebelle and J uba Rivers. A typical myth related to them is that a crocodile man (bihar) may send his favorite crocodile to fetch the lady of his desire. First, the crocodile man casts a spell on the unfortunate lady who develops an irresistible urge to go bathe in the river where the crocodile is patiently waiting to whisk her promptly to its master. Among pastoralist Somalis, a dying practice of magic is attributed to those who claim to understand the language of the hyena {waraabe-la-hada/}; by listening to the howls of the hyena prowling around settlements, they are said to be able to understand the speech of the hyena and in turn they learn about misfortunes that might lie ahead for the area. Another mythical tra- dition among Somalis concerning hyenas is that of the hyena-man, qori- ismaris (literally he who rubs a stick on himself). As the name indicates, the hyena-man, who is the Somali equivalent of the Western werewolf, trans- mogrifies himself into a hyena by rubbing a magical stick on his hindquarters at nightfall, and before dawn he does the same action and is reversed into his human shape. A living tradition that certainly comes out of the pre-Islamic age is the giving of the samayo (birth gift) to a member of the Yibir clan, as had been mentioned earlier. The person who collects the samayo is appropriately known as "aadoqaate, the collector of tradition. In exchange, after being paid in kind or cash, the "aadoqaate gives the parent an amulet to be worn on the

surrounding regions. It is a lasting witness to a common culture of the region. In southern Somalia, among the Bantu villagers and also among the Ben- idiris of the Benadir, a different kind of spirit possession known as lumbi, from the Swahili umbia, is practiced. Lumbi differs from zaar in several ways. First, unlike zaar, which is held inside homes, lumbi is held outside in the open or in the public square of villages. Second, in lumbi the objective is to : drive away the evil spirit from the body of the possessed, and toward that end, the lumbi leader strikes repeatedly the body of the possessed with a whip. Third, the possessed dances alone in the middle of the ring until he or she falls into a trance and then falls down. Spirits that existed in the old Cushitic menagerie of evil fairies are no longer in use among today's Somalis. The name for such evil spirits was busha, which today, as an archaic word, means only disease; among the Ra- hanwein the word bushi also means just disease and no longer evil spirit. However among the Oromo, the word bushi still refers to evil spirits. One well-known evil spirit is Hanfaley. If something disappears mysteriously, peo- ple say that Hanfaley must have taken it. Prayers and incantations existed to dispel evil spirits and the following cultural relic is an old prayer meant to ward against evil spirits. . Evils lurking behind us, be ye halted there, Evils waiting before us, be ye forced to flee, Evils hovering above us, be ye suspended still, Evils rising beneath us, be ye blunted of spear, Evils treading beside us, be ye thrust afar.5 Today among Somalis, evil spirits are generally referred to as jinn, a word used among all Muslims. The jinn, the Semitic counterpart of the Cushitic ayaana, are mentioned in the Koran. They are said to be descendants oflblis, an angel who fell from God's grace. Iblis was the only one of God's angels who refused to bow to Adam as God ordered. Iblis stated, as a creation from light, that he would not bow to a creation from mud, Adam. God punished him for his pride and banished him from heaven; ever since, Iblis had made it his endeavor to lead as many astray as he could until the day of judgment. Iblis is also popularly known as Shaitan (Satan). The pious Somali utters the Arabic formula a'adu bilahi mini sheydani rajiim (Oh Allah I seek protection from Satan) to banish the ever present evil spirit from his or her surroundings. This is the equivalent of the making of the sign of the cross by Catholic Christians.

a ritual dance of spirit possession that comes under various names such as Borane in the south among the Rahanwein, a reference to the ancestral spirit of the founder of the Borane clan of the Oromo. The zaar spirit usually visits only women, although some men are also said to be possessed by it. After its presence is acknowledged in the body of the person, a costly ceremony of spirit exorcism is then held in which feasting and ritual dancing are the main features. The ceremony is led by a ritual expert, 'alanqad who is usually a person who had suffered earlier from zaar possession. Many people scoff at the idea of spirit possession and religious authorities openly discourage such practices. But for centuries Islamic orthodoxy and the parareligion have coexisted unofficially and continue to do so. One of the reasons why zaar has endured lies in its use as a form of psychotherapy for stressed individuals. A zaar ceremony is not an exorcist rite per se whose aim is to drive away an evil spirit from the body; rather, zaar is considered as a kind of companion of the body which must be placated and pleased so that it can coexist amiably with the body of the sufferer. Additionally, the zaar spirit is thought to be transferred along hereditary lines and one might inherit one's grandmother's zaar; there is therefore no emphasis on a per- manent cure for the ailment. Communion by dancing together and eating together are the main ingre- dients that create the relaxing ambience of a zaar ceremony. In an otherwise rigid society, where the roles and behaviors of women are strictly placed under an unrelenting code, a day or two of a zaar ceremony in which a woman may engage in "abnormal" behavior such as rhythmic dancing and smoking releases pent-up stresses and refreshes the soul. In this regard, the zaar is a healing experience at the personal level. In many ways zaar can be characterized as a religious relic from the old de- ities. The old northeastern Mrican deities were headed by two figures; Aw- Zaar (father Zaar), the male deity known in the West as Osiris, and Ay-Situ, mother Situ, known in the West as Isis. Ay-Situ is still celebrated in a fertility rite and given offerings by pregnant women so that she will facilitate child- birth. Of course, the fertility rite is now wrapped up in Muslim parlance as it is not only offered to Ay-Situ but also to Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet ofIslam.4 The rite itself is called either kuror sitaat. Additionally, the fact that zaar is celebrated and led only by older women closely corresponds to the an- cient practice of older women as the priestesses. Among Somalis, younger women, and especially unmarried ones, are not thought to be deserving of a visit from the zaar. The zaar ritual is by no means confined to Somalia; its cultural domain historically covers all the northeastern Mrican countries,

INDIGENOUS BELIEFS AND PARARElIGION No early indigenous cult has survived among Somalis of today; there is therefore no pantheon of ancient deities or spirits that is directly known to Somalis. What we know of early beliefs, after 1,000 years or so of Islam, comes from two sources: words and customs still existing among today's Somalis or practices found among other Cushitic peoples such as the Oromo, among whom indigenous beliefs have somewhat survived. Among the words that reveal the existence of a pre-Islamic indigenous religion are waaq, ayaan, niJar, and huur. Waaq (sky-god) is an archaic Somali word for god and contrasts with the word allah (god), which came with the arrival of Islam. The waaq or waaqo, among the Oromo, is the only god of the Cushitic religion. Thus it can be safely assumed that the quick absorption of Islam among Somalis was facilitated by the monotheism of their ancient cult. The abode of the waaq is the sky and a season of good rains and prosperity is still known today to as barwaaqo, literally god's rain- drops. Early on in childhood, Somali children are taught, especially in the countryside, not to point a finger at rain clouds as it is said to bring bad luck and drive away the precious rain clouds. This tradition is also found among the Oromo,3 however, the origin of this practice probably has to do with avoidance of offending the waaq that dwells in the sky. Ayaan means good luck and destiny; someone who is in good luck and prosperous might be referred to as ayaanle. Ayaan is also a popular name for gitls. In the ancient Cushitic religion, the ayaan, or ayana among the Oromo, are good spirits or angels that mediate between god and humans and whose blessings one seeks. As is known from practices among non-Muslim non- Christian Oromo, the chief priest of the Cushitic cult is the qallu. The qallu presides over important ceremonies, grants blessings, and settles disputes. His function compares to the role that the Muslim wadaad fulfills among Somalis. Today there is no Somali word that directly refers to the qallu personage, but it might be said that the word gaalo (infidel), which is used pejoratively for any non-Muslim, has its source in the qallu personage; evidently Somalis, after having become Muslims, termed the followers of the qallu infidels. Obviously, there are also bad spirits in the ancient Cushitic religion. The word nidar refers to a kind of spirit or fairy who is a righter of wrongs, nowadays especially of the sentimental kind. Nabsi is also another word for nidar. The huur, the marabou, is the messenger of death. Various rites and spirit possession practices also give us some information about the ancient beliefs of Somalis. One of these is undoubtedly the zaar,

are maintained by a resident sheikh and his entourage. The shrine usually consists of the tomb of the saint (qudbt), which might be a mosque (masjiti), and quarters where the residents live. There are generally two types of venerated personages among Somalis: ancestors (waaliti) and saints (walt). In practice, however, this division is not very strong, and some ancestors are venerated as saints by their descendants; obviously the more numerous the descendants, the more likely that an an- cestor will be venerated. Therefore, many clans and subclans venerate their legendary founder. However, few venerated ancestors have shrines and sanc- tuaries, for proper saints far outnumber those for clan ancestors. Saints proper are those who have been "beatified" popularly because they were held in high esteem in their lives and were associated with a high karaama. To this category belong the saints from the first period of Islami- zation and saints from sufi movements or tariqa communities. The tombs or the shrines of saints are the object of annual pilgrimages, siyaaro (visit). At these events, which are a kind of festival, thousands of people congregate for several days at the shrine and marathon recitals of panegyrics to the prophet (nabi-amaan) or to the saint (manaqib) are held. People bring food and animals to be sacrificed for the occasion. The sick and those with requests, ordinary people just partaking of the spiritual communion, as well as the very poor who just come for the free food all gather on the location chanting and swaying in unison. Strips or bands of cloth worn on the arms sometimes identify those who have done the pilgrimage. Tombs of highly venerated saints are said to glow at night and such a saint is referred to as wali siraata. An example of an early saint and proselytizer who is much venerated is Sheikh Yusuf al-Kownin, Aw-Barkhadle (the blessed father), the inventor of the method for facilitating the learning of the Arabic alphabet. Al-Kownin's shrine is near the main northern city of Hargeisa, and his annual pilgrimage is a huge festival attended by thousands. A curious custom associated with his pilgrimage is the marking of crosses on the foreheads of the pilgrims. One might wonder if this custom got transferred from a cult older than Islam, such as Christianity, that had reached the Horn before Islam and is still practiced by the Highland Amharas and Tigreans of Ethiopia and Eritrea. In the south, the saints who attract the largest number of visitors are Sheikh Uways and Sheikh Ali Mayow. The shrine of Sheikh Uways Mohamed of Barawe is a recent addition to the Somali saintly pantheon (he was assassi- nated in 1909 by followers of Mohamed Abdulle Hassan, presumably for differences of opinion on theological and political points).2 Sheikh Uways was the founder of a tariqa, and his followers now belong to the Uwaysiya order. His yearly tomb visit at Biyoley draws large crowds. The crowds chant,

clans around them and to whom usually the land where the tariqa is located belongs. Having no allegiance to any clan, they were thus neutral commu- nities and were spared the feuds and vendettas endemic in the countryside. The members in the order, who ethnically belong to the surrounding larger communities, are encouraged to renounce their communal and clans ties and to consider their fellow members as their new brothers and sisters. Each tariqa therefore cultivates a different kind of genealogy, a spiritual one compared to the blood ties of the Somali clans. This spiritual genealogy is called silsilatu albaraka (the blessed chain) and the members are supposed to learn its com- ponents just as ordinary clan folk are supposed to memorize the names of their ancestors in their genealogical tree. The spiritual genealogy consists of the names of saints who had played an important role in the development of the tariqa and in the particular sufi movement of the order; ultimately, the prophet himself is supposed to be the last link in this blessed chain. ; Admission to a tariqa requires a ritual and the administration of an initi- :; ation rite conducted by the sheikh of the order. The new member or initiate then starts at the bottom of the spiritual rung or at the first station of the spiritual journey. From this first stage, the murid (the initiate), has to progress through hard work and perseverance into advanced philosophical and mys- tical stages. However, there is no last station, as spiritual advancement is theoretically possible until the last breath of life. In practice, the one who succeeds the sheikh of the order might have reached the highest post in the order. Those who believe that they may have reached a high level of know 1- edge leave the order to find their own independent order while still main- taining spiritual ties with the sheikh of the order. Few might also claim to have found mystical knowledge (asraar) through exegesis and asceticism; some might also be ascribed to have spiritual power (karaama) and be capable of performing miracles through prayers, in which case the sick and those with a request to make (muraad) might flock to their door. ~VENERATION OF ANCESTORS AND SAINTS . :,~ In orthodox Islam the veneration of saints and ancestors is objectionable' as a practice; moreover, the prophet is said to have warned his followers against glorifying his tomb. Thus, Muslims do not have a beatification proc- ess as is known, for example, to Catholicism. In spite of that, veneration of saints and ancestors, no doubt inherited &om a pre-Islamic stage, is still practiced among Somalis, as among other Muslims. Saints are venerated yearly on the date of their deaths, if known, otherwise on a date fixed by convention. The most well-known saints have shrines that

suffering from infertility and chronic illnesses often constitute the main ben- eficiaries of psychotherapy from the wadaad. While the blessings of a wadaad are sought, his displeasure and curse are to be avoided. The curse of a holy person is thought to be capable of causing damnation and all kinds of afflictions on the offender; especially feared is the asmo, a severe curse. The holiness that surrounds a person of religion starts as early as the arday (student) stage. Somalis, for example, say that if the thorn of an acacia tree grabs the cloth of the arday, the impious tree will in due time wither and die. It might be said that the wadaads, deprived of any temporal power, which is the domain of the waranle (the warrior), exercise spiritual power by virtue of their holiness. T ARIQA AND SUFISM Islamic mystic philosophy, sufism, rose in the ninth and tenth centuries as a way of elevating the soul by following the correct path (tariqa in Arabic). Elevation of the soul is sought through forms of asceticism and ritual prayers in addition to the prescribed five a day. The root meaning of sufism comes from the Arabic word sufi, meaning wearer of wool-wearing wool was in the old days a sign of poverty as wearing silk was a sign of riches. From its original sites in Arabia and surrounding areas, sufism then dif- fused to the Somali populations. Since then religious orders have always been part of Somali religious life. The tariqa orders, sometimes called jama'a, are headed by a spiritual head, called also a sheikh. There are many such orders in the country, although most orders belong to one of three movements (Qadiriya, Ahmediya, and Salihiyah), but there are no central organizations or headquarters that oversee the tariqa communities in any of the movements. Rather, the tariqa orders in each movement share a common founding father and viewpoints but are independent of each other. However, the orders in each movement exchange information on points of interest to them. Of the three main movements, Qadiriya is the most important one not only among Somalis but also in the Muslim world. Its founder, Abdulkadir Al-Jilani (1077-1166) has his tomb in Baghdad, Iraq. Life in a tariqa community is centered around religious rituals, the incan- tation (dikn) of panegyrics to saints or to the prophet (nabi-amaan in the case of the prophet), the saying of litanies or repetitive incantations (wardt), and spiritual reflection and study. Life in the order also meanS one must partake of physical work in the communal fields of the order. Religious orders generally try to be self-sufficient and independent from the communities and

It is important to note that a wadaad's expertise is not confined to the religious domain. The wadaad was historically the keeper of science and knowledge, imparted only to those who went through a long apprenticeship. The wadaad therefore performs important functions, which the profession probably inherited from a pre-Islamic cult. In the past, stellar consultation was much more in use and probably reg- ulated all forms of rituals such as marriages; today, however, it is a declining practice and few wadaads practice it. As a stellar expert, the wadaad consults the Somali stellar and solar calendar as well as the Muslim lunar calendar and accordingly gives advice on propitious moments to break camp and migrate or to start the livestock breeding season. By no means is the wadaad the sole stellar expert; there are others who are by profession stellar and weather experts known as hiddigo-eege (star gazer or astronomer). Although, divination (faal), is strictly not in the field of practice of wa- daads, some wadaads, true perhaps to the roots of the profession in pre- Islamic cults, do some divination through a body of written works in Arabic or through the reading of geometric designs. Other parareligious services provided in the countryside include the arba'uun, a kind of protective spell recited for a lost camel. The spell is supposed to protect the camel from wild animals and from thieves until its master finds it. The owner of the camel usually promises a gift to the wadaad in the event that the camel is found alive. As a traditional medicine expert, the wadaad is a herbalist and a bone- setter; by no means is he the exclusive expert in this field as there are expert bonesetters and traditional medicine experts who have established their rep- utation without being a wadaad. Additionally, obstetrics and treatments of infant diseases were and still are in the countryside the domain of female practitioners known as the umuliso (midwives). On the other hand, tradi- tionally many wadaads were physicians and surgeons, especially before the arrival of modern Westernized medicine. Traditional medicine drew upon a body of knowledge dating back thousands of years; some elements of that knowledge were local in origin and handed down by word of mouth, while some of it was gained from Islamic written sources. The wadaad used, and still does in rural areas, rational medicine when examining for symptoms and prescribing cures; he also used and still uses a large measure of pyschotherapy by means of blessings and amulets, the latter as a kind of palliative in cases where his physical medicine is of no avail. Amulets contain some Koranic verses and are worn around the neck or waist. The blessings of renowned wadaads are especially sought after, and people

Nevenheless, wadaad is a profession and an institution among Somalis in a class of its own. The profession, despite the lack of a hierarchy, has developed certain norms and strategies for declaring its presence in the society. In the coun- tryside, the wadaad is recognizable usually by the items he carries, including most notably a copy of the Koran, carried in a cloth bag and slung over the shoulder, a masa/e (prayer rug), traditionally of fine leather, an ablution jar, weyso, a rosary, tusbah, and some paper for writing. Itinerant wadaads often carry additional books with them and a number of personal items; they usually travel from community to community preaching and teaching. Some- times a wadaad and his students travel together as a kind of traveling college, preaching and teaching along the way. At other times, a group of senior students, called her, travel around communities practicing and perfecting their knowledge. The itinerant wadaad or the her carry no food supplies of their own, they depend entirely on the charity of the rural communities and families they encounter. Because of the sanctity that surrounds them, people receive them well and they were traditionally not subject to hostilities be- tWeen clans and communities on account of their holiness; in fact, a family usually butchers the fattest ram in the herd for a visiting wadaad or the her. Exempt from vengeful animosities and vendettas, they could thus travel un- molested across the vast stretches of the Somali territories helping reinforce cultural and linguistic ties among Somalis. In towns where large mosques are to be found, a wadaad is usually ap- pointed as the caretaker of the mosque and is usually given a stipend either by the benefactors of the mosque or the government. People refer to such caretakers as imam, although anyone leading a prayer anywhere can be called an imam; the same word also refers to a charismatic religious political leader ~ among Muslims. Also in the cities, some wadaads are appointed by local ~ governments to enforce family law, such as marriages, divorces, and inheri- e tances. These are called qadis (judges); they receive a salary from the justice , depanment, a practice that started when they were formally incorporated into the justice system by the colonial administrations. Traditionally in the city-states and sultanates, a qadi was the chief justice officer and adviser on religious maners to the ruler. " In the countryside, the local wadaad is a very important person; he not ;' only performs the rites of passage (binhs, marriages, and funerals), but also mediates in disputes if asked by the parties concerned. However, unlike a qadi, who is a justice officer, he cannot enforce his decisions to be binding upon the contestants. Elders might also seek his advice when they are delib- erating on questions of communal importance.

is offered strictly to Allah; what Somalis ask from saints and ancestors are bar- aka (blessings). For someone who is not familiar with this system of spiritu- ality, it might be difficult to understand the difference betWeen ritual worship and submission to Allah during a prayer and supplication of saints and ances- tors. There are tWo major differences. The first is that in a ritual prayer a Mus- lim submits to Allah and states that there is but one Allah; he or she therefore recognizes the supremacy of Allah. The second major difference is the as- sumption that when one asks for the blessings of a saint or ancestor one is still addressing one's requests to Allah, the saint or ancestor being considered as merely a conduit. Were it not so, one would be liable to a charge of shirka (idolatry). This does not mean that there are no purists who abhor these par- allel practices, for they have always existed. In consequence, there has always been an ideological opposition betWeen traditionalists (i.e., those u/ema . [clergy] who tolerate the complex system of spirituality), and purists, who at times call the traditionalists heretics and soothsayers. THE WADAAD: RITUAL EXPERT, STELLAR CONSULTANT, AND PHYSICIAN In Islam there is no organized clergy with a hierarchy-there is neither pope nor bishop and no intermediaries are supposed to mediate betWeen the Creator and the created. All Muslims are therefore supposed to be partici- pants in all practices and if necessary to be capable of leading the prayers. However, in practice, among Somalis as among other Muslims, certain peo- ple are more knowledgeable in religious matters and rituals than the rest of the population; among Somalis these people are usually referred to as wadaad or sheikh. The wadaad is an expert, not clergy, as is understood in Western church organizations. The wadaad, always a male, starts first as an arday (student or wadaad in training) and through a process of training under well-known experts accumulates considerable knowledge in the Koran and Islamic juris- prudence. Later, if he is very widely acknowledged for his learning and wis- dom, people may refer to him as "aalin (scholar). Still, he is not part of an organization that pays him a salary nor does he need a diploma to obtain this position; rather he is an individual professional in much the same way the local shoemaker is a professional in the community. However, while the shoemaker makes and sells shoes, the wadaad meets all the services required of him for free and people decide themselves what they may offer him in kind or cash. Many wadaads exercise regular self-employment in other areas and in some villages the wadaad doubles as the shoemaker of the village.

RELIGION AND THOUGHT in the month of Ramadan; The offering of zakat (alms); The Hal or the pilgrimage to Mecca when possible. ,These tenets and the rituals related to them are taught to young children as soon as possible and are part of the socialization process that impans values and customs to young minds. Only a small number of Somalis learn about Islam in a formal catechistic method. To be sure, there are religious schools known as ma"aamad or dugsi (Koranic schools), but these usually have a vocation of training young would-be wadaads (priests), although today they also function for urban populations as a kind of preschool or kindergarten, helping children memorize the Koran, but more importantly the discipline of handwriting and learning in a formal setting. In a ma"aamad, children learn to write the characters of the Arabic alphabet on wooden slates that are usually taller and wider than the children themselves; after mastering the alphabet, the youngsters go on to learn how to read and recite the Koran in Arabic. Arabic is the only liturgical language among Muslims (all rituals are said in Arabic and the Koran is in Arabic); while translations of the Koran exist, they do not supplant the original in Arabic. Learning to read and write in Arabic is therefore essential for Somalis, as it is for other Muslims. The beliefs and practices of Somalis as Muslims have their basis, as else- where, in the Koran (the Muslim scripture), as revealed to Prophet Moha- med, the Hadith (Prophet Mohamed's sayings and actions), and the Sharia, a body of jurisprudence commonly referred to as "Islamic law." However, spirituality and holiness among Somalis is not just following the five tenets, the Koran, the Hadith, and the Sharia. The spiritual life of Somalis is rather a complex amalgamation that includes many elements that are carryovers from indigenous practices that predate Islam; it also includes elements from Islamic mysticism and philosophy, commonly known as sufism. These tiers of spiritual practices coexist in such a way that the whole is harmonious and yet complex. For example, a Somali will go to the mosque and pray as is formally required. Then in the evening he or she might belong to a sufi brotherhood where group meditation and the recital of litanies of saints such as that of Sheikh Abdulqadir Al- Jilani are performed, usually with the accompaniment of a drum. Yet in another evening, we will find the devout Muslim offering du'o (sacrifice and incantations) to his or her ances- tors in a ceremony of psalms and incantations presided over by the local wadaad (priest). Islamic mysticism and the veneration of saints and ancestors are therefore as much a part of Somali spirituality as the strict orthodoxy of Islam enshrined in the Koran, the Hadith, and the Sharia. This system of spiritual tiers is not, of course, peculiar to Somalis as lo- calized versions of it exist in almost every Muslim society. However, worship

as the hunter-gatherer Eyle, and, in the coastal areas, the Swahili peoples of the Benadir, all living by then in a fairly stable accommodation long after the Oromo attacks had ceased in the region. By the fourteenth century, the Ajuuraan Somali clan had moved into the riverine areas and had established a hereditary dynasty, thereby controlling the flow of trade between the coastal cities of the Benadir and the southwestern hinterland!5 Meanwhile, in the southwestern direction Somalis clashed with the Chris- tian Amhara- Tigreans and the largely pagan Gallas. From the twelfth to the ~ sixteenth centuries wars tinged with religious fervor raged between Muslim Somalis and the Christian Amhara- Tigreans. The period between the tenth and the sixteenth centuries brought the development of important Muslim sultanates such as Ifat, later called Adal, based in the port city of Zeilah. In 1331, Ibn Battuta, the Arab traveler, visited the port cities of Zeilah in the north and Mogadishu in the south. If the era between the tenth and sixteenth centuries was an era of devel- opment for coastal cities and city-states, it was also an era of turbulence and religious antagonisms. Information ftom the Crusades-the series of wars fought from the late eleventh through the thirteenth centuries, in which European kings and warriors set out to gain control of the land in which Jesus had lived, the Holy Land, from the hands of Muslims-were filtering down to the Horn of Africa and feeding local conflicts between Muslims and Christians. To the Somalis, the crusaders would be known as the Faranji (the Franks), a word which to this day denotes a European.