Learn your history!

[RaMpAgE]

Salam...

I have been looking trought the internet with anything related too somali history, but most things i find are writen by froiegners who have no clue about somalia and write some crazy stuff about us.

So well searching i found this wonderful site which seems too be spot on.

anways i hope u guys enjoy it.

 

http://www.civicwebs.com/cwvlib/africa/somalia/1994/dawn_of_civilization/

 

heres a lil story....http://www.panspantry.co.uk/incstrd.htm

 

[LuCkY]

Thanks Rampage

The site has more information than any other site i have encountered-very insightfuL.

[Nin-Yaaban]

This is for King450. Hey you asked about Araweelo and this one talks about it in a very informative detailed way. Thank you rampage.

 

 

Chapter 6:

 

Prominent Rulers of Ancient Somalia

 

Empress Arrawelo

 

According to the Somali oral tradition, Arrawelo was a powerful ruler belonging to one of the then dominant tribes of Puntland (Somalia). She might have ruled Somalia around 1000 B.C. or so. According to folklore, she ruled for not less than 70 or 80 years. She loved power and wanted to remain the empress of the country till her death. She was very suspicious of men and hated them. At one stage, she ordered that any son born in any family in the kingdom must be castrated so that he may not be able to procreate.

 

She got married and a daughter was born to her. In due course her daughter grew up, got married and gave birth to a son. Empress Arrawelo wanted her daughter's son to be killed. Her daughter prayed to her to let him live till the time he could sit. Arrawelo agreed to her request. In about a year, when the baby could sit easily, the Empress wanted him to be killed. Her daughter requested her to let him live till he could stand. This request was also granted. Then the daughter requested her to postpone his killing till he could walk. Then she requested his killing to be postponed till he could talk. Later on she requested her to let him help her in collecting water, fuel and food etc. which were necessary for her being a mother, till he came of age at 18. Out of her fondness for her daughter, the Empress agreed to this request also.

 

In the meanwhile, the daughter secretly trained her adolescent son to defend himself.

 

Then a severe drought took place. All the wells dried up. One day all the people came with their animals to an important well, which had plenty of water for men and animals. But Arrawelo ordered that nobody could take even a drop of water till she had completed her bath. A big leather tub was brought. People started drawing out water from the well and pouring it in the Empress' bath tub. They let her bathe throughout the day, but she did not finish her bath. The people were getting tired and restless due to the sun, thirst and labour, but she kept saying again and again: "This particular finger has not yet been cleaned, that one has not yet been cleaned." People suffered the torture mutely. But the Empress' eighteen year old grand son (daughter's son) could no longer bear this cruelty, hatred and hypocrisy of Arrawelo. He become very angry and suddenly struck her with his weapon (spear) and killed her. When she was alive, she used to speak and shout like men, but when her grand-son struck her she cried out "Ba'aayee" ("I have lost myself").

 

According to the Somali language, when a Somali girl or woman suffers any loss she expresses it by using this word "Ba'Aayee"; but when a Somali boy or male suffers any loss, he uses another word "Tota'yaa" ("I have been helpless, I have become without my tribe, the love and unity or grace of my people are lost, I am deserted and broken.")

 

Arrawelo was a very secretive, suspicious and a cruel he-woman having both the characteristics of female as well as a male and she spoke very harshly and acted very hard-heartedly. She was a real terror to all her male subjects who shivered at the sight of her and were rendered as cowards before her. They had all along been thinking, she was a male. But when she uttered her last words "ba'aayee", then all of them of at once discovered that she (Arrawelo) was not a man but a woman. They congratulated the boy for killing her.

 

He said to them, "What you have all along been afraid of was in fact a woman, not a man." The story of the Somali Empress Arrawelo occupies a very prominent place in the oral poetry tradition of the Somali people. Its historical authenticity seems to be perfect. She might have indeed been a very ruthless ruler-the first and so far the last woman ruler in the 7,000 years old tradition and history of Somalia. That her subjects were worried about providing water to their animals shows that they were pastoral people inhabiting the draught-prone region and that could in all probability be the northern region of Somalia, then called Puntland, in about 1000 B.C. or so.

 

King Baur-Bair

 

All over the North Somalia a low caste but a very powerful chief named Baur Bair ruled in the very early times-may be about 1500 or 1000 B.C. He was very clever and skilled. The Somali folklore says that he taught the Somali people how to make a bow and arrow and how to fight others with the help of bows and arrows. He lived on a mountain. In his kingdom, he had enforced the custom that any marriage would be legal only when the bride had first spent seven nights with him.

 

Chief Gasare Guda

 

In the south-western Somalia, there ruled a wise Chief of the Rahanwene tribe, named Gasare Guda. He taught his people ethics and etiquette. He taught them to respect and help others, have unity in the Rahanwene collectivity, welcome other tribes and be good persons. It is believed that Gasare Guda had a big crown of hair and following him, his subjects and then all other Somali tribals started keeping a big crown of hair, tall sticks, spears, a twig brush to clean their teeth with at all times, and wearing two clothes. Gasara Guda seems to have ruled in the south-western Somalia about 2,000 years ago.

 

Chief Ghied Babow

 

According to Somali folklore, he lived in Buracawe (iron mountain). He followed the same sort of customs which Baur Bair had adopted. He also used to sleep with every newly married woman for three nights before she was allowed to join her husband. He was a very big and tall person. The folklore describes him as much bigger than the size of an average man. He was very brave. He taught his people how to defeat their enemies; he was the master of war strategies.

 

He was also a master of traditional agriculture and he taught his people the art of cultivation. Every year all the people living in his jurisdiction used to give him gifts of food grains, camels, livestock and other things. Whenever he took the fancy of any girl or woman and wanted to marry her or enjoy her, she had to be given to him at once, for all his subjects were greatly afraid of him.

 

Chief Wilwal

 

In western Somalia, another important ancient ruler was Wilwal from the Bartile tribe. He was very smart. Somali folklore says that it was very difficult, rather impossible, to defeat him in battle as well as in intelligence, for he was a super-intelligent person. He had thrown a standing challenge to his people: "Either defeat me anyhow or remain under me". So everybody was very afraid of him. He had thousands of cattle (cows), but he slept away from them, all alone in a secluded place. He always ate two portions of the roasted meat of a calf, while all his followers and friends could have only one portion.

 

One day some of his followers and friends met secretly and said: "Why does chief Wilwal take two portions of meat while he gives to all us only one portion. This is injustice. So we have to tell him that he alone cannot take two portions."

 

Then the question arose as to who would tell him? After a lot of discussions, they selected three persons among themselves who would tell him this in just three words, each one uttering only one word, standing at three opposite points so that he might not be able to kill all of them. It was decided that the first man would utter his name "Wilwal", the second man would speak a Somali word meaning "the two portions of meat", and the third man would utter the Somali word meaning "you are not expected to eat yourself".

 

Then they went to him to execute this plan. The first and the second men uttered the words assigned to them, but the third man, out of excitement and fear, became confused when his turn came and instead spoke timidly, "we have decided to add another portion", (i.e. "you take all the three portions". Wilwal thanked them; everybody was disappointed at the failure of their plan to control him.

 

There is another interesting folk story about Wilwal.

 

One day Wilwal was celebrating his marriage with a girl presented to him by his subjects after making a selection out of many girls. She was very beautiful, intelligent and courageous. She was a shrewd girl and was capable of keeping her presence of mind. During any discussion she could answer any question convincingly, so the people had selected her to be their king's wife.

 

Wilwal was a dictator. He would often invite people near his house under the big trees. Considering himself to be the most important man he did not like any competitor. He used to distribute food to his men by pouring it in the upper cloth of the garment of the people, so that nobody could talk, being attentive to hold his cloth on which the food was to be poured. If any men refused to accept food in his cloth, he would be immediately beheaded by Wilwal with his sword. One day a very handsome and intelligent young man was found in the tribe by Wilwal's wife (the same girl who had been presented to him by the tribe). She secretly started loving him and inviting him to come to Wilwal's house (which was in the lake) after midnight. While Wilwal was asleep, she would be sleeping with her young paramour separately in a hidden corner of the house. One day Wilwal said to his wife, "There is none more beautiful, smart, intelligent and stronger than me." She replied, "There is one. But I will not tell you who he is. He comes to meet me every night. You have to discover and defeat him."

 

Wilwal took up the challenge and decided to ambush him in his house after mid-night. The courageous young man came after midnight. As he tried to be reach Wilwal's wife, Wilwal tried to catch him. Wilwal caught a comer of his dress. But the young man immediately cut it with his sword and ran away.

 

The next day, Wilwal called all the men of his kingdom to his house. All including that youngman came there. He inspected them to find out the comer of whose cloth had been cut in the midnight scuffle. But he found that the corners of all the upper garments of all the men present there were cut. So he could not recognize the culprit. He kept mum and came back to his wife.

 

Teasingly she asked him, "Have you found him?"

 

He replied "No."

 

She said, "I will tell you how to discover him. Now you invite all the young the men under the big tree, kill many cattle, cook their meat, and distribute it to them. If anyone refuses to accept the cooked meat in his doth by making it like a container, you should at once understand that he will be that young man who comes to me daily."

 

So it was. The intelligent young man came in the end as the last person. When his turn came for taking the food (which was .being distributed by women) he kicked the container of the food and container was thrown on the ground. So Wilwal decided as usual to fight with him publicly to challenge him for his obstinacy. Wilwal took out his sword. The young man was also given a sword to fight with. Both were of equal power. They fought fiercely and after a long-drawn duel the young man beheaded Wilwal. He married Wilwal's wife and became the king of Wilwal's territory in western Somalia. The details of the story show that Wilwal was a big pastoral tribal chief of western Somalia around 500 B.C. or so, by which time pastoral nomads had begun to dominate Somalia.

 

Since the Somalis have a centuries old tradition of preserving their accurate traditional histories, genealogies, teachings, morality and wisdom orally in the form of epics, poems, folk stories etc., we have to give due credence to these stories of the ancient rulers of Somalia. They have to be treated as real histories of their times, tribes and areas, even though there are many missing links in them. They cannot be dismissed as just fiction or mythological or religious stories of the Somali people, for they very graphically describe the nature, habits and doings of the ancient ruling chiefs and the manner in which they controlled and exploited their subjects during the early pastoral age of Somalia. These rulers might have existed any time before Christ. In any case they existed much before the 7th Century A.D., that is, before Islam came to Somalia.

[Bachelor]

Thanks RAMPAGE!!

I have read many important history of somali that i needed to know.

 

Goog Job SXB!!

[nuune]

thanks Rampage,it is really good 2 know your history,this gives deep insight into somali history

[Nin-Yaaban]

Wow the site doesn't only has just one article about Somaliya, but alot of them. Check it out.

 

http://www.civicwebs.com/cwvlib/

[SomeAlien]

this is great, its better than all those greek mythologies stories i used to read. seriously, we have a great oral history.

[Zakariye]

s/alaykum

 

Rampage thank you too, waxaad mooda walaal adigu iyo walaalka kale king inaad aqriseyn the same site, aad baad u mahadsantahey, i will save this site it is very interesting. Mahadsanid walaalkiis

 

c/salaam

[Conscious Manipulation]

salaam,

 

The first link says the author is Mohammed Farah Aidid, not the warlord I hope :eek:

 

The site seems interesting though. Who knew we were around for 40-50 thousand years.

 

peace!

[MaLikah]

This site looks really interestin from what Ive read so far. The amazing part is how they suggest that Eve might be from Somalia (or near that area). I guess it is plausible since the oldiest bones have been found along Ethiopia and some parts of Ethiopia used to be Somalia. Ima keep reading so ciao folks.

[nuune]

POSTED BY

 

Conscious Manipulation

 

The first link says the author is Mohammed Farah Aidid, not the warlord I hope

sure it is mohamed farah aidid,the former warlord,he was an ambassador to India by the time he wrote the book with his colleage in India