The Somali Origin (?)

[Zakina]

Hi nomads I'm new here and I came with a couple of questions.

 

I've had a discussion with a few other women about the origin of the somali people. I've always heard that somalis are the result of intermarriage between arabs and abyssinians (ethiopians). Is this correct? But aren't ethiopians themselves of arab ancestry?

Would someone enlighten me on our origin?

 

Also as to the specific look of the somali people. Although east africans in general did intermarry with middle easterners (they are geographically close so its only plausable that relationships formed)is there any truth to that the more european facial feautures of the somalis/east africans were not a result of genetic admixture but of the fact that east african throughout the history of man always have looked a certain way that in general isn't specific for the african continent?

[facklexm]

Somali Ethnic Group

 

Figure A-4-2 illustrates the two larger chains that define the Somali ethnic group. One is from the Hamitic Kingdom of Cush and the the other is from Semitic Arab settlers. They merged together to create the Somali ethnic group. Genetically and culturally, the older Cushitic chain is the dominant force. The Somali language comes from this chain. In terms of clan structure and religion, the more recent chain from about 4 Arab settlers may be the dominant force. However, the Islamic religion was present before these clans originated and both the clan structure and other traditions are very similar to those of the Oramo ethnic group that lived there earlier.

 

There is a very new genetic technique, based upon comparing the DNA molecules in human mitichondria, that enables geneticists to estimate the number of generations back when two people had a common mother. Using this technique, it should now be possible, as an example, to determine how closely the different Cushitic ethnic groups are related to each other. This technique may be very useful in closing the gap from about 330 AD until about 1200 AD, where we know very little about how the Cushitic people evolved.116

 

Concerning religion, these 4 Arab settlers, as well as others in the region at that time, were Sunni Moslems belonging to the Kadirieh sect. Practically all Somalis are Moslems today. Around the end of the last century, the Sudanese Mohamed Salih founded the Salihiya sect. There may be parallels between the role of this sect in Islam and the reformist roles of Martin Luther and John Calvin in Christianity. The Somali, Sayid Mohamed Abdullah Hassan, known in Great Britain as the "Mad Mullah" for fighting against British colonialism, was converted to this sect in Mecca by Mohamed Salih and then brought this reformist Islamic sect to Somalia in 1895, where it has many followers today.117

 

However, the nomadic culture of the Cushites evolved in this region over a much longer period of time, in equilibrium with the local ecology. Therefore, the cultural and economic patterns were dominated by this historical background. The Somali people kept their original Cushitic language, although Arabic became their defacto written language for religious matters.

 

Since the Somali language was not a written language until about 1972, the Somali people developed an "oral tradition and "oral history". They preserved legends and history as both narratives and poems that they passed down from generation to generation orally. Particularly the poems, which are memorized word-for-word, transfer historical information from one generation to the next with a minimal loss or distortion of information. With the introduction of the new option of writing in their own language, there was much literary activity after 1972. Part of this activity consisted of documenting the existing oral history, part consisted of creatively modifying this history in new forms, and part consisted of glorification of the socialist revolution of General Barre, with some parallels to art under Mao in China.118

 

Most of this oral history only goes back to the origins of the Somali ethnic group, about 800 years ago. One could propose the hypothesis that the introduction of the Islamic religion even earlier placed a greater emphasis upon history after the arrival of Islam than the culture and history within the framework of other earlier religions. This hypothesis is based upon the more recent experience, where the conversion of Black Africa to Christianity by missionaries in the last 2 centuries was accompanied by Christian schools that taught European history while neglecting or de-emphasizing traditional local history.

 

A.4.3 The Clan Structure of the Somali People

 

Many of the ethnic groups of Northeastern Africa and Arabia have clan structures, where membership in a clan is based upon having the same male ancestors. They are family trees of male descendants, that generally do not consider the roles of women, unless a man has more than one wife and there is a distinction between his sons by different wives. Much of the early chapters of the Christian Holy Bible is devoted to documenting such early Jewish clan structures.

 

However, this does not mean that women have no importance in such male hierarchies. Rather, there are subtle roles for women, that differ in the clan structures from one ethnic group to another ethnic group. As one example, there are exogan ethnic groups, such as the Hadjerai, who are farmers in the mountains of Tschad. Among the Hadjerais, it is forbidden for a man to marry a woman from his own clan. He may marry several women, but the process is complex. He has to serve practically as the slave of each father-in-law for several years as was also practiced by the Jewish people in ancient times.119 Therefore most men have only one wife. Although his wife joins him in living among his clan, she remains a member of her original clan and does not join the clan of her husband -- and her children.120

 

Among the Somali clans, a man is free to marry a member of his own clan or subclan, a member of any other clan or subclan, or a non-Somali. As Moslems, Somali men are allowed to be married up to a maximum of 4 wives at one time, but economic conditions seldom allow them to have more than 1 or 2 wives at one time. When a man dies, a brother sometimes marries the widow as a part of assuring social security within the extended family.

 

Intermarriage among clans and subclans also has important political functions. When a small group from one clan moves into a territory dominated by another clan, it is prudent for their men to marry women from the larger clan, and vice versa, in order achieve peaceful relations. There are many similarities to the way that the royal families in Europe intermarried for several hundred years, more out of political reasons than simple love.

 

The importance of a given clan or subclan depends more upon the size of the clan or subclan and its wealth, usually measured by the number of animals that it owns, rather than the age of the clan or position of the founding father in the Somali family hierarchy. Small clans may effectively merge with larger clans for survival and small clans also often live for long periods of time interspersed within a larger clan, as if they were members of that clan.

[facklexm]

Appendix 4: The Somali Ethnic Group and Clan SystemMost of this oral history only goes back to the origins of the Somali ethnic group, about 800 years ago. One could propose the hypothesis that the ...

www.civicwebs.com/cwvlib/africa/ somalia/1995/reunification/appendix_4.htm - 98k

Click 1987, and then read the letter of death.

[Socod_badne]

Originally posted by fawzia_a:

Would someone enlighten me on our origin?

We're Homo Sapien Sapiens. Descendent of Hominid species several million years ago.

[KEYNAN22]

Somalis are Oromo group that split from the rest of pastoralist Oromo who entered the realm of islamic influence. The difference is we "accepted" islam relative early, and the language is same as Oromo but only bast#rdized with persian, arabic and other coastal trading forces words. Moqdisho, Marka and other trade regions were long time strong trading posts before nomad Somalis even had the sight of it. Arab, Persian families had long time made this coast region into a international trading hub, dealing with the whole middle east and even as far as with the Ming dynasty in China,and Indian mugals(well recorded by the chinese and Indians). These coastal urban economies needed labour force and imported alot of slaves as well, some scattered bantu slaves had made their way to moqdishu even before somalis.

 

The first time the word "Somaal" was ever recorded was when the Abyssinian Emperor Yashik orded his leading musician among his force to compose a hymn due to the victory over one of the north/western Muslim villages/state in the 14th century. thats when the word "Somaal" appeared in written history for first time. Before that there was no such thing recorded as Somali people or nation! The coastal areas of somalia and cities were occupied by Persians and Arabs, their descendants Barwani and Banaadir still live today, and witness the nomadic destruction occuring for fullest..

[THE EMPEROR]

somalis came from oromo's??

 

genetics say something else

 

The frequency of haplogroup E3b1*(xE3b1b) in Somali males is the highest observed in any populations to date, and we suggest that the Somali male population is the origin of this haplogroup.

 

before islam the word oromo didn't even exist!

 

Somali origins: The notion that the migration and settlement of early Muslims followers of the Prophet Muhammad on the Somali coast in the early centuries of Islam had a significant impact on the Somalis no longer enjoys much academic support.

Scholars now recognize that the Arab factor--except for the Somalis' conversion to Islam--is marginal to understanding the Somali past.

 

Evidence places the Somalis within a wide family of peoples called Eastern Cushites by modern linguists and described earlier in some instances as Hamites. From a broader cultural-linguistic perspective, the Cushite family belongs to a vast stock of languages and peoples considered Afro-Asiatic. Afro-Asiatic languages in turn include Cushitic (principally Somali, Oromo, and Afar), the Hausa language of Nigeria, and the Semitic languages of Arabic, Hebrew, and Amharic. Medieval Arabs referred to the Eastern Cushites as the Berberi.

 

In addition to the Somalis, the Cushites include the largely nomadic Afar (Danakil), who straddle the Great Rift Valley between Ethiopia and Djibouti; the Oromo, who have played such a large role in Ethiopian history and in the 1990s constituted roughly one-half of the Ethiopian population and were also numerous in northern Kenya; the Reendille (Rendilli) of Kenya; and the Aweera (Boni) along the Lamu coast in Kenya. The Somalis belong to a subbranch of the Cushites, the Omo-Tana group, whose languages are almost mutually intelligible. The original home of the Omo-Tana group appears to have been on the Omo and Tana rivers, in an area extending from Lake Turkana in present-day northern Kenya to the Indian Ocean coast.

 

The Somalis form a subgroup of the Omo-Tana called Sam. Having split from the main stream of Cushite peoples about

Having split from the main stream of Cushite peoples about the first half of the first millennium B.C.,

 

, the proto-Sam appear to have spread to the grazing plains of northern Kenya, where protoSam communities seem to have followed the Tana River and to have reached the Indian Ocean coast well before the first century A.D. On the coast, the proto-Sam splintered further; one group (the Boni) remained on the Lamu Archipelago, and the other moved northward to populate southern Somalia. There the group's members eventually developed a mixed economy based on farming and animal husbandry, a mode of life still common in southern Somalia. Members of the proto-Sam who came to occupy the Somali Peninsula were known as the so-called Samaale, or Somaal, a clear reference to the mythical father figure of the main Somali clan-families, whose name gave rise to the term Somali.

 

The Samaale again moved farther north in search of water and pasturelands. They swept into the vast ****** (******** ) plains, reaching the southern shore of the Red Sea by the first century A.D. German scholar Bernd Heine, who wrote in the 1970s on early Somali history, observed that the Samaale had occupied the entire Horn of Africa by approximately 100 bc - A.D.

http://countrystudies.us/somalia/3.htm

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2000 yrs ago

 

in 40 AD a greek historian left records of the ancient country called ''Berberia''

 

there was Central Oligarchy, not Monarchy, in the ‘Berberia’

 

To state that there were sovereigns in the various market-towns, the text uses the Greek word ‘tyrannos’ that does not mean ‘tyrant’ as it derived in modern Western languages, but a sovereign based on an oligarchy, which was conceived as another type of political rule by the Ancient Greeks (monarchy, oligarchy and democracy being the three main types). The difference between monarchy (ruled by a king / basileus) and oligarchy (ruled by a tyrant / tyrannos) is that the king has seized larger power and rules uncontested, whereas in the case of an oligarchy the sovereign has to take into account and consult with the elders, the wealthier and the high priests. The ‘Periplus of the Red Sea’ mentions precisely in the case of the merged Yemenite kingdom Sheba and Himyar the parallel existence of King Haribael and the Mofar tyrant (chapters 16 and 24).

 

With regard to the ‘Berberia’, we can conclude that the economic riches accumulated in Malao and Mundu contributed to the supremacy of the local sovereign, who may have risen to a level of ‘primus inter pares’ among the other ‘tyrants’ of the trade oligarchies of the country. If the division had been perpetuated, it would have been possible either for the Yemenite King Haribael to extend his Azanian colony in the area of ‘Berberia’ (that is closer to Yemen itself) or for the Axumite Abyssinian King Zoscales to expand his territory in the south of the Bab el Mandeb straits.

 

The reason we claim the existence of an oligarchy with central power around Malao – Berbera is the fact that the local inhabitants took their destiny in their own hands, fought hard to preserve their right to sail and transport their products across the straits to Mouza in Yemen, made of their land a favorite location for Indian merchandises’ transit, and opposed foreign threats that may have come from either shores of the Red Sea.

 

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

[THE EMPEROR]

also check out the mighty ADAL EMPIRE

 

http://www.somaliaonline.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=006555

 

It was on the 13th century that came to the light, in Horn of Africa, one of the strongest Empires that existed in East Africa. Adal Empire had its origine in the city of Zeyla, situated until today in the northern region of the former Democratic Republic of Somalia. The father of that State was King Omar D. Ahmed (nicknamed Aw-Barkhadle). The king who had a long life, occupied the throne for many years. When he passed away, he left behind him many children, mainly males. Among them, the successors to the throne who inherited the kingdom. Later, Adal Empire became an Islamic Empire that expanded the religion of Islam with determination, into the entire Horn of Africa.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

one there are no one single african race or features but many. For example, there are afro-asians, Bantu, Nilo- saharans, koi-sans and Austronesians. However you look at it, Somalis and arabs are related. linguistically, we are both Afro-asiatic. biblically Arabs are decended from shem, son of Noah and Somalis, like other cushites, are decended from Ham, also son Noah. We divide from afro-asiatic into hammite-cushites and Semites. Some hammites such as amharahs speak semitic languages.

hopes that helps

[Modesty]

we're somalis, why are we always claiming the lighter side of our past? for example why do we only mention arabs? Why do we not say we're african and live with it, subhan'Allah.

[rudy-Diiriye]

modesty! lately, i am digging yah sista! u is making it real!! so say it so on the money

 

low thinking malis are adicted to this arabian connections thingy which basically justifies why many use diana cream!

 

moi, me likes dark sistas! they true african queens!! i dont think non of us pure malis gotta a spill of arabian genes! hi 5 for our african genes!! :cool:

[Abdi2005]

Somalis are not a mix of something, we know that when two different races inter mix you will get many variations and different looks, so if somalis are mixture of oromo and arabs then we would look like the people of khartum, Oman or even Barawe in somalia with allot of variations in colors, nose, hear and etc. If you go to one somali city or village you will see they all look the same in color length and the face, this is enough evidence that we are no a mixture.

[Maf Kees]

We are no mixture. If we had Arab forefathers, we would be speaking and dressing like Arabs.

 

We are just one of the many varieties of the African peoples.

[Modesty]

well 5 five back@ Rudy, gosh you must yell alot too!!!!!!!!!

 

Also, it is possible that somalis have connection with ethiopia, but of course we look better than ethiopians

[Pure blood]

Fawzi, all Somalis do not have the same biological father, and only one clan descended from a crab man.