Questions? Africans or Arabs

[adan]

For a long time the arabs have done nothing for us and certainly they don't want our oil to digged. Arab countries work for the interest of their own. What we must understand that Arabs are made that way by their leaders. Dictators who don't give a damn of what their people think and also some arab population have hatred toward us, which I do not understand. We'll see if they change, only time will tell.

[Bachelor]

Hey Motercycle!

Let me make some correction instead of "Friend" let me call it "acquaintance". PUNCH him..hmmmmm. Isnt it the violance which all makes us stateless people? beside he was way stroger than me so i wont mess whit such ignorant and mucile brain..lol. Let me answer your Question. I DO MARK (BLACK)IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCE. Inever consider myself Black at all time so does many Spmalis. Anyways Mr. Cruiser i see you got a nice blondy hair i wonder if you are a somali?

Take care guys.

[nice-guy]

well said...

 

i am glad tat im not arab as most of us agreed here...but the thing is africans dont see us as black-africans and just call u somali,

in the UK most companies application form's ethnic origin section policies are written like this..whites, asians,black/africans, or somalians...

which simple shows other races tat u r not arab or black african....so my pple wat r we without an argument?

and do u think we should just be happy to be known as somalians? cos we all know tat we dont have fullsimlarities with both races.

 

conclusion.

I AM MUSLIM, AND I AM FROM BIG,BEUTIFUL COUNTRY CALLED SOMALIA.

 

P.S.a nice-guy to.

HAVE I GOT ANY ONE WITH ME?

 

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when will be patriots again? i wonder..

[Hibo]

What kind of question is African or Arab?

 

I suggest you look at the nearest map and look at what continent we're sittin' on. If you are Somali...You are African...therefore Black..therefore not Arab.

 

 

[Bachelor]

Well said opinionated. You put it in a very logic way.I cant agree more. Please tell those Arab "wanna be" poor and lost genenration. Couldnt even know what is their identity.

 

Peace.

 

[Abdinuur]

See...what happened was...long time ago...there was a man livin' in East Africa...some where on the Gulf of Aden...and saw this gorgeous brown skinned...maxaa gaagalay ah...girl, and he had game, too...so, he approached the girl and asked if she wanted to make some family...you know...and so she agreed on...and out the blue sky...a Somali person was born...at the time, the word somali was unknown...however, later on the centry, a villager who used to play the drums...made these wierd sounds...and it when some like...SO-MA-LI-YA...and so the villager adopted this name...

 

...so make the long story short, my friends, we are Somalis...I mean how did white Europeans came about...or even Arabs came on earth...Allah created us...obviously everything...our descendants are Somalis...how about that...?

[mohamedj]

You cannot stop what others consider themselves or call themselves.. however, I am not arab or African. the word african doesnot imply or even is a nationality or race . it is a name coinedby white imprialists . it doesnot mean race or nationality or territory controlled by a goverment .. perhaps different and hundreds of thousands of pple who have different culture, language and even colour.. several african countries has a white population .. there are arab countries in africa..

 

I am somali .. my country is somaliland...

so let arab or african go the hell if they choose as i dont care about their business

[Zambian]

You are a Somali by identification, You are an African by ethnicity.

 

incase you guys never heard somalia is called HORN OF AFRICA.

 

 

so please why do you wanna take the HORN away, and leave it HORN less?!!!!!

[Hibo]

Well, I have a theory to prove that we have nada-in-common with Black people of "Negriod feature". The land of PUNT or the people of the punt where when the Egyptian Queen visited was said to have no translater with her, shows that we have something in common with the Egyptians and Nubains. That is one of the many proofs I can recite

 

Studying the skeletons of the Ancient Egyptians have shown the similarities between them and the PUNTS now known as Somalis. On the other hand if you've studied or read something about the "Persepolis" or the "parsian city" around the current land called Iran, then you will find the 23 delegation from all nations including Somalis placed/carved onto the South Panel of the apadana palace in the same place as Sagartians,Parthians, Egyptians, Aryans, Babylonians, Indians, Slogdians and others. So, this is a clear sign of where our origin lean, and on the other side the chinese history books have noted "PUNTland"(Somalia) as a trade zone which traded with ancient Greeks and Chinese. It means that the Punt had existed and was trading with others from across the globe over many centuries.

 

These theories might not show us what we are looking for interms of true IDENTITY, but certainly I dont believe we have anything in common with either ARABS or AFRICANS. So i suggest it is time find out where we belong instead being in a state of confusion.

 

We are mono-typic just as the early Egyptians and we are related to Nubians, Beja, Hamer and others, we are unique and we are Somalis

[walaashiis]

before i thought that we as somali have nothing in common with the arab therefore we are not arab but as JamaaL-11 laterest post it got me think so i search and it return out that we have roots in arab... all the search say that in Between the 7th and 10th cent., immigrant Muslim Arabs and Persians established trading posts along Somalia's Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean coasts; ....well here is site for more read

 

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/somalia/history.html

 

 

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0861179.html

 

http://www.al-bab.com/arab/countries/somalia/politics.htm

 

i think we are arab since we have more common with culture --food music etc but we are ignorant

 

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[Hibo]

If the quastion here is ''are we black'' then the answer without doubt is yesss coz our colour is black.But if the answer is are we 'BANTUS'then the answer is NO. if the quastion is ''are we africans then the answer is yess'' coz we are in the African continent. but if the quastion is are we arabs the answer is definitely ''NO'' we dont look like arabs and we are not in the arab gulf. if the question is are we muslims then the answer is 'BIG YES'.

 

here in the UK whenever i face filling forms i tick ''Black Africans''but i know that does not describe us and the best desciption i think is ''Somalians'' overall we existed as far as the old ancient go if you read the history. So wake guys and call yourselves somalians and do not accept ppl to call more than that or less u are somali and is it.

 

U will receive recognition from other ppl if you recognize yourselves. for example part of london where there are large somali community the forms have the description ''Somalians'' and you can do that anywhere in the world if you recognize yourselves.

 

By the way i like the way jamaal-11 derived the history and that is the nearest we can go.

 

goodluck bye

[Hibo]

Somalis are Africans ...... but just like our position in the continent .... we stick out a bit.... so we are a lil differnt.

 

 

As far I am concerned, We are Somaali. full stop!

[Hibo]

Our ego says we are not Africans cause somehow our morphologies are a bit different from others. We are a proud race and because we are just that, we cant associate ourselves with the underdeveloped world because we think we are better and perhaps more developed but reality says otherwise and so we still Africans, underdeveloped and our geographical location is known as the Horn of Africa.

A lot of the Somalis I have encountered would like to be associated with the Arab race but that too would not hold water and would be unbecoming as we are totally different. What brings us together is the Moslem faith period.

 

Among ancient Egyptians, Somalia was known as the Land of Punt and was renowned for its frankincense and myrrh, which it still exports. Descriptions of the northern inhabitants of the region are found in The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, an A.D. 60 Greek guide to sailors, and in Ptolemy's Geography, compiled between the 2nd and 5th centuries; contact with Egyptian, Phoenician, Persian, Greek, and Roman traders dates to this time. In the 10th century, Chinese merchants returned home from Somalia with giraffes, leopards, and tortoises for the imperial menagerie. By this time, Arab and Persian merchants had established towns along the coasts of the northern plains and the Indian Ocean.

 

In a nutshell, whatever our desires we belong to the African continent and that makes us Africans and most of all Somalis.

 

 

 

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(il),-`` (li),` ((!.-` S-h-a-q-ss-ii

[Bohemian]

 

Good morning/afternoon/evening,

 

First of all I would like to say that this forum is very informative, Í'm fresh arrival to this site and so far I've noticed that there is a feeling for order here.

 

Somalistar, thanks for raising such an essential Q, it surely is something to ponder over. Now to your Q, is Somalia an arab or an african country? Firstly, we wouldn't ask ourselves such a simple Q if we had a country or if we fought for one Somalia and stopped this constant divission.

Secondly, when growing up we were told different versions of our origin and identity.....I remember my granny telling us unbelievable stories about where we originated from and according to her that explained our distinctive feature. Some families would rather teach you(as a family member)and preach about the clan you belong to than the actual identity. Many regard themselves as being somalis, period, but when you are explaining to an individual who've never heard of Somalia..then you would probably try to explain by drawing the map and point the horn of Africa, right! However, when Jamaal-11, is saying that we are simply somalis.....neither africans nor arabs....then that is when the real confussion arises.

Jamaal-11, what you are saying about our identity and history is relavant and illuminating, it is good to have a man of extensive reading on board, but do we have to go through that "mono-typic" explanation which is very tedious not to mention how wearisome it is to say "Hi..I'm Bohemian from Somalia, but reside in the west, ooh and by the way I'm mono-typic"

 

Bachelor, you said that you've never considered yourself as black....then my dear brother how do u consider yourself?......I'm very curious!

 

Mohamed, I'm very confused with your reasoning on this issue. Not only are we struggling here to identify ourself; whether we are african with a bit diluted to an arab blood, or just african, you also overload us with another confussion. Call me a visionary person....I only see one Somalia.

I might be wrong Mohamed, but I think it is misleading when you say that you're a somali, but your country is Somaliland. Walaalo, doesn't Somaliland, Jubaland, Puntland or Bohemianland(my own piece of land) account to one country, namely Somalia?

 

I must agree with Opinianated, Zambian and haraky.......my goodness folks there is one somalia and the product of that precious country are somalis and africans, why do we have to be distinct from the rest of africans or divide us.

 

Allah unite Somalia...Aameen!

 

[Hibo]

I don't understand why any somali will choose to be a second class to any one...those who chose to be arabs you guys are second classes to them.....we are black africans and that is it.....What the hell is monochrome? some biochemistry element or some...