Lets Map Somalia....

[- Femme -]

I hate the endless and quite annoying/boring tug-of-war between african and arab identity. What benefit is it to us to know? Why do we really care? How is that to help us in any way?

 

Major case of identity crisis in hapening in the somali population! Do you realize (isnt it funny--in an ironic sort of way) that although we argue on whether we are ARAB or ARFRICAN we (some? majority?) put down both RACES! And still think we are superior to both. Yaab. I wont even try to understand it.

 

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African Studies Centre---Somalia (really interesting site---the best so far in my opinion)

 

CONTAINS:

 

- Banknotes

 

-Bird Stamps

 

- Images of animals, landscape, plants---dry tropical habitat

 

- A Country Study---check it out.

 

- Languages spoken

[juba]

^ i see what you mean FF, there are somalis that would rather be their OWN race! but i for one am not confused.

[QUANTUM LEAP]

Hey Juba sorry for the mistaken Identity for some reason I thought u were male but hmm forgive me for that.

 

As for Somalis having some Arab blood in them, well you cant just sweep history under your carpet bse u think its abad mentality. And by the way its not about pride but facts.

 

You have your own opinions and I respect that and others too have their say and that doesnt really mean they are siding with any side. Why would you want to talk about siding with group or the other when you can analyse and find facts for yourself.

 

I dont really care about them and us liking each other. What we are trying to discuss here are historical issues rather than be caught up with what is very familiar amongst somalis which is tag of wars and siding with one side or the other. Look at facts for themselves rather than jump the gun all the time. Try to read and understand the Origins of Somalis albeit the history facts being kind of hazy and not so clear with different schools of thought being put around.

[NGONGE]

Going to sleep now, but thought I'll leave you this to chew on

 

In mind the Somal are peculiar as in body. They are a people of most susceptible character, and withal uncommonly hard to please. They dislike the Arabs, fear and abhor the Turks, have a horror of Franks, and despise all other Asiatics who with them come under the general name of Hindi (Indians). The latter are abused on all occasions for cowardice, and a want of generosity, which has given rise to the following piquant epigram:

 

“Ask not from the Hindi thy want:

Impossible that the Hindi can be generous!

Had there been one liberal man in El Hind,

Allah had raised up a prophet in El Hind!â€

They have all the levity and instability of the Negro character; light-minded as the Abyssinians,—described by Gobat as constant in nothing but inconstancy,—soft, merry, and affectionate souls, they pass without any apparent transition into a state of fury, when they are capable of terrible atrocities. At Aden they appear happier than in their native country. There I have often seen a man clapping his hands and dancing, childlike, alone to relieve the exuberance of his spirits: here they become, as the Mongols and other pastoral people, a melancholy race, who will sit for hours upon a bank gazing at the moon, or croning some old ditty under the trees. This state is doubtless increased by the perpetual presence of danger and the uncertainty of life, which make them think of other things but dancing and singing. Much learning seems to make them mad; like the half-crazy Fakihs of the Sahara in Northern Africa, the Widad, or priest, is generally unfitted for the affairs of this world, and the Hafiz or Koran-reciter, is almost idiotic. As regards courage, they are no exception to the generality of savage races. They have none of the recklessness standing in lieu of creed which characterises the civilised man. In their great battles a score is considered a heavy loss; usually they will run after the fall of half a dozen: amongst a Kraal full of braves who boast a hundred murders, not a single maimed or wounded man will be seen, whereas in an Arabian camp half the male population will bear the marks of lead and steel. The bravest will shirk fighting if he has forgotten his shield: the sight of a lion and the sound of a gun elicit screams of terror, and their Kaum or forays much resemble the style of tactics rendered obsolete by the Great Turenne, when the tactician’s chief aim was not to fall in with his enemy. Yet they are by no means deficient in the wily valour of wild men: two or three will murder a sleeper bravely enough; and when the passions of rival tribes, between whom there has been a blood feud for ages, are violently excited, they will use with asperity the dagger and spear. Their massacres are fearful. In February, 1847, a small sept, the Ayyal Tunis, being expelled from Berberah, settled at the roadstead of Bulhar, where a few merchants, principally Indian and Arab, joined them. The men were in the habit of leaving their women and children, sick and aged, at the encampment inland, whilst, descending to the beach, they carried on their trade. One day, as they were thus employed, unsuspicious of danger, a foraging party of about 2500 Eesas attacked the camp: men, women, and children were indiscriminately put to the spear, and the plunderers returned to their villages in safety, laden with an immense amount of booty. At present, a man armed with a revolver would be a terror to the country; the day, however, will come when the matchlock will supersede the assegai, and then the harmless spearman in his strong mountains will become, like the Arab, a formidable foe. Travelling among the Bedouins, I found them kind and hospitable. A pinch of snuff or a handful of tobacco sufficed to win every heart, and a few yards of coarse cotton cloth supplied all our wants, I was petted like a child, forced to drink milk and to eat mutton; girls were offered to me in marriage; the people begged me to settle amongst them, to head their predatory expeditions, free them from lions, and kill their elephants; and often a man has exclaimed in pitying accents, “What hath brought thee, delicate as thou art, to sit with us on the cowhide in this cold under a tree?†Of course they were beggars, princes and paupers, lairds and loons, being all equally unfortunate; the Arabs have named the country Bilad Wa Issi,—the “Land of Give me Something;â€â€”but their wants were easily satisfied, and the open hand always made a friend.

There is more in the e-book.

 

First footsteps in East Africa - Sir Richard Burton

[juba]

Originally posted by QUANTUM LEAP:

Hey Juba sorry for the mistaken Identity for some reason I thought u were male but hmm forgive me for that.

 

As for Somalis having some Arab blood in them, well you cant just sweep history under your carpet bse u think its abad mentality. And by the way its not about pride but facts.

 

You have your own opinions and I respect that and others too have their say and that doesnt really mean they are siding with any side. Why would you want to talk about siding with group or the other when you can analyse and find facts for yourself.

 

I dont really care about them and us liking each other. What we are trying to discuss here are historical issues rather than be caught up with what is very familiar amongst somalis which is tag of wars and siding with one side or the other. Look at facts for themselves rather than jump the gun all the time. Try to read and understand the Origins of Somalis albeit the history facts being kind of hazy and not so clear with different schools of thought being put around.

i understand bro, no need to deny history right? well that whole identity issue is to complex to delve into (and a little frustrating i must admit) i think ill let it rest know

[Sniper]

lets share it, not split it.....what is wrong with these ppl.

[rudy-Diiriye]

amiin Sniper! cant we all get along!! how times do i have to say that! i am willing to share, are you?

 

after all, this ill thread was started by an admin!@!! :confused: :confused:

[Som@li]

this thread is very valuable, the history of somalis are still not clear, the last regime did not did spent much time to rediscover the roots of somalis,some say we are have a link with the arabs, but i believe that was merely to justtify the membership,and somalis have thier own history dated back thousands of years.

 

It is matter of time profing by digging into the past. With honest archaeologist,Insha allah many of u will be surprised with new history of somalia.

[Som@li]

Check the following link with complete cultural profile:

 

Somalia Cultural profile

Somalia cultural profile in PDF

Hinth: those wish can print the pdf version and educate the young ones abt the culture.

[QUANTUM LEAP]

Thanks Farxan for the links provided. I would say one of the reasons why there is a lot of instability and why the country is torn apart is because there is no understanding of what we are all about. Most if not all Somalis virtually don’t have a clue of what Somalism is and the nature of the people and their different identities. If we knew what made us tick, we wouldn’t be caught up in wars but we would strive for what is best for every Somali.

 

We behave like we are from different planets just because we have no clue as to what is what and important for us for the future. We hell bent on destroying what we should keep close to our hearts and anyone who is of a different opinion is clearly an outcast.

 

Wouldnt it be nice to have different schools of thought without killing each other for it and still remain loyal to ourselves in the face of adversities.

[Loyan]

Anyone who like to know the truth about our tribal systems I will recommend reading the book "Somalia: Nation in Search of a State" by Professor Said Samatar.

 

In one of the chapters, the book argues that the Somali tribal forefathers (but any qabiil name here) are myth.

 

By the way, the famous CIA country profile available on the net is based on this book for their somali sections. Many parts of the book is controversial. If you have an open mind, this book may change your perceptions.

[QUANTUM LEAP]

Thanks Loyan sounds like a good read however, someone should write another entitled "Nation in Search of if lost sheep"

[NASSIR]

I found this valuable info. I will post each topic and subtopic as summary.

 

 

A Pastoral Democracy

A STUDY OF PASTORALISM AND POLITICS AMONG THE NORTHERN SOMALI OF THE HORN OF AFRICA

 

I.M Lewis

 

 

Introduction

I

T HIS book is a study in the pastoral habits and political institutions of the northern Somali of the Horn of Africa. Like many pastoral nomads who range far and wide with their herds of camels and flocks, the Somali have no indigenous centralized government. And this lack of formal government and of instituted authority is strongly reflected in their extreme independence and individualism. Few writers have failed to notice the formidable pride of the Somali nomad, his extraordinary sense of superiority as an individual, and his firm conviction that he is sole master of his actions and subject to no authority except that of God. If they have perceived it, however, they have for the most part been baffled by the shifting character of the nomad's political allegiance and puzzled by the fact that the political and jural unit with which he acts on one occasion he opposes on another. 1

 

Few societies can so conspicuously lack those judicial, administrative, and political procedures which lie at the heart of the western conception of government. The traditional northern Somali political system has no chiefs to run it and no formal judiciary to control it. Men are divided amongst political units without any administrative hierarchy of officials and with no instituted positions of leadership to direct their affairs. Yet, although they thus lack to a remarkable degree all the machinery of centralized government, they are not without government or political institutions.

 

In the first place the key to Somali politics lies in kinship. All northern Somali political units are based on kinship and are composed of men who trace descent through males to a common male ancestor from whom they take their corporate name. Political affiliation is thus determined by agnatic descent and political divisions correspond to differences in agnatic origin.

 

Ecology and Clan

IT is impossible to reach any understanding of Somali political relations without having some knowledge of the country and of the climatic conditions which limit their economy and patterns of territorial dispersion. Accordingly, I begin this analysis of political organization with an account of the main ecological and climatic factors to which the grazing movements of the northern pastoralists have to conform. And in a later chapter I discuss the modifications wrought in the pastoral territorial organization by settlement in towns and trade villages and by the adoption of cultivation.

 

As a whole the environment is not promising. Northern Somaliland is for the most part a semi-desert area of low rainfall and scrub bush. The annual precipitation in many places is less than four inches, although on high gound it is generally more, and in some parts attains as much as twenty inches. The distribution of rain is thus uneven and for the major part of the country cultivation, under the present conditions, is impossible. It is only the richer soils of the highlands in the west of the British Protectorate and Harar Province of Ethiopia which, with their relatively abundant rainfall, allow sorghum to be grown in quantity. In these favoured regions mixed farming is practised and, as will be shown in Chapter IV, here there is some development of a sense of attachment to territory. But this is not found elsewhere. For the barrenness of the greater part of the country has led the majority of the northern Somali to live as nomadic pastoralists, rearing sheep, goats and camels, and less commonly, cattle. Cattle husbandry is really only important in the cultivating regions where it is associated with agriculture. And it is the husbandry of camels, sheep and goats, which characterizes the northern Somali economy.

 

The monotony of the seemingly endless wastes of bare plain which make up much of northern Somaliland is broken in many places by massive and magnificent mountain ranges, particularly those which sweep from the northern escarpment to the

 

Pastoralism and the structure of Grazing Encampments

 

I F clans and larger lineage-groups are fairly regular in their displacements through the seasons from year to year, the same cannot be said of the nomadic hamlets and camel-camps which are the basic units of movement. The apparent regularity at the level of the clan is thus only a generalization from the more irregular pattern of movement of its component units. That movement at one level appears different in character to that at another may seem paradoxical, but it is, after all, only a matter of the various levels of abstraction which we adopt in description.

 

With its flocks of sheep and goats, the nuclear family is called ḥaas . This term connotes weakness: it refers to the demanding water requirements of the flocks, and to the fact that the family consisting of a mother and her young children is primarily thought of as a group particularly vulnerable to the exigencies of the climate. The word raas is also used. This expression refers to the internal perimeter at the base of the nomadic hut and denotes the nuclear family as a group living in, and moving with, the nomadic hut ( aqal ). Each married woman, periodically accompanied by her husband, moves with the hut and burden camels necessary for its transport. Ideally two or three camels are sufficient for the transport of the nuclear family, the hut, and all its effects. Not every family, however, possesses enough burden camels to move it comfortably. And in these circumstances, close agnates generally, and cognates and affines, share camels when required to do so.

 

The loading and un-loading of the camels, and the erection and dismantling of the nomadic hut with its curved wooden supports and grass and skin coverings, are women's work. In these tasks a wife is assisted by other women--as well as her daughters --who happen to move with her. And although all this is strictly the province of women, when haste is called for, men do not hesitate to lend a hand.

 

Settlement and Cultivation

I

IT was shown in the previous chapters that within the territory grazed by a clan, although primary lineage-groups are not geographical units, people of the same lineage tend to camp side by side where they are temporarily gathered in a region of pasture. This distribution which brings people of the same lineage-group together with their livestock, particularly the camels, in which they have a collective interest is especially marked in time of war. The same tendency for lineages to provide nuclei of settlement is found also in the villages and towns which to some extent demarcate the nomadic movements of the pastoralists, and in the cultivating centres in the north-west of Somaliland.

 

The villages (sg. tuulo ) and towns (sg. magaalo ) which are the centres of trade are widely scattered and vary greatly in size from minor settlements of less than a hundred permanent inhabitants to the larger towns such as Hargeisa with a population of about 30,000-40,000, Jibuti with about 30,000 (of whom 15,000 are Somali), and Berbera with a population which fluctuates between some 15,000 and 30,000. Galkayu, the largest town in northern Somalia, has a municipal population of only 8,000 persons. Town populations fluctuate with the seasons. The number of their inhabitants is generally greatest in the dry months when they attract nomads from the interior as temporary settlers. In the rainy seasons the movement is away from the urban centres when temporary town-dwellers are drawn out with their stock to the pastures. The population of the ports also varies with the trade winds. From October to March during the north-east monsoon when the coast is open to dhows from Arabia, the Persian Gulf, and India, Berbera sometimes attains a population in the region of 30,000 people, while in the south-west monsoon this may drop below 20,000.

 

 

Clanship and the Paradigm of the Lineage System

THE preceding chapters have shown how the possession of livestock is tied to agnation and how clanship is the political principle regulating competition for sparse resources. It has been necessary to devote considerable space to the structure of the local units because these are based on political clanship. In later chapters we shall be concerned with the processes of social control; with the means by which lineage political relations are regulated. But before we can proceed further we have to examine the principles of lineage segmentation and the way in which lineage segments are articulated in the lineage system. Thus it is clanship and the morphology of the lineage system which form the subject of this chapter.

 

Somali politics are founded on the implicit values of agnation supplemented by the explicit bonds of contractual agreements amongst agnates. It is political contract which calls forth, marshals, and formalizes the implicit bonds which unite men of the same lineage. Political relations at every level of lineage segmentation have generally this two-fold character. In the following chapter I shall show how contract ( ḥeer ) is superimposed upon agnatic kinship ( tol ) to form political units whose members are united in the payment of blood-wealth and common political responsibility. This process is most binding and occurs most commonly with the dia-paying group; but as occasion demands it is also applied at other levels of segmentation within the general field of clanship.

 

CLANSHIP AND CONTRACT

CLANSHIP and contract are fundamental principles in the constitution of Somali political units. For clanship alone does not explain political solidarity, nor does contract act by itself except in exceptional cases. It is only in terms of the two taken together that it is possible to understand the political institutions of the northern pastoralists. Thus where agnatic kinsmen are parties to a political contract Somali speak of tol ḥeerleh , 'agnates bound by treaty'.

 

To understand how these two distinct principles interact and jointly contribute to the political solidarity of groups it is first necessary to consider the meaning of the word ḥeer . This word usually translated 'custom' has more specific connotations. 1 Its closest equivalents in English are compact, contract, agreement or treaty in a bilateral sense. Thus several men or parties are said to be of the same ḥeer ( waa is ku ḥeer ) when their relations are regulated by an agreement, either directly entered into by them or accepted as a legacy from their ancestors. 2 For contractual obligations may be entailed by a prior agreement binding the ancestors of persons or groups. And agreements can be contracted into and contracted out of.

 

 

AUTHORITY AND SANCTIONS

L ACK of any stable hierarchy of political units is characteristic of the Somali social system. In conformity with this, there is no formal hierarchy of political or administrative offices. Each of the main orders of segmentation--dia-paying group, primary lineage-group, and clan--does not have a specific office of leadership associated with it. At every level of lineage allegiance, political leadership lies with the elders of the group concerned, and only at the level of the clan is there sometimes the special office of clan-head. The position of the 'Sultans' who often, but by no means always, lead clans will be considered presently.

 

At every level of segmentation, all adult men are classed as elders ( oday , pl. odayaal ) with the right to speak at the councils (sg. shir ) which deliberate matters of common concern. Traditionally only sab bondsmen (Midgaans, Tumaals, and Yibirs) are excluded from direct participation in the political affairs of the noble Somali lineage to which they are attached. But now-adays, through employment in government service or trade in towns, some sab have amassed considerable wealth and have increased their status sufficiently to gain admission to the councils of the lineage of their traditional Somali patrons.

 

In principle, all adult males have an equal say, since all can speak in the councils of their group. Naturally, however, the opinions of different men carry different weight. Here status differences refer to wealth, inherited prestige, skill in public oratory and poetry, political acumen, age, wisdom, and other personal characteristics. Religious knowledge and piety, as evinced through such meritorious acts as pilgrimage to Mecca, and the regular observance of the daily prayers and obligatory fasts, earn a man respect and prestige. Although the formal distinction is made between those who devote their lives to religion ( wadaad ) and those whose lives are primarily taken up with.

 

 

Force and Feud

 

T HE northern Somali are essentially a warlike people who readily engage in battle or raiding to redress wrongs and injuries, to release pent-up enmities, to acquire or maintain honour, and to gain access to natural resources or to conserve their rights over them. The aim of aggression is not so much to subjugate enemies completely as to establish political ascendency. Somali wars are thus not properly wars of conquest, except in the limited sense of often giving the victors temporary grazing or watering rights in a particular region. While livestock are seized as booty and many raids made solely to loot camels, captives are rarely taken in battle since Somali have little use for them and do not seek to humiliate their adversaries in this fashion. 1

 

In a society such as this, where fighting potential very largely determines political status, feud and war 2 are instruments of power politics; they are the chief means by which the relations between groups are regulated. For ultimately, even under modern administration, the rights of groups are effectively protected only by force. In the form of collective vengeance, selfhelp is cannalized by lineage affiliation and given structural definition through the complementary principles of clanship and contract. With some exception only among the cultivators, outside and over and above dia-paying groups no impartial power except the Administration exists to control relations between lineages. In these circumstances, the ease with which individuals and groups resort to violence within the Muslim community and contrary to the principles of Islam has to be viewed in the ecological context of acute competition for sparse resources, and in the abrogation of individual responsibility through group loyalties.

 

Nationalism and Party Politics

T HIS account of the contemporary structure of northern Somali politics would be incomplete without some discussion of the new political movements to which allusion has been made in earlier chapters. Before concluding with a brief examination of the theoretical implications of the Somali system therefore, I discuss some of the main trends in recent political developments. For the historian and sociologist their significance lies in the close structural similarities which they display to the all-pervasive traditional system. For Somali party politics reveal very clearly the interplay of traditional lineage loyalties. Indeed, one of the main effects of the establishment of legislative bodies (in 1956 in Somalia; and in 1957 in French and British Somaliland) has been to provide a new medium for the expression of these traditional political forces. Nationalism and the new movements, have not superseded or replaced the traditional organization of society; they have merely supplemented it and extended its scope.

 

To understand their structure it is necessary to go beyond the immediate geographical and cultural limits which we have so far observed. It is essential to deal not only with the northern pastoralists, but also with the cultivating Digil and Rahanwiin tribes of the south. For these southern communities play an im- portant part in the modern political scene in Somalia. In their case the traditional barrier to the extension of national patriotism stems largely from the territorially based local interests which distinguish their political system from that of the northern pastoralists. For in southern Somalia, as has been observed, local contiguity to a considerable extent replaces the lineage and contractual attachments of the nomads. Since, however, the Digil and Rahanwiin make up only a minority of the entire Somali population it is chiefly the northern pastoral mode of life and political assumptions which challenge all attempts to create an .....

[QUANTUM LEAP]

Thanks caamir. By the way that picture of Lasqoreey is brilliant.

 

As for the topic....

For these southern communities play an im- portant part in the modern political scene in Somalia. In their case the traditional barrier to the extension of national patriotism stems largely from the territorially based local interests which distinguish their political system from that of the northern pastoralists. For in southern Somalia, as has been observed, local contiguity to a considerable extent replaces the lineage and contractual attachments of the nomads. Since, however, the Digil and Rahanwiin make up only a minority of the entire Somali population it is chiefly the northern pastoral mode of life and political assumptions which challenge all attempts to create an .....

Its about time the pastoral took a chapter from the land based Digir and Rahawayn and learned something from them. Time they learned agriculture would sustain the whole somalia and start to practice it as livestock and nomadism could only create erosions and arid lands which could easily make the paradise that is Somalia into a kalahari.

[Blessed]

I loves SOL, I does!

 

Finally, I get to leisurely sit in on a socio-cultural lecture based exclusively on Somalia and Somalis.

 

I can't fully express my gratitude at the amount of time and effort you guys have saved me. You little darlings, you Be blessed!

 

I'll insha Allah share what little information I have in my possession as soon as am done selfishly devouring this sea of information.

 

 

Originally posted by QUANTUM LEAP:

Thanks Loyan sounds like a good read however, someone should write another entitled "Nation in Search of if lost sheep"

That would be an enjoyable read.