Background check about the Nomads

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As wr wb ma fellow nomads After thorough research here s background check about the nomads. and I've ome across an article about the nomads :cool:

Even if Herbert Lewis presents no other evidence, except Dyen's theory, itself an intuitive postulation incapable of explaining all forms of linguistic diversity, he affirms, "At the moment we have no written evidence nor oral traditions to support this view, but neither, I submit, have we any evidence seriously to question it."17

 

 

To the contrary, Somali oral history as well as that of related groups such as those of the Oromo and even of the Bantu groups in Kenya provide abundant material about the general direction of Somali movements.

 

 

The version of southbound migration sketched by another scholar is more accurate in that it is corroborated by both Somali oral history

and accounts from early travelers. IS

 

 

The Somalis were still migrating southward in search of greener pastures when the British arrived in Kenya and put a stop to the Somali advance on what became British East Mrica.

 

 

One historian tells us that "the British government in Kenya halted the Somali migrations at the Tana River in 1910, and the point beyond which Somalis could not pass came to be known as the 'Somali line.' "19

 

 

Without that edict, Somalis would have been today probably south of Kilimanjaro and in Tanzania.

Ancient visitors to the Red Sea areas and to the Gulf of Aden systematically give descriptions of peoples whose modes of livelihood, government, culture, and even physical appearance agree with those of coastal Cushites such as Somalis and Mars.

 

 

Medieval Arabs knew today's Somalis as the Berbers, a name still borne by the port city of Berbera in the north. Medieval Arabs also traded with peoples farther south than Somalis in what became the Swahili city-states, but they knew the inhabitants of these areas as the Zenj.

 

The word Berber is itself related to the older word Barbaroi, which is used in the document Periplus Maris Erythraie (The Periplus of the Red Sea), a document written in Greek in the middle of the first century A.D?O

 

This document indicates that the Barbaroi, meaning the inhabitants of northern Somali coasts, were trading with the inhabitants of Arabia before Islam; they were also trading with Egypt, then under the Romans.

 

 

The document then lists some articles of commerce in the land of the Barbaroi such as frankin- cense; it also gives the names of some of the ports of the Barbaroi such as Avalites, doubtless today's Zeilah.

 

 

Other than the fact that the Barbaroi were able sailors and traversed the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden themselves for commercial purposes, what is more interesting is the comment on their mode of government.

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with each port city an independent political entity; they were, he wrote, an unruly people. From that description, it is certain that the author was writing about the ancestors of today's Somalis and other coastal Cushites. In fact, the mostly nomadic peoples of northeast Africa have been for most of their history without a king or feudal lord. The Englishman and explorer Richard Burton, arriving some 1,900 years on the same coasts after the Peril/us was written, found, in 1854, the same organizational mode among the Somalis and described them as "a fierce and turbulent race of republicans. "21

However, more ancient glimpses of these "republican" inhabitants of the coasts than those recorded by the Peril/us exist. For example, Herodotus wrote that the Ethiopians, meaning the peoples immediately south of Egypt,

, on the Red Sea coasts ate a lot of meat and drank a lot of milk; we learn also that they had little esteem for those who ate the fruits of the soil.22 These cultural traits are still mostly applicable even today to Somalis and their Afar neighbors. In contrast, their cousins, the aromo, have adopted, for the most part, an agriculture-based mode of life after having mixed with non-Cushite agriculturists in the southwest of today's Ethiopia and in the south of today's Somalia.

However, we can go further than the Greco-Roman times for information about the early inhabitants of the northern coasts. In the fifreenth century B.C. Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut sent a commercial expedition to Punt to get supplies of the precious myrrh and frankincense, so indispensable to their religion.23 The expedition arrived in what is today's northern coast, where the best frankincense in the world grows not far from the sea. Ancient Egyp- tians knew the difference between true frankincense and the varieties found much nearer their home in certain parts of the Sudan. After the return of the expedition, the queen had engraved the account of the event on murals at Deir el-Bahri near Luxor in the Valley of the Kings. What can be learned from the history of that voyage is that the Egyptians depicted themselves as arriving in the land of another brotherly people and that, during the course of their stay, they lived in the homes of the Puntites. We also learn from the murals that the people depicted, whether they were Egyptians or Puntites, looked alike, as far as physical appearance, clothing styles, pigmentation, and hairstyles were concerned.24 We can say those depicted resemble the Cushites such as Somalis still living on the same coasts.

What is more, whether it is by reason of a common linguistic origin or by reason of cultural influence, the Somali language has many terms that have an equivalent term in the religion of ancient Egyptians, which the Lewis-Turton hypotheses would not be able to explain since, according to their theories, Somalis were around Lake Turkana and far away from the

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Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden as recently as the dawn of the second millen- nium. An example of these words is the word neter for diverse divinities in Egyptian religion; the Somali equivalent is nidar, the righter of wrongs. So- malis say: Nibar baa ku heli (The Nidar will find and punish you). The Egyptian word of spirit (ba) has the Somali equivalent of bah (soul, courage). Somalis say: bahdii baa lata saaray (His essence and soul have been taken out from him; he has no more courage). There is also an equivalent for the Egyptian moon diety ayah in the Somali dayah (moon). Additionally, the huur bird (the marabou, a large black stork), the herald of death in Somali mythology, is akin to the Egyptian bird, Horus, depicted as the divinity of death.

The facts as we know them, either from historico-cultural sources or from the accounts of ancient, classical, or medieval travelers, tell us that the an- cestors of today's Somalis were in fairly stable existence for millennia in their northern homeland, following their herds of sheep and goats back and forth between mountain and coast in a pattern that still continues today.

In the end, increasing population and the need to find pasture for their livestock were the initial causes for the southward migration of Cushites; it might be said the direction of the migration was dictated by the sea barrier in the northern direction. Also, in the case of Somalis, their adoption of Islam incited them to propagate the faith. The mode of migration of Somalis was not a hapzard one, in fact Somali nomads sent exploratory expeditions (sahan) before breaking camp so that the maato (women and children) as well as boola (livestock) would not be exposed to danger from lack of water, pasture, or peace. Only when the saban were back and brought news of desirable pastures would the camp be broken. If therefore, Somalis were in northern Kenya any time before the nineteenth century, then they would have headed straight for the verdant lands of Kenya and Tanzania. It is highly improbable that they would have migrated northward in the direction of drier land.

Briefly the period from 1000 to 1900 witnessed a continual expansion of Somalis from their original coastal homeland downward to Kenya. In the west, Somali expansion was hindered by the Christian kingdoms, which themselves were expanding east, west, and south and constantly jostling with the Somalis, as the proponents of another missionary religion in the region.

As the Somalis advanced from their northern homeland, they clashed with the aromo who had preceded them in that direction. In the riverine areas of southern Somalia, they found diverse populations consisting of Galla pas- toralists and agropastoralists, agricultural Bantu populations who had stayed behind after the Oromo advance, leftovers from still older populations such

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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 .

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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

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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,

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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,

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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,

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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.

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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