Nasiib Buundo

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Salaan...

 

On the festive occasion of Kowda Luulyo, I would like to represent a man that was largely forgotten or deliberately erased from Soomaali history. His contribution to Soomaali history is astounding, and yet few Soomaalis ever heard this intriguing person. Who was he?

 

T radition attributes to Nasiib Buunda many of the institutions and customs noted by the early colonial authorities in Goshaland. It is said that he sought to reinstate the practice of organizing villages along ethnic lines. He may also be responsible for the practice of appointing sagale to supervise newly arrived immigrants and thereby ensuring his control of the burgeoning Gosha settlements.

 

He established certain rules of land tenure: no free Somalis were allowed to settle in Goshaland, for example, and land abandoned for four years reverted back to the village gamas--its founding families. Finally, he is said to have established penalties for a number of crimes, including rape, adultery, homicide, cannibalism (witchcraft?), and injury or insult to headmen or sagale (Zoli 1927:149-150, 181-182, 244-245, 25 3-259).

From the fragmentary evidence, one can infer some of the sources of Nasiib Buunda’s power and the mechanisms he used to extend it over Goshaland. Some of these mechanisms dearly built upon existing beliefs of the settlers; others grew out of the peculiar circumstances of late nineteenth century Somalia and involved alliances with elements of the surrounding Somali society.

 

Nasiib Buunda is remembered as a courageous warrior and military leader. Many stories speak of his success in defending his followers against their former Somali masters. A string of early successes against Ogaadeeen and Biimaal raiding parties enhanced his reputation as both protector and magician; he was said to be able to summon the animals of the forest and river to his cause (Fieldnotes 1971, Rossetti I900).

 

Age-classes do not seem to have been institutionalized in Goshaland, but all able-bodied males had to give military service and each village of the confederation had a military head responsible for its contingent of militiamen. With arms acquired from Zanzibari traders in the 1880’s, Nasiib Buunda created a special force of musket bearers under his own command and it became the core of his fighting forces, supported by a second line of archers and spear bearers (Zoli 1927:198). Firearms enabled Goshaland to take the offensive in the last few years of the century: on one occasion, Nasiib Buunda directed an attack against a Somali zariba (nomadic thorn enclosure) in retaliation for a Somali raid on a friendly caravan trader (Robecchi.-Brichetti 1899:209).

 

But it was not only military success that secured Nasiib Buunda’s reputation. He was an acknowledged master of the mystical arts, combining Islamic and African practices in exercising his leadership. His reputed ability to command animals in defending Goshaland has already been mentioned. Rather less popular was his supposed power over the crocodiles of the Juba, which he used against Gosha rivals; and he threatened family heads with gory death if they refused to give him their daughters in marriage. Given the unfamiliar surroundings with its unknown spirits, it is not surprising that the settlers should emphasize their leader’s supernatural powers. Religious specialists often play an important role in frontier situations, as in the already noted instance of the Zigua mganga,s. What Nasiib Buunda did was to combine supernatural expertise military prowess. His claim to Islamic mystical knowledge contributed further to his prestige among his overwhelmingly illiterate followers, for it suggested control in the world of their former masters. Islamic trappings also provided a source of political legitimacy that transcended ethnic ties. It is not surprising that after 1885 Nasiib Buunda styled himself "sultan" of Goshaland--and was recognized as such by Zanzibar and, later, European authorities. In the 1890’s, an Italian traveler found in Nasiib’s employ a learned Muslim secretary who served him as adviser and correspondent with Muslim authorities in Baraawe and Zanzibar (cited in Rossetti I900:36).

 

Nasiib Buunda’s policies were conditioned by the proximity of other political communities. A shrewd diplomat, he effectively used external alliances with neighboring Somalis and with Arab representatives of the sultans of Zanzibar. In his earlier years, it appears, Nasiib Buunda was hostile to all Somali clans save the Tunni, one of whom had rescued him from slavery and whose notables helped him gain recognition from the Egyptian expedition. Peaceful relations with the Tunni involved trade and the diffusion of Islamic learning. On at least one occasion, Nasiib and some followers visited Baraawe, a center of the Qadiriya Muslim brotherhood and the main trading town of the Tunni (Rossetti 1900:33).

 

More surprising, however, is the apparent accord that Nasiib Buunda reached with segments of the Biimaal and Sheekhal Somali. These largely pastoral clans had occupied the coastal plains between Baraawe and the Juba River about the time Nasiib Buunda first settled in Goshaland, and they had periodically attacked isolated hamlets and taken the local people as slave. After several indecisive skirmishes, Nasiib Buunda apparently decided to neutralize them. He agreed not to admit his territory any runaway slaves from these clans (Zoli 1927:199). In exchange, Biimaal and Sheekhal raids on Gosha people diminished; the exchange of crops for livestock products became easier; and Nasiib Buunda had perhaps secured external allies in his struggle for domination of the Gosha confederation. Clearly, once Nasiib had achieved internal Gosha leadership, its maintenance required other kinds of skills.

 

Having built a reputation as an ardent foe of Somali domination, Nasiib Buunda sought, after 1885, outside recognition of his territorial supremacy. To do this, he needed a modus Vivendi with his neighbors. The task was greatly facilitated by the segmentary nature of Somali politics on the one hand and, on the other, by the desire of Zanzibar’s sultans now under increasing British influence-to promote peaceful trade in their vast East African dominions.

 

Among the Somali, frequent feuding lineages and clan segments encouraged a politics of limited alliances that achieved temporary balance of power in districts where resources had to be shared. Nasiib adapted this system to his own needs. By allying himself with certain Somali clans, he reduced the threat to Goshaland’s insured a certain respect from other Somali clans who strength that such alliances could bring. Thus, while internally the Gosha polity was built on social, political, and religious principles shared by the most of the settlers, its external relations had to borrow from the pragmatic Somali model. There is no evidence of any ritual sanctions or explanations of these alliances.

 

Nasiib Buunda’s accommodation with the Zanzibar regime upon his short-lived recognition by the Egyptian expedition, which saw as a direct challenge to its supremacy in East Africa.

 

No policy used Zanzibar’s official efforts to end the slave trade and sub-trade in other commodities. Sultan Barghash’s efforts to establish trading stations along the Somali coast had found little Somali support and frequent Somali hostility. The emergence of the Gosha enclave held out to Zanzibar the prospect of a new market and a commercial corridor to interior. Hence, by the 1880’s, Nasiib Buunda was able to secure Zanzibar’s recognition of his authority (together with supply of firearms and ammunition) in exchange for his acceptance of the Sultan’s right to t up the Juba, a trade that never amounted to much.

 

When, in 1890, British and Italian authorities moved to respective claims to what were to become the two Somalilands, he sought support of the "Sultan of Goshaland" by promising aim a strip. However, while the European powers were interested in creating a zone from which they could move out to subdue rebellious Somali clans the hinterland, Nasiib Buunda was concerned with maintaining his control over the segments of his confederation. As old rivals like Songollo Mafulla threw in their lot with the British, Nasiib appears to have immersed himself even more in the anti-European politics of the surrounding Somali. His followers began covertly to supply food (and perhaps firearms) to Ogaadeeen Somali, then in revolt against the British. On the Italian side of the Juba, he continued to attack Somali traders, leading the Italian resident to threaten him with imprisonment.

 

By 1903, it was reported that a belligerent Nasiib Buunda was corresponding with Mohammed Abdille Hassan the so-called "Mad Mullah" who was waging a holy war against British and Italian infidels in northern Somalia and was looking for allies in the south (Chiesi 19o9:631-634). Nasiib Buunda’s importance in the region may be gauged from the fact that Gosha at the time represented a force of 800 to 1,000 guns, excluding thousands of archers and spear bearers.

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Source

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1 The article mentions some qabiils by name, which I wanted to change in order to adhere the policy of the forum; however I left them for being indispensable and very relevant to the article. My apologies in advance.

 

2 Edited for the sake of clarity.

[OLOL]

Indeed Nasiib Buundo was a great Somali Hero!

 

Thanks MMA for sharing this with us.

 

What a coincidence!, my mom's pple used to live around a street named after him ....in Boondheere!

[NASSIR]

But it was not only military success that secured Nasiib Buunda’s reputation. He was an acknowledged master of the mystical arts, combining Islamic and African practices in exercising his leadership. His reputed ability to command animals in defending Goshaland has already been mentioned. Rather less popular was his supposed power over the crocodiles of the Juba, which he used against Gosha rivals; and he threatened family heads with gory death if they refused to give him their daughters in marriage.

 

 

This is a story i have heard when i was young and it became a real custom for the river-dwelling folks. I have even heard of an incident where a man of Gosha flirted with a good looking Somali woman. She turned him down and he was said to have used his mystical power over the crocodiles to bait the woman. So, one day she magically came to the river by her late model car. She was then snatched by a crocodile and took her to the man.

 

 

I have always thought of the story as an imaginary tale from Gosha. What is so true about it?

[Young Jeezy]

Many stories speak of his success in defending his followers against their former Somali masters.

Somalis enslaved the people of the Gosha? I never heard of this before. I thought it was the arab slave traders.

[NASSIR]

Jason, yes Somalis enslaved people from Tanzania and Zanzibar. Nasib Bundo was a hero just like Denmark's slave revolt in Charleston, U.S.A before his coup to take over the whole city was foiled by one of his friend. He and his followers were later executed.