Somali Bantus gain Tanzanian citizenship in their ancestral land

[Goodir]

CHOGO, Tanzania (UNHCR) - A further 1,500 refugees in Chogo settlement, in the north-eastern coastal region of Tanga, are still in the process of getting naturalized

 

Working and living alongside the local population, many of the Somali Bantu refugees and new citizens can trace their origins to this area of the country, from where their ancestors were transported as slaves. The refugees returned in the early 1990s fleeing civil war and the collapse of Siad Barre's regime in Somalia.

 

Back then, tens of thousands of Somalis travelled on overcrowded and rickety dhows to the Kenyan harbour of Mombasa. A small group of refugees of Bantu origin made their way even further south, to Tanga, reversing the path their ancestors had taken more than three centuries ago.

 

Ramadhani Abdalah, a Tanzanian Zigua farmer, remembers very well the day the refugees arrived in Tanga.

 

"I heard about refugees before, but when they came, it was my first time to actually see a refugee," he now recalls. "I was so surprised. They were talking in the same language as I do, Zigua, but they came from Somalia."

 

Ramadhani lives in one of the neighbouring villages of Chogo settlement where he prepares land for planting. He is hired by a former Somali Bantu farmer and is paid 12,000 Tanzanian shillings (about US$9) for each acre of land he clears.

 

At first the government of Tanzania, with assistance from UNHCR, hosted the Somali refugees in Mkuyu camp, also in Tanga region. In March 2003, more than 3,000 refugees were transferred from there to Chogo, a newly-constructed settlement some 80 kilometres away, in a move towards naturalizing the Somali Bantus who wished to stay.

 

Upon arrival in Chogo, each refugee family received more than 2.5 acres (about one hectare) of land, to farm and to build a home. With the help of UNHCR, working with the Tanzanian authorities and the Tanzanian non-governmental organization, Relief to Development Society, a school, health centre and market were constructed.

 

Since 2005, the new citizens and the 1,500 refugees awaiting citizenship have been supporting themselves and living together with the surrounding communities.

 

Haji Sefu Ali, one of the elders in Chogo, proudly shows off his farm. "In Chogo, we have named the villages after places in Somalia," he says. "We are tilling land, raising cattle and chicken and are taking care of ourselves."

 

Life has been a struggle, adds Fatouma, his neighbour and a grandmother of three, but "today, we are citizens of Tanzania. My granddaughters could even become president one day. In Somalia, for a Bantu, that would not be possible."

 

By Brendan Bannon and Eveline Wolfcarius

in Chogo, Tanzania

[Che -Guevara]

The question about the ancestry of the Somali Bantus is tricky one. I was always under impression it's the Somali that migrated from the north and settled in the south taking over the land of the natives (Somali Bantus)?

[MoonLight1]

first there was brain drain in somalia.

now its muscle drain coz these people used to do all heavy manual jobs that skinny nomads couldn't do, e.g faryaamo, fuundi, gaari gacanle,beeraleey etc. great loss, wish them well.

[Sherban Shabeel]

Originally posted by Che -Guevara:

The question about the ancestry of the Somali Bantus is tricky one. I was always under impression it's the Somali that migrated from the north and settled in the south taking over the land of the natives (Somali Bantus)?

That would be correct.

[wacdaraha_aduunka]

Sherban what evidence do you have of that, so you mean all somali clans trace their first appearance on the northern part of Somalia?

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

Che, Somalis captured the land from other cushitic peoples like the oromo-galla (gal kac yo) or nilotic people of kenya but not Bantu. The Bantu's where bought from Africa's interior by slave traders and these people escaped them in what used to be the jungles of southern Somalia.

[Chimera]

Somalis have been living in the Somali peninsula since the Doian (South)/Hargeisan (North) periods 6000 years ago, the ancient graves that 19th century Somalis said were build by Galaada(pagans/non-b elievers) is a reference to the non-muslim Somalis of antiquity and not Oromos or other groups as sometimes erroneously is claimed. The skull measurements from those graves were similar to those of 19th century Somali muslim skulls and different from those of Oromos. Climatic changes in a timespan of several thousand years is what enticed Somalis to go back and forth throughout the Horn of Africa, matter fact modern geneticists claim Somali ancestry can be traced back to an Ancient population from Egypt migrating to Somalia:

 

The M78 subclade of E1b1b is found in about 77% of Somali males which may represent the traces of an ancient migration into the Horn of Africa from the upper Egypt area - Sanchez et al

the Bantu expansion never reached the Horn of Africa, so there presence in Somalia is mainly due to slavery. There are however indiginous minor groups in the Horn of Africa that have been there for a long time though, but they speak a non-Bantu language and there is no evidence they have been there as long as say the ancestors of the majority populations of the Horn of Africa

 

I hope they have nice prospereous lives, that bit about them naming villages after places in Somalia cuts deep in the heart of any Wadani, wars are messed up, nothing is the way it was.

[Sherban Shabeel]

According to what I've read and heard, all Somalis come from the North. They expanded South in search of more grazing land.

[wacdaraha_aduunka]

I dont buy that Sherban its rather that what people call somalis were different groups of people living throughout somalia and became united by a language and religion later. Many of those Gallas who lived in the south became somali's after islam was introduced. Not all the those hundreds of thousands of oromo's could have been killed.

[Sherban Shabeel]

I'm not here to convince you of anything lol

 

Believe what you wish.

 

I think the only way to find out for sure is...

 

The National Geographic Human Genome Project.

[Abwaan]

Originally posted by MoonLight1:

first there was brain drain in somalia.

now its muscle drain coz these people used to do all heavy manual jobs that skinny nomads couldn't do, e.g faryaamo, fuundi, gaari gacanle,beeraleey etc. great loss, wish them well.

Do you blame them though with current conditions? Don't worry saaxiib, ship loads of Indians will be at Somali Ports as soon as the security condition improves and with better paid jobs and living conditions Somalia will be Africa's UAE soon Insha Allaah.