Muslim-ness and Somali-ness in Jubbaland

[QansaxMeygaag]

Catherine Besteman at her best (pun intended) in her book: Unraveling Somalia: Race, Violence and the Legacy of Slavery. set mostly in the Middle Juba among the Somali "Bantu".

 

In discussing the role of Islamic leaders in nurturing a vision of Somali nationalism prior to 1900, Cassanelli suggests that Muslim sheikhs used genealogy to closely bind religious and personal identities in Somalia [this is in reference to imbuing Gosha villages with a religious sensibility that also tied them to Somali clan trees]:

 

One can reasonably argue that it was the Muslim sheikhs, both Arab and Somali, who first planted the notion of a wider Somali identity. They propagated stories of Arab ancestry and facilitated the construction of genealogies that linked the ancestors of the various clans they served to the Qurayshitic lineage of the Prophet or to some prestigious immigrant from Arabia. Only the sheikhs maintained written Arabic manuscripts that recorded the genealogical connections, at the highest levels, among various clan founders. The practical effects of such links were, of course, limited since there existed in Somalia no large-scale political organization to give substance to the concept of a total Somali genealogy; yet the ideological basis for the recognition of a larger Somali community was there.

 

We might speculate that through their activities of political mediation, social consolidation, and religious propagation, the saints helped both to forge and to reinforce the notion of a shared religious heritage among the Somalis. They provided to the various groups on the ground a sense of common history; and they encapsulated that history in the genealogies which every Somali maintained to define his place in the social system. To this extent, then, the work of the saints contributed to the fusion of the Islamic and Somali identities. If today one can almost automatically say that to be a Somali is to be a Muslim, historically it can be said that to accept Islam was to accept membership in a larger Somali nation.

***

Sorry for the long quote but I found it fascinating. What do SOLers think?

[Safferz]

What makes her think Somali identity doesn't predate the 7th century? What does she say happened to the original identities if the current framework began with these sheikhs? I haven't yet read her book, but I'm reminded of an I.M Lewis interview I read a while back where he calls her out for her shoddy scholarship.

[QansaxMeygaag]

^^

No love lost between those two. Here she is actually quoting Cassanelli and her main point is that she agrees with him as far as identity formation is concerned. But even he concedes here that there was some modicum/basis? of a Somali identity by the arrival of Islam: "The practical effects of such links were, of course, limited since there existed in Somalia no large-scale political organization to give substance to the concept of a total Somali genealogy; yet the ideological basis for the recognition of a larger Somali community was there."

[Mad_Mullah]

Two of the major tribes only came along after Islam.

[ElPunto]

Some Somali identity existed prior to Islam arriving. But Islam solidified and broadened the Somali identity. Islam helped Somalis to interact with and spread their influence in the Horn and the wider area There are numerous people in South Somalia who were absorbed into Somali identity through Islam. I don't see anything wrong with her larger point - Islam is a vital component of Somali identity just as Christianity is to Ethiopia.

[Wadani]

Mad_Mullah;956474 wrote:

Two of the major tribes only came along after Islam.

I can't believe people really believe this.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

Islam Somali and the Somali language all are intertwined, its weird to see a Somali who is not Muslim who doesn't believe in Allah , prophet Muhammads is the messenger and the last day.

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

ElPunto;956508 wrote:

Some Somali identity existed prior to Islam arriving. But Islam solidified and broadened the Somali identity. Islam helped Somalis to interact with and spread their influence in the Horn and the wider area There are numerous people in South Somalia who were absorbed into Somali identity through Islam. I don't see anything wrong with her larger point - Islam is a vital component of Somali identity just as Christianity is to Ethiopia.

Sure Somali identity existed before islam , but the people were not called Somalis they were called Something else. We were never called Somali 2000 years ago. Somali is a recent identity.

[Haatu]

XX, the name of peoples can change over time.

 

As for the topic at hand, how does it explain the homogeneity of the Somali people?

[Safferz]

QansaxMeygaag;956434 wrote:

^^

No love lost between those two. Here she is actually quoting Cassanelli and her main point is that she agrees with him as far as identity formation is concerned. But even he concedes here that there was some modicum/basis? of a Somali identity by the arrival of Islam: "The practical effects of such links were, of course, limited since there existed in Somalia no large-scale political organization to give substance to the concept of a total Somali genealogy;

yet the ideological basis for the recognition of a larger Somali community was there

."

Hmm... I respect Cassanelli a lot as a scholar, I'm just not convinced that's entirely accurate (plausible but certainly not as simple as individual sheikhs spreading these linkages). Is the excerpt from The Shaping Of Somali Society or another work?