Peoples of the Horn of Africa (Somali, Afar and Saho)

North Eastern Africa Part I

I. M. Lewis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138234017
• eBook ISBN: 9781315308173
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Routledge is proud to be re-issuing this landmark series in association with the International African Institute. The series, published between 1950 and 1977, brings together a wealth of previously un-co-ordinated material on the ethnic groupings and social conditions of African peoples.

Concise, critical and (for its time) accurate, the Ethnographic Survey contains sections as follows:

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• Physical Environment

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• Linguistic Data

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• Demography

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• History & Traditions of Origin

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• Nomenclature

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• Grouping

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• Cultural Features: Religion, Witchcraft, Birth, Initiation, Burial

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• Social & Political Organization: Kinship, Marriage, Inheritance, Slavery, Land Tenure, Warfare & Justice

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• Economy & Trade

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• Domestic Architecture

Each of the 50 volumes will be available to buy individually, and these are organized into regional sub-groups: East Central Africa, North-Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, West Central Africa, Western Africa, and Central Africa Belgian Congo.

The volumes are supplemented with maps, available to view on routledge.com or available as a pdf from the publishers.

I. THE SOMALI

TRIBAL GROUPINGS AND DEMOGRAPHY

LOCATION: NEIGHBOURING TRIBES

The Somali inhabit an area of approximately 1,000 by 500 square miles in the Horn of Africa, running from 2° latitude south to 12° latitude north, confined to the east by the Indian Ocean, and to the west and south-west by Ethiopia and Kenya.

Neighbouring tribes are: to the north and north-west the Afar; to the west the Galla—Itu, Ala, Aniya, Arussi, and Boran; and to the south, the Wardai Galla. The Somali country extends over some 320,000 square miles, and is divided politically among the Colonial Powers into: French Somaliland, 5,790 sq. miles¹; British Somaliland, 68,000 sq. miles; the United Nations Trusteeship Territory of Somalia, administered by Italy, 200,000 sq. miles; and Ethiopian territory.² This vast region is occupied by an unevenly distributed population of about two million Somali. Terrain and climate present a gradual progression from the extreme aridity and heat of the north-west corner, which lies in French territory, through the relatively less barren lands and milder conditions of British Somaliland, to the comparatively arable soils and more temperate climate of the Italian Trusteeship, in which the richest country of Somaliland is to be found. The barren northern regions provide grazing for camels, sheep, and goats, and in some of the richer pastures of the plains cattle-husbandry is increasing. Here, permanent cultivation is impossible, for arable land only occurs in exiguous patches, although where the ecology is favourable, temporary cultivation is practised by the nomadic tribesmen of the region. Cultivation, as a whole, is of little direct importance compared with stock-raising.

In the southern territories of the Italian Trusteeship, where great expanses of arable land, bordered by rich pastures, stretch across the undulating plains, cattle abound and large settlements of sedentary cultivators are found. The development of the agricultural resources of the country almost enabled the Italian Administration to achieve its aim of a self-supporting colony exporting cotton, tropical fruits, and other produce, to the home-country.

NOMENCLATURE

In classical times the Somali were known as “Berbers”³ a designation which survives in the name of the town of Berbera. This usage nms through the writing of the Arab geographers of the Middle Ages, who describe the inhabitants of the southern part of the Horn as “Zengi.” The Zengi are to be identified with the pre-Cushitic Negroid precursors of the Hamitic Galla and Somali. The word “Somali” first appears in an Ethiopie hymn celebrating the victories of the Abyssinian Negus Yeshaq (1414–29)⁴ against the State of If at (which later became the State of Adal), and occurs frequently in the Futuh al-Habasha (1540–50). Various attempts have been made to establish the origin of the word “Somali”: it has been suggested that it is a combination of so (go) and mal (milk) referring to their pastoral economy. Burton, quoting from the Kamus, says that “Samai” was the nickname given to a tribal chieftain who had thrust out (samala) his brother’s eye.⁵ Wright suggests that “Somali” derives from the epithet “Soumahe” (heathens) bestowed upon the Somali after the campaigns of Ahmed Gra\~n in the 16th century.⁶ The 1945 Military Report derives “Somali” from Soma bin Tersoma Nagashi, “who was governor of the country from Zeilah to Hafun.”⁷ Such a derivation is substantiated by the genealogies of Drake-Brockman,⁸ and Hunt,⁹ in which Samale Ram Nag (-ashi?) figures as the son of Ram Nag (-ashi?) who is currently represented as having been an immigrant Hindu.¹⁰ While Cushitic philologists have not yet succeeded in establishing the etymology of the word “Somali” it seems extremely likely that its use to designate the noble inhabitants of Somaliland derives from its being the name of a tribal chieftain or patriarch. This is certainly how the Somali themselves view it, and the practice of tribal groups ascribing their origin to eponymous ancestors is a regular feature of Somali society. In seeking to characterize this complex process, one has to attempt to discriminate between the historically valid component of tradition, and the sociological rationalization which operates upon it. On the one hand, there is no doubt that there has been a continuous tradition of immigrant Arabs who have become local chieftains, and on the other, it is a general principle of Somali society to express contemporary group solidarity by postulating descent from an eponymous ancestor. Many of the immigrant sheiks to whom the Somali trace descent cannot be shown to have been historical personages, but they are nonetheless the type of historical figures, and while individual ancestors cannot be shown to have existed or to have left Arabia and settled in Somaliland at determined dates acceptable to the criteria of historical veracity, history shows that there has been a constant movement of this kind. Somali tribes have often become powerful through alliance with immigrant Arab sheiks, of whom in retrospect they consider themselves the descendants.

TERMINOLOGY

The Somali people comprise a vast system of segmented groups which it is convenient to call nation, tribal-family, confederacy, sub-confederacy, and tribe. To avoid confusion, it is essential to define the Somali concept of “tribe.”¹¹ A Somali tribe is a highly segmented group, with its own specific name and tribal mark (sumad), traditions and sentiments. It occupies a common territory within which it considers itself, and is considered by others, to be the land-holding unit. The ecology of the region occupied imposes certain characteristic economic traits. The tribe has a segmented political organization, normally culminating in a tribal chief, whose power is restricted to matters concerning the tribe as a whole. In other words, the tribal chief is a figure who figures significantly only when all the sections into which the tribe is divided unite in a situation calling for tribal unity. He is approached through the political organization of the segments. Tribal unity appears in the joint conduct of war, cattle-raiding against other tribes, and in the settlement of feuds within the tribe by payment of blood-compensation. The tribe acts as a unit in the adoption of strangers as clients (arifa) into the common tribal structure. Solidarity in marriage is associated with unity in war; the tribe seems to be largely exogamous. The tribe also acts generally as a corporate unit in religious observance and the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Foreword
• Table of Contents
• Preface to 1969 Reprint
• The Somali, Afar (Danakil) and Saho
• I. The Somali
• II. The Afar (Danakil)
• III. The Saho
• Bibliographies
• Index