Thursday, September 1, 2022

 The Invention Of Somalia: The Daarood, Hawiye and all were tribes who were Dir prior to 1400-1500 and gradually they Daarood suddenly asserted their indenpendency under Harit confederacy and saparated from Dir while still retaining the (Dir- Aji) part of decent name but developed a fake Arab decent in 1500 while still claiming to be Aji Noble lineal decendent of Dir. Hawiye recently also developed a Irir ancestory while still retaining the Aji name. Read the Invention of Somalia. 

We will share the Southern Dir theories which support this theory. All who claim the Aji name are and were part of the Dir clan and later Fission and diffrent fussions created our clan system of today and all calim Aji which is the name of Dirs Father and some say its a nick name of Dir himself

Horn of Africa? Even if we accept the idea as that, how can we justify an Arab naming his children Sab and Samale, Cushitic names he was unaware they existed? For the section of the traditions which suggest Jaberti Ismail as the Arab newcomer marrying Dir’s daughter Donbira, we encounter a controversy because we hear some traditions opinionating the descent of Dir and Hawiye from Irir, who also came from Samale, one who tracks Hiil as his agnatic forefather. This version seems to support the thought that Dir fathered both the Ishak and the Darod, as Ioan M. Lewis illustrates.10 More suspicion encompasses the origin of some of the names in the ‘abtirsi’ genealogy, like ‘Kombe’, which can be classified as ethnic Bantu rather than a Semitic Arab name. Whatever the case, it is rather hard to regard credibility to any of these traditions because of their inconsistency and the controversies that make none of them plausible. Most of the Somali progenitors have their traditions based on imitations of either ancient Arab stories or other Cushitic traditional heroes found on a tree or watering animals from a well. Abdalla Mansur’s11 details on the subject reveal not only the confusion surrounding the topic but they also devaluate the authenticity of Qureishite genealogy of those who deem a high regard for the affiliation of their identity to an Arabite eponym. This specification being a basis for Somalia’s claim for Arab origin, which some scholars justify was exacted by population pressure from that region of Southern Asia in the proximity of Somalia, coupled with a recent Somali migration from the north Horn to the south of the country, have misled many seasoned scholars by placing northern Somaliland as the point of origin of the Somali race. As Professor Gunther Schlee enlightens, “Not only the more general historians (e.g. Low 1963: 321) but also the best specialists (e.g. Hunting Ford 1955:19; 1963:65-6; I.M.Lewis 1955: 45; 1980: 22-3) have succumbed to this error.”12 In a similar contention, Ali Abdirahman Hersi comments on the trend as “…puzzling,” explaining the implausibility of the theory as he states, “ Stranger yet is the fact that so many authorities have persisted in these far-fetched and untenable explanation.”

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Traditions ENO PAPER The oral traditions go that, in the beginning, an Arab immigrant arrived somewhere along the shores of what is located in the northern coastline of Somalia. He was washed away on the shores after experiencing trouble with his dhow, which was wrecked. He was received by the local residents in the area, married from them and caused an unusual human germination of massive multiplication, demographically outnumbering the host community. One Sheikh Ismail Jaberti, as he was called, became a symbol of a rare case as an immigrant hero who later became the factor behind the biogenesis as well as genealogical ‘transformation’ of an entire race of black Africans into what Ali Jimale ironically describes as “Arabs with a tan.”4 Douglas Colins writes about a tradition, which suggests that this ‘noble’ Arab was cast adrift many centuries ago as a boy and upon reaching manhood, fathered the Darod clan through his marriage to a local girl called Donbira. According to Collins, it was “Bereda, a small coastal fishing village,” that his informant Yusuf told him as the place where “Darod, an Arabian noble, many centuries ago was cast adrift as a small boy and later in life married a Somali girl named Donbirro and so founded the great Darod section of the Somali people.”5 A very peculiar situation arises in the implement of the traditions regarding the arrival of Darod as an individual, whether as a boy or a grown-up, or even if we consider, for the purpose of this discussion, that Jaberti Ismail begot him. Throughout the traditions, we are told about the coming of Darod, Issak or Ismail Jaberti (some traditions putting as Jaberti Ismail) as individuals who married from the local communities. Later, we find in the lineage construction that all the Somaloid stock, including Digil, Issak, Reewing (Mirifle), Darod, Hawiye and many others have descended from Samaale whose ascendancy is connected to Hiil, then Aqil and then further back to Qureishite lineage of Mohammed, the Prophet of Islam. In another tradition, ‘A Handbook of Abyssinia’ presents that the eponymous ancestor, one Sheikh Jaberti “was wrecked on the NE. Coast where he settled and died, leaving a son Darod, the father of the Darod branch,”6 who was later to foster the ‘noble’ people that make the great nation of the Darod clan, whose descendant sub-branches constitute the Marehan, Majerten, Ogaden, Dhulbahante and others. For this reason, the 19th century scholarship consisting of certain writers from the colonial regimes that occupied Somalia, have focused on the northern part of the country as being probably the cradle of the Somali nation since it was believed as the entry point through which the Arabs had arrived. Commenting on one of such writers, specifically Lewis, Christine Choi Ahmed says that the “first and best-known scholar to examine Somali society… almost all his field work was done in the northern Somaliland.”7 Yet Lewis himself acknowledged the paucity of factual substance in the content of the Somali traditions, often lacking in precision in dating and in names.8 The more peculiar scenario about Somali genealogy is in its lack of even two identical lineages in the more than five versions leading to the Arab ancestral father Aqil. Although generations of people kept the concept alive through the rehearsal of ‘abtirsi’ the count of the genealogy, few have thought of the nature and origin of names, which sound more Cushitic/African than Semitic/Arabian. Several of the same lineages are also often counted inconsistent with one another; for example, whereas some count 23 forefathers to their ancestor, others do fewer generations. The occurrence of such divergences and inconsistencies invite the notion that every Somali group has concocted at will a supposed chain of names to represent phoney ancestors of unreal existence. Some of these traditions narrate about the arrival of an Arab immigrant who dug a well in a strange newfound land. He helped a young herdswoman to water her flock from ‘his’ well. After sometime, her father who had been surprised by the good health of his animals followed her. Upon arriving at the site of the well, the Arab immigrant refused to open ‘his’ well unless and until the girl’s father promised him a marriage to his daughter. After he was made the promise, the Arab immigrant removed the cover from the mouth of the well and watered the flock. Though doubtful the tradition is, what is so certain about it is its contradiction with the Somali saying of “wax la yaqaan guurso, wax la yaqaan ha laguu dhalee”, which encourages marriage to someone known so as to foster offspring whose origin is known and propitious. This narrative though, seems to be a reconstruction of a modified replica of the Qur’anic story of Moses9 who, after committing a crime, emigrated from his home to a strange land where he helped to water animals for two sisters. He was called for by their father and upon agreement of providing service for several years, Moses was promised marriage to one of them. After the completion of the stipulated duties, Moses married the girl and later acquired prophethood from God. The dissimilarity of the two traditions lies in the fact that Moses was watering the two girls’ small ruminants from an existing well whereas in the Somali traditions, Darod dug the well himself in a strange land. How only one man could dig a well in a territory where he was alien, and how he acquired the tools are arguments that the oriental anthropologists and historians did not investigate substantively. The tradition also suggests that perhaps no other citizens either knew about this well or used it to water their flocks; or even possibly that Donbirro and her father were the only life existing in the area. In the Darod clan family, a section of the traditions say that Darod himself, the noble Arab, was cast adrift as a young boy, and that he got married to a local girl Donbirra upon his adulthood. Yet, it is bizarre that there is no mention of who Darod’s foster parent/s were, since this version of the historiography suggests Darod as an underage child. More doubt also entails how and where he acquired the cynical non-Arab name of ‘Darod’. Another question pursues about his ‘nobility’ because many immigrants fled from their home in Arabia due to persecution as slaves, and some or all those who might have allegedly escaped to the northern Horn region (if the Somali pedigree is one of them) could have as well been fugitive slaves who sought freedom away from their masters, the same as we have seen in the case of the Wa-Gosha people of Somalia. But none of the various traditions and scholars thinks about other possible postulates, nor did the early orientalist scholars present a variant speculation of the topic except the suggestion of population pressure being the reason of the Arab immigrants seeking a safe haven in Somalia. The historical construction as seen here, needs more corroboration. Obviously, it is not by genuine coincidence that all these foreign Arab immigrants arrived in the Somali peninsula at various dates while at the same time all trace their ‘asal’ origin, across varient routes, to Qureishi tribe or ‘Reer Banu-Hashem’ the offspring of Banu-Hashem. Because we do not have any evidence of Hiil, the descendant of Aqil stepping foot in Somalia, can one be of any hypothesis of whether his descendants Sab and Samale had an earlier plan to settle in separate parts of Somalia i.e. south and north, and transgerminate with the local females a new breed in the name of Somali and later to become the genealogical representatives of Qureish in the northern Horn of Africa? Even if we accept the idea as that, how can we justify an Arab naming his children Sab and Samale, Cushitic names he was unaware they existed? For the section of the traditions which suggest Jaberti Ismail as the Arab newcomer marrying Dir’s daughter Donbira, we encounter a controversy because we hear some traditions opinionating the descent of Dir and Hawiye from Irir, who also came from Samale, one who tracks Hiil as his agnatic forefather. This version seems to support the thought that Dir fathered both the Ishak and the Darod, as Ioan M. Lewis illustrates.10 More suspicion encompasses the origin of some of the names in the ‘abtirsi’ genealogy, like ‘Kombe’, which can be classified as ethnic Bantu rather than a Semitic Arab name. Whatever the case, it is rather hard to regard credibility to any of these traditions because of their inconsistency and the controversies that make none of them plausible. Most of the Somali progenitors have their traditions based on imitations of either ancient Arab stories or other Cushitic traditional heroes found on a tree or watering animals from a well. Abdalla Mansur’s11 details on the subject reveal not only the confusion surrounding the topic but they also devaluate the authenticity of Qureishite genealogy of those who deem a high regard for the affiliation of their identity to an Arabite eponym. This specification being a basis for Somalia’s claim for Arab origin, which some scholars justify was exacted by population pressure from that region of Southern Asia in the proximity of Somalia, coupled with a recent Somali migration from the north Horn to the south of the country, have misled many seasoned scholars by placing northern Somaliland as the point of origin of the Somali race. As Professor Gunther Schlee enlightens, “Not only the more general historians (e.g. Low 1963: 321) but also the best specialists (e.g. Hunting Ford 1955:19; 1963:65-6; I.M.Lewis 1955: 45; 1980: 22-3) have succumbed to this error.”12 In a similar contention, Ali Abdirahman Hersi comments on the trend as “…puzzling,” explaining the implausibility of the theory as he states, “ Stranger yet is the fact that so many authorities have persisted in these far-fetched and untenable explanation.”

Comparatively, the same investigation is applicable to Sheikh Jaberti as controversy also surrounds the identity of his wife Donbira, the so-called Somali girl married off to him. Some sources narrate that the early people to whom Donbira belonged were Galla who lived in the region prior to the arrival of the Somalis. Other traditions have it as Hawiye or Dir whom Donbira belonged to. Whichever source is considered, the conundrum toward the achievement of a satisfactory response to the hypothesis of immigrants of unsubstantial number exceeding their respective sedentary host communities does not only sound miraculous but also seems historiographically irresolvable. What has caused the disappearance from the scene of the local African people? Why are the Somalis more related to the Boran/Oromo, Baiso and Rendille culturally, physically and linguistically than to the Arabs? In another extreme but substantiated discordance with early colonial scholarship, c

IM LEWIS WROTE DOMBIRO IS A (FAKE NAME) AND BASED ON IMAM AXMED GUREYS WIFE BATI DEL-WAMBARA-- WHOM IMAM NUUR LATER MARRIED.

DEFINATELY WAMBER MEANS (WAMBER) GABER OR GAMBADH IN SOUTH SOMALI AN SIGNIFIES A WOMEN OF STATUS POWER SEAT OF POWER THORNE


KOMBE IS A BANTU NAME AND CANT BE CUSHITIC OR SEMETIC.

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