Inhabitants of old Baraawe/Mwiini

[Hamzza]

Af-Dahalo sounds funny(numma guhooni)

Dahalo is Cushitic language with Khoisan substrate. So Dahaloens are language shifted Bushmen.

 

[convincation]

Are the majority of tunni today urban or still nomadic ?

Majority are agro-pastoral/agricultural. Tunni are a very old clan so the different professions within the clan gradually split up to assume unique identities

The urban tunni are what are today known as bravenese/barwani. Barwani is a confederation of 7 clans, 5 of these are tunni subclans with the other 2 (hatimi and bida) being South Arabian in origin. These groups heavily intermixed with eachother as well as absorbed/intermarried with the many other foreigners in the melting pot that is barawe, which gave them their mixed appearance. These tunni speak the swahili dialect chimini which was brought and popularised during trade

The agricultural tunni are the oldest branch and are farmers along the shabelle and live amongst the other digil clans (jiddu, dabbare etc). They were heavily involved in the slave trade and most of these enslaved peoples we’re Bantus. After the abolition of slavery these freedmen came together and are known as the tunni torre, who live and work with their former owners the tunni. These tunni speak both af maay and the tunni language.

The agro pastoral tunni are the most recent amongst the tunni and the largest numerically. They have within them many subclans of samaale origin, including many hawiye and Garre. These tunni historically owned oromo slaves rather than Bantu and are the founders of barawe prior to its urbanisation. They as a result still surround the city and live amongst the hawiye who are also pastoralists in the region and speak for the most part normal af maxaa Somali.

 

[MJIsse94]

Baraawe is a town located in the lower shabelle province in Somalia and is known to be the most southern town of the benadir coast. The city welcomed various settlers throughout history until to this very day, but in this thread I want to describe the main groups that lived within the old city before the 20th century ( the part that is surrounded by the city walls and is made up of the quarters Mpai and Biruni, as modern-day barawe is much larger). Reason for making this thread is, that there seems to be much discussion on this site on who the old inhabitants of the benadir coast were and I wanted to shed some light on this subject as a native of the area myself.

The Hamarani and The Ashraaf

The Hamarani are descendants of arab settlers in the region and speak a dialect of Swahili known as Chimwiini. In their language they identify themselves as "Wantu wa Mwiini"/ "people of Baraawe". They are divided into two groups, the Bidaa and the Hatimi. The Hatimi claim desced from the Hatim tribe of Yemen and the Bidaa are a confederacy of several arab clans that claim descend form many arab tribes like the Amawi, Qahtani and several others. They used to make up half of the population of the city in the beginning of the 20th century but nowadays are minority only found in the Mpai quarter.
A much smaller community that also claimed arab descend are known as the Ashraaf. They are mostly very recent immigrants from the 17th century and claim to be descendants of Ali and Fatima.

The Tunni

In the 19th century, the Tunni clan of the Somali made up half of the population of Baraawe. They are known as Shan Gamas (the five subclans) and these subclans were the Dafaradhi, Goigali, Dakhtira, Wirile, and Hajuwa. The urban Tunni retained close ties with their brethren outside the city walls that constituted the bulk of the population of the surrounding areas. But there were big cultural differences between the urban Tunni and the rest of the Tunni clan, as the former intermarried with the Hamarani and spoke the Swahili dialect Chimwiini and not Af Tunni.

Who used to rule the city?

It seems like Baraawe was a city state for most of its history and was jointly ruled by a council of elders of the different groups of people that lived there. In the 19th century, the council consisted of seven groups known as the "toddoba tol". These were made up of the five subclans of the Tunni, the Bidaa and Hatimi. It seems that under the rulership of the portugese and omanis the city still had its autonomy and the system of governance stayed the same in the city over the hundreds of years up to the 19th century. It was only in the 1880's that the sultanate of zanzibar appointed a man from the Dafaradhi subclan of the Tunni, who traditionally are the leaders/"sultans" of the Tunni people, as a representative of all groups in the city and this position was called the "shaykh al-balad" and exists to this very day.

Sources:
I mostly used these two texts and my own knowledge on the traditions of the city I got from my parents.
Kassim, M., 1993. The Banadir Coast Its Peoples and Their Cultural History.
Vianello, A. and Kassim, M., 2006. Servants of the Sharia

Not really my friend, they ruled for years indirectly as they forced the people of baraawe to pay tribute to them or else they would attack the city. But they did not have a base in the city, most of their troops were stationed in Mombassa. Also the ajuuraan never directly ruled baaawe, us Tunni just used to pay tribute to them when they were at their greatest extent of their power.

Good to meet a fellow Tunni

 

[killerxsmoke]

the Portuguese don't even claim they ruled Somalia, where do u guys even get your information's from

 

[Hamzza]

the Portuguese don't even claim they ruled Somalia, where do u guys even get your information's from

They never ruled Somalia, because Barawa was not part of Somalia in that time.

 

[killerxsmoke]

They never ruled Somalia, because Barawa was not part of Somalia at that time.

just because barwanis came and settled there, doesn't make them natives

 

[Prince of HS]

They never ruled Somalia, because Barawa was not part of Somalia at that time.

Why you such a cuck sxb. everywhere i see you, your head seems to be up the ass of arabs and cadaans. you disvalue any somali history and culture by claiming and referring any of our history back to these other ethnic groups

 

[killerxsmoke]

Why you such a cuck sxb. everywhere i see you, your head seems to be up the ass of arabs and cadaans. you disvalue any somali history and culture by claiming and referring any of our history back to these other ethnic groups

he claims to be arab what do you expect from him

 

[Hamzza]

Why you such a cuck sxb. everywhere i see you, your head seems to be up the ass of arabs and cadaans. you disvalue any somali history and culture by claiming and referring any of our history back to these other ethnic groups

Why are you crying niyahow. Somali Republic was born in 1960, the Portuguese invaded and occupied Barawa in 1500s.

 

[killerxsmoke]

Why are you crying niyahow. Somali Republic was born in 1960, the Portuguese invaded and occupied Barawa in 1500s.

they did not occupy it god damn. they looted the city and dipped thats really it

 

[MJIsse94]

Why you such a cuck sxb. everywhere i see you, your head seems to be up the ass of arabs and cadaans. you disvalue any somali history and culture by claiming and referring any of our history back to these other ethnic groups

Baraawe always been ruled my Tunni

 

[Saciid]

Baraawe is a town located in the lower shabelle province in Somalia and is known to be the most southern town of the benadir coast. The city welcomed various settlers throughout history until to this very day, but in this thread I want to describe the main groups that lived within the old city before the 20th century ( the part that is surrounded by the city walls and is made up of the quarters Mpai and Biruni, as modern-day barawe is much larger). Reason for making this thread is, that there seems to be much discussion on this site on who the old inhabitants of the benadir coast were and I wanted to shed some light on this subject as a native of the area myself.

The Hamarani and The Ashraaf

The Hamarani are descendants of arab settlers in the region and speak a dialect of Swahili known as Chimwiini. In their language they identify themselves as "Wantu wa Mwiini"/ "people of Baraawe". They are divided into two groups, the Bidaa and the Hatimi. The Hatimi claim desced from the Hatim tribe of Yemen and the Bidaa are a confederacy of several arab clans that claim descend form many arab tribes like the Amawi, Qahtani and several others. They used to make up half of the population of the city in the beginning of the 20th century but nowadays are minority only found in the Mpai quarter.
A much smaller community that also claimed arab descend are known as the Ashraaf. They are mostly very recent immigrants from the 17th century and claim to be descendants of Ali and Fatima.

The Tunni

In the 19th century, the Tunni clan of the Somali made up half of the population of Baraawe. They are known as Shan Gamas (the five subclans) and these subclans were the Dafaradhi, Goigali, Dakhtira, Wirile, and Hajuwa. The urban Tunni retained close ties with their brethren outside the city walls that constituted the bulk of the population of the surrounding areas. But there were big cultural differences between the urban Tunni and the rest of the Tunni clan, as the former intermarried with the Hamarani and spoke the Swahili dialect Chimwiini and not Af Tunni.

Who used to rule the city?

It seems like Baraawe was a city state for most of its history and was jointly ruled by a council of elders of the different groups of people that lived there. In the 19th century, the council consisted of seven groups known as the "toddoba tol". These were made up of the five subclans of the Tunni, the Bidaa and Hatimi. It seems that under the rulership of the portugese and omanis the city still had its autonomy and the system of governance stayed the same in the city over the hundreds of years up to the 19th century. It was only in the 1880's that the sultanate of zanzibar appointed a man from the Dafaradhi subclan of the Tunni, who traditionally are the leaders/"sultans" of the Tunni people, as a representative of all groups in the city and this position was called the "shaykh al-balad" and exists to this very day.

Sources:
I mostly used these two texts and my own knowledge on the traditions of the city I got from my parents.
Kassim, M., 1993. The Banadir Coast Its Peoples and Their Cultural History.
Vianello, A. and Kassim, M., 2006. Servants of the Sharia

Good, but a quick correction; Tunni didn't intermarry with the cadcads of Baraawe like most somalis did with other cadcads. Also Tunni in the town knew Af-tunni and stayed close with their rural brothers as that were their wealth was in. Also, there was always a leader of Baraawe and that was the same lineage pick to rep Zanzibar in Baraawe

Last, Portuguese never ruled Baraawe, a closer look at Portuguese scources confirms this, only ignorant early Europeans mistakenly belived that.

 

[Leila]

Baraawe is a town located in the lower shabelle province in Somalia and is known to be the most southern town of the benadir coast. The city welcomed various settlers throughout history until to this very day, but in this thread I want to describe the main groups that lived within the old city before the 20th century ( the part that is surrounded by the city walls and is made up of the quarters Mpai and Biruni, as modern-day barawe is much larger). Reason for making this thread is, that there seems to be much discussion on this site on who the old inhabitants of the benadir coast were and I wanted to shed some light on this subject as a native of the area myself.

The Hamarani and The Ashraaf

The Hamarani are descendants of arab settlers in the region and speak a dialect of Swahili known as Chimwiini. In their language they identify themselves as "Wantu wa Mwiini"/ "people of Baraawe". They are divided into two groups, the Bidaa and the Hatimi. The Hatimi claim desced from the Hatim tribe of Yemen and the Bidaa are a confederacy of several arab clans that claim descend form many arab tribes like the Amawi, Qahtani and several others. They used to make up half of the population of the city in the beginning of the 20th century but nowadays are minority only found in the Mpai quarter.
A much smaller community that also claimed arab descend are known as the Ashraaf. They are mostly very recent immigrants from the 17th century and claim to be descendants of Ali and Fatima.

The Tunni

In the 19th century, the Tunni clan of the Somali made up half of the population of Baraawe. They are known as Shan Gamas (the five subclans) and these subclans were the Dafaradhi, Goigali, Dakhtira, Wirile, and Hajuwa. The urban Tunni retained close ties with their brethren outside the city walls that constituted the bulk of the population of the surrounding areas. But there were big cultural differences between the urban Tunni and the rest of the Tunni clan, as the former intermarried with the Hamarani and spoke the Swahili dialect Chimwiini and not Af Tunni.

Who used to rule the city?

It seems like Baraawe was a city state for most of its history and was jointly ruled by a council of elders of the different groups of people that lived there. In the 19th century, the council consisted of seven groups known as the "toddoba tol". These were made up of the five subclans of the Tunni, the Bidaa and Hatimi. It seems that under the rulership of the portugese and omanis the city still had its autonomy and the system of governance stayed the same in the city over the hundreds of years up to the 19th century. It was only in the 1880's that the sultanate of zanzibar appointed a man from the Dafaradhi subclan of the Tunni, who traditionally are the leaders/"sultans" of the Tunni people, as a representative of all groups in the city and this position was called the "shaykh al-balad" and exists to this very day.

Sources:
I mostly used these two texts and my own knowledge on the traditions of the city I got from my parents.
Kassim, M., 1993. The Banadir Coast Its Peoples and Their Cultural History.
Vianello, A. and Kassim, M., 2006. Servants of the Sharia

My great aunts late husband (AUN) was Tunni but he was born and raised in Merka.

 

[Mugi]

Also Tunni in the town knew Af-tunni and stayed close with their rural brothers as that were their wealth was in.

Yeah I agree but the language of the city was af chimwini, The man regarded as the greatest poet of the chimwini language was in fact the maclim nuuri, who was an urban tunni.

 

[Mugi]

Last, Portuguese never ruled Baraawe, a closer look at Portuguese scources confirms this, only ignorant early Europeans mistakenly belived that.

Yeah you are right, they did raid it and later there is a portugese source that they took tribute from the city but no such thing as direct rule. But the sultanate of zanzibar did rule it and there is in fact still a palace of Said bargahsh in baraawe

 

[Saciid]

Yeah you are right, they did raid it and later there is a portugese source that they took tribute from the city but no such thing as direct rule. But the sultanate of zanzibar did rule it and there is in fact still a palace of Said bargahsh in baraawe

They never made it a tributary too, only burned it down once. Also the "palace" was a fort and the Zanzibari rule was largely nominal with ineffective walis

 

[Hamzza]

They never made it a tributary too, only burned it down once. Also the "palace" was a fort and the Zanzibari rule was largely nominal with ineffective walis

From Portuguese chronicles, we know that the elders of Barawa surrendered their town to the Portuguese and paid tribute

Nuno da Cunha felt special satisfaction when, upon his entrance in Malindi, there appeared emissaries from Brava, a town that his father, Tristao da Cunha, had pillaged in 1506. They offered the surrender of the town to the Portuguese and pledged to pay an annual tribute of 250 meticals, together with other special dues, and paid three years' tribute in advance.