Is somali culture in danger of arabism/islamism?

[Knowthyself]

i know I'm about to get dragged but here it goes.

when i look at CHRISTIAN countries like ethiopia and well...the rest of africa, they seem to be very rich in culture. they retained nearly all of their ancient practices, garments, music, food, etc. while somalis, egyptions, and other muslim african countries seem to completely forget who they were as they were being arabized. somalis in particular became muslim very early on. and when you look at older pictures of us back in the day you see us shift from the all white garb (that kind of looks like what muslims wear to hajj today) to arabic clothing. lets not even mention somali music, that shit is a ethiopian/ yemeni hybrid with a hint of retardation. everything from our food to our daily practices has become arabized. we don't have any uniqueness what so ever and i fear it has only gotten worse as time goes by. arabic is already our second language...why? i see it becoming a first language after the wave of arabic speaking somalis migrate back to somalia form the middle east. all this love and obsession of arabs stems from islam, it has impacted us greatly and that is very sad. i mean our biggest issue is qabilism and well...that stems from arab men too.

discuss how islam snatched any semblance of a culture below

 

[Lord Flacko]

i somalis in particular became muslim very early on. and when you look at older pictures of us back in the day you see us shift from the all white garb (that kind of looks like what muslims wear to hajj today) to Arabic clothing

Pictures of us back in the day? You do know Somali culture is older than what you see on pictures?

Labada go' are something we're all familiar with when it comes to traditional men's clothing. However other costumes have been used by other somalis in different parts of the geeska barakaysan.

The one we know

Others
They're matching

As you all see some are influenced by other cultures esp arabs/Omanis with the Khamiis and the Fez but what costumes do you guys think we should bring back and adopt them as Somali men's traditional clothing?

We've become less Somali and Arabic in our clothing than before. Now it's jeans and shirt, macawis and shirt, suit and so on.

to this

Which seems more "authentically" Somali? Atleast the Arab rulers and leaders wear traditional clothing alot of the time.

 

[Reign]

Don't blame Islam for Somalis being retarded.


There are many Muslim countries that hold on to their culture. Ethiopia is 50% Muslim and 50% Christian and so is Eritrea. Morroco is also a Muslim country but they held onto their culture. Egyptians never really had a culture to begin with since they are mixed with many things, it has nothing to do with Islam. If you've been to Egypt you would know that country isn't that religious. Also look at South Asia they are very cultural despite the fact that they bum suck Arabs. Look at Indonesia and Malaysia they are quite cultural and Islamic at the same time.

 

[Knowthyself]

Pictures of us back in the day? You do know Somali culture is older than what you see on pictures?



We've become less Somali and Arabic in our clothing than before. Now it's jeans and shirt, macawis and shirt, suit and so on.
View attachment 7218
to this View attachment 7219
Which seems more "authentically" Somali? Atleast the Arab rulers and leaders wear traditional clothing alot of the time.

do we even have traditional clothing (for men?) every where i look i see a white t-shirt and macawiis. somalis (fobs) where qamiis/thoobs all the time now too.

 

[Lalaviva]

i know I'm about to get dragged but here it goes.

when i look at CHRISTIAN countries like ethiopia and well...the rest of africa, they seem to be very rich in culture. they retained nearly all of their ancient practices, garments, music, food, etc. while somalis, egyptions, and other muslim african countries seem to completely forget who they were as they were being arabized. somalis in particular became muslim very early on. and when you look at older pictures of us back in the day you see us shift from the all white garb (that kind of looks like what muslims wear to hajj today) to arabic clothing. lets not even mention somali music, that shit is a ethiopian/ yemeni hybrid with a hint of retardation. everything from our food to our daily practices has become arabized. we don't have any uniqueness what so ever and i fear it has only gotten worse as time goes by. arabic is already our second language...why? i see it becoming a first language after the wave of arabic speaking somalis migrate back to somalia form the middle east. all this love and obsession of arabs stems from islam, it has impacted us greatly and that is very sad. i mean our biggest issue is qabilism and well...that stems from arab men too.

discuss how islam snatched any semblance of a culture below

Religion is a part of Somali culture though, the pillars of Somalia was faith, and poetry. Somali people were never as strict as the arabs though, they considered religion a personal matter. Now though, since the civil war, people became more influenced by their faith since that was the only thing they had left. Also about Somali not being original, we are lol. We takes things that already exist and make it ours, adding our own unique touch. Somali music to me sounds like its own genre, why do you think we are the ones who copied them, why not vice versa? Somalia is based off of poetry, I wouldn't be surprised if they turned it into music rather early on. Btw, yeah the whole arabizing is getting quite annoying, and making things worse, but that doesn't mean Somalia has always been a copy cat. It really only started in the past 30 something years.

 

[Knowthyself]

Religion is a part of Somali culture though, the pillars of Somalia was faith, and poetry. Somali people were never as strict as the arabs though, they considered religion a personal matter. Now though, since the civil war, people became more influenced by their faith since that was the only thing they had left. Also about Somali not being original, we are lol. We takes things that already exist and make it ours, adding our own unique touch. Somali music to me sounds like its own genre, why do you think we are the ones who copied them, why not vice versa? Somalia is based off of poetry, I wouldn't be surprised if they turned it into music rather early on. Btw, yeah the whole arabizing is getting quite annoying, and making things worse, but that doesn't mean Somalia has always been a copy cat. It really only started in the past 30 something years.

i think it started well before that. it has a lot to do with our closeness to the middle east and islam. when you look at most muslim countries they are pretty much the same. they might differ in strictness, but when you compare the covering of the whole body and the different remixes of abayas or burqas to what we worse back in the day its pretty sad. i think in a way (I'm sorry if this offends anyone <3) islam was made to export arabic culture, if that makes sense. like when you compare it to christianity it allows you to practice your culture and maintain your uniqueness but islam has low-key arabized all if not most muslim counties, compare indonesia to iran to somalia to libya and you won't see much of a difference despite these countries having no connection what so ever (except in their muslimnimo)

 

[Apollo]

You can't really call it Arab culture. It has transformed into a pan-MENA culture. Persians have more or less the same culture as Arabians but they sure as hell aren't Arabs.

Most Western countries also pretty much have the same culture and values with little difference between them from Norway to New Zealand.

 

[Knowthyself]

You can't really call it Arab culture. It has transformed into a pan-MENA culture. Persians have more or less the same culture as Arabians but they sure as hell aren't Arabs.

Most Western countries also pretty much have the same culture and values with little difference between them from Norway to New Zealand.

dont Persians and arabs share islam? i think any similarity they have would be found in most muslim countries. your right about western countries but i think that was on purpose?

 

[Lalaviva]

dont Persians and arabs share islam? i think any similarity they have would be found in most muslim countries. your right about western countries but i think that was on purpose?

You can't help but have stuff in common with group near you though. That's why a lot of East Asia share cultures (ex Confucianism, chopsticks) since they were influenced a lot by ancient China, and that's the same with Somalia in this case.

 

[Lord Flacko]

i think it started well before that. it has a lot to do with our closeness to the middle east and islam. when you look at most muslim countries they are pretty much the same. they might differ in strictness, but when you compare the covering of the whole body and the different remixes of abayas or burqas to what we worse back in the day its pretty sad. i think in a way (I'm sorry if this offends anyone <3) islam was made to export arabic culture, if that makes sense. like when you compare it to christianity it allows you to practice your culture and maintain your uniqueness but islam has low-key arabized all if not most muslim counties, compare indonesia to iran to somalia to libya and you won't see much of a difference despite these countries having no connection what so ever (except in their muslimnimo)

Somalis have been Arabic in some capacity before Islam, and so has the (greater) middle east. Turks, Bosnians and Albanians to name a few are Muslim but not Arabic in the same sense as us.

 

[supz]

Its not rocket science. What does Islam hold almost exclusively in duality? The quran and sunnah. The sunnah is heavily influenced by 7th century Arabic culture... It now introduces a "superior" way of life. The rhetoric accelerated now is, why would we continue to push our ignorant way of life( pre-Islamic customs)?

 

[Rooble]

nope

 

[Coolorte]

They were going to replace Somali with Arabic in schools buy Siad Barre refused it at the time.

 

[Hatredfree]

What is so Arabic about Somali culture? I think you're confusing Islam with Arab culture let's say you believe Islamic culture equate to Arab culture and they correspond so what? We don't have Arabic as primary language, we also have our own cultural clothing, music, history, alphabets. So insinuating that Somali women wear Arab garment and by that Somali culture is danger of arabism is futile.

A piece of clothing does not put a culture in danger, by that logic the whole world wouldbe culture-less.

 

[TheSayid]

Arabization of somalis is a myth

 

[Hafez]

Arabization of somalis is a myth

Perpetuated by the atheists on this website as an indirect attack on Islam.

 

[Knowthyself]

What is so Arabic about Somali culture? I think you're confusing Islam with Arab culture let's say you believe Islamic culture equate to Arab culture and they correspond so what? We don't have Arabic as primary language, we also have our own cultural clothing, music, history, alphabets. So insinuating that Somali women wear Arab garment and by that Somali culture is danger of arabism is futile.

A piece of clothing does not put a culture in danger, by that logic the whole world wouldbe culture-less.

arabic is officially a second language in somalia, our clothing has a lot of arabic influences if not out right theft from arabs (qamiis), our alphabets are latin but only because we haven't created one of our own.

 

[Knowthyself]

Somalis have been Arabic in some capacity before Islam, and so has the (greater) middle east. Turks, Bosnians and Albanians to name a few are Muslim but not Arabic in the same sense as us.

arabic? how exactly?

 

[Hafez]

arabic is officially a second language in somalia, our clothing has a lot of arabic influences if not out right theft from arabs (qamiis), our alphabets are latin but only because we haven't created one of our own.

Let me guess, the rida and izar that the Somali nomads wore were also from the Arabs because it was worn by them since pre-Islamic times right?

 

[Knowthyself]

You can't help but have stuff in common with group near you though. That's why a lot of East Asia share cultures (ex Confucianism, chopsticks) since they were influenced a lot by ancient China, and that's the same with Somalia in this case.

hmm i agree to some extent when you look at a map all the countries on the horn all the way up to the north have been influenced by arabs if not completely arabized. they also happen to all be muslim. and they also have no unique culture or identity. christian ethiopia and kenya being exceptions