THE OEIGINS OF THE GALLA AND SOMALI TEIBES.
By Juxon Barton, m.a.
The origin, language, customs, characteristics, and habits of the
Galla and the Somali present so many points of similarity that an
attempt to give a historical account of the origins of one necessitates
some detail of the other.
The Galla, probably one of the most ancient of races now existing,
may be regarded as the parent of the Somali tribe, and as such first
come under consideration.
Thb Galla". .
" On taking a general survey of the racial history of Africa," says
Dr. Haddon, " it is manifest that the critical area is the North-Eastern
region which abuts on Southern Arabia," geologically but a short
time has elapsed snice Africa and Asia were joined, paleolithic
implements similar to those found in the Congo have been found in
Somaliiand, and in short, there are good grounds for the belief that
the principal races of Africa crossed from Southern Asia.
The Galla, or as they call themselves Oromo (the sons of men),
have had various origins ascribed to them, and the word " Galla " is
that used of them by the Abyssinians and Arabs. Dr. Ludwig Krapf
states that this word means "to go home," and Miss A.
Wernher has recently suggested the Galla words of farewell Agum
ngalla corroborates this statement. The Abyssinians however derive
the Galla from an Abyssinian lady of rank who was given in marriage
to a slave from Gurague to whom she bore seven sons who became
dreaded robbers and the founders of tribes inhabiting the country about
the iiiver Galla whence they took their name. Moslem tradition
has it that Galla are Meccan Arabs who settled on the East Coast of
Africa during the Wakt-el-Jahiliveh, or Time of Ignorance, and that
their name is derived from the reply of Ullabu, their Chief, to the
summons of the Phophet calling on the tribe to accept Al-Islam, the
messenger returning stated " He said ' No ' " (Gha la) — an example
of the Moslem love of philological analogy.
It is interesting, however, to note the similarity between the
Galla word for both God and Sky, Wak, and the idol Wak of the
pre-islamic pantheon at Mecca, of which the Kaaba alone survives;
and again the Galla legend of a Kitab or Holy Book, to the loss of
which they ascribe the fallen fortunes of their race. The Galla
themselves aver that in the beginning of their history they crossed a
great sea or lake, the Bed Sea. A story of kingship and a coronation
feast is told, and women, as in the early history of Arabia, have held
princely rank.
Probably those Galla whose southward route lay near the East
Coast of Africa and who are now found along the Tana Eiver and in
the neighbourhood of Witu are correctly described by Dr. Krapf as
" more primitive " than those of Abyssinia whom he met during his
activities there between 1838 and 1842, in that they are the relicts of
the early migrants and had little contact with the races of Abyssinia.
Incidentally Dr. Krapf, himself a German, described the Galla as the
'- Germans of Africa."
A theory as to the origin of the Equatorial Galla is advanced in
the unsigned article " Gallas " in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, which
states :
" The home of the Southern Galla was possibly in a district
East of Victoria Nyanza, for the tribes near Mount Kenya are
stated to go on a periodical pilgrimage to the mountain, making
offerings as to their mother."
The chain of causation is. obscure.
Herodotus in 450 B.C. shows the horn of Africa and the countries
Southward to the Eiver Juba as inhabited by " Macrobians ";
Erastothenes in 200 B.C. denotes the area " Cinamomifera Eegio ";
and Ptolemy in 150 A.D. shows "Barbaria"; Cape Gardafui as
" Aromata Prontus "; the interior as. " Myrrhifera Eegio," the coast
hinterland as " Azania," a Latinised form of the Arabic Ajam
used in conjunction with the word bar to denote a non-Arab
country.
It is probable that shortly before or in early Christian times there
was a migration of pastoral Hamites from Asia into Eastern Africa
abutting on Asia, the Galla preceding. This, migration was
contemporary with that of the peoples designated by Sir H. Johnston
as " Eed Sea Kushites " (Hadendowa, Danakil, etc.) and was a little
to the Southwards.
Thence, by reason of pressure from fresh immigrants the first
comers were forced to seek new pastures, either in the West between
the forest and desert near the great rivers, or Southwards towards the
mountains of Eastern Africa.
Paulitschke, following Tellez in the XVII. Century, Hiob Ludolf
and James Bruce, in writing of the Galla in Abyssinia, gives the date
of their arrival in that country as about 1537, and their starting point
to have been South of the Gulf of Aden and states that they were
still in the region opppsite to the Gulf in the XIII Century.
The old Arab Sultanate of Zeyla, founded it is said, in the VII.
Century, had become a powerful State by the XIII. Century, A.D.,
and embraced a large number of Galla converts under its rule, until
the mixed race which resulted broke it up into a number of petty
emirates under Galla-Somali chiefs.
It is certain that between 1528 and 1540 A.D. armies of
Mohammedans, under Mohamed Gran (or Granye, the left handed),
a Somali, conquered a large part of what is now Abyssinia. Portuguese
intervention was sought and a fleet arrived in 1541, 400 musqueteers
under Christopher da Gama, a brother of the Admiral Vasco, took the
held, at first with success, but eventually they were defeated and
their leader executed. Ultimately Mohamed Gran was routed in 1543
by the Portuguese. These campaigns, had wide-spread effect on the
stratification of peoples in this region.
During the Portuguese occupation of the East Coast of Africa the
Galla were the most powerful tribe between Abyssinia and Mombasa
and were thought to extend far to the South, hey even besieged
Jesus i'ort in Mombasa and were practically suzerain over the semi-
Arab petty sultanates in the Lamu archipelago. In 1824 Captain
Owen, in charge of a charting expedition, notes the Galla settlement
near Witu. In 1843 when Dr. Krapf was expelled from Abyssinia he
heard a rumour at Aden of the equatorial Galla, and on Christmas Eve
8
of that year, accompanied by his wife and travelling in a nativi dhow,
he anchored at the mouth of the Juba Biver; the next day ho reached
the Island of Koyama, the most northern of the Dundas Group, and
had " the very great pleasure of meeting with the Gallas of the tribe
Dado."
The island of Koyama is said to have been peopled from Kismayu
owing to the Galla raids on that port. But on the other hand some
of the islanders claim to be descended from the Garreh, a semi-pagan
tribe, closely allied to the Galla-Somali group and inhabiting part of
the coast near Merca in Italian Somaliland and the country about Dolo
in the north of the Kenya Province of Jubaland. Again a
.Koran in one of the mosques on Koyama Island shows a pedigree of
a present-day family for some ten generations; in this, first may be
noticed pagan Galla nomenclature, next plain Islamic names, later
at about the height of the ivory and slave tra^e t.he titles of " Haji "
and " Said," and finally the present-day return to ordinary Moslem
names. An aged baobab tree on the mainland directly opposite to
this Island also bears numerous tribal marks identified by Galla as
peculiar to themselves which the islanders state were carved by their
progenitors before they crossed from the mainland.
The Galla then originated in Central or Southern Arabia, crossed
the Bed Sea, penetrated into the foothills of Abyssinia, turned South,
leaving substantial settlements of their blood behind them, and were
driven to their last outpost along the Tana Biver by conflict with the
Somali, a race which they had helped to found.
The Somali.
The Somali, Sir Eichard Burton has characterised as " nothing
but a slice of the great Galla nation Islamised and Semiticised by
repeated immigrations from Arabia."
The Somali belong to the Eastern Hamitic family of which the
chief members are the Galla and Afar, the Abyssinian Ajan, and the
Beja tribes between the Nubian Nile and the Bed Sea. They, or
rather the Galla, their progenitors, have been identified with the
people of Punt, and it is said that they were known to the early
dynasties of Egypt. Somalis since their conversion to Islam are
prone to regard themselves as pure Arabs, but in spite of geographical
propinquity the influence of Arabia has been very slight even upon the
Somali language, the structure and vocabulary of which is essentially
Hamitic with marked affinities to the Galla and Afar tongues. The
Somali is not however a pure Hamite and the physical characteristics
of the race show signs of interbreeding with Galla, Afar, Abyssinians,
Bantu, and negroes.