swahili coast

[Al hashimi]

They speak chimwini not Swahili. They’re both sabaki languages but different

How come explain why pls what’s their history

 

[Somali_patriotic]

We don't have evidence of the term Somali before the 15th century. Previously what we now know as Somali were called barbaar by the Arabs. There's evidence of somalis living in an urban setting that were defined as Barbar , example: inhabitants of zeila, sultan of Mogadishu, inhabitants of Merca (Hawiye) etc all three people were labeled as barbar so at least outsiders knew that the people of Merca and Mogadishu were from the same ethnicity as the ones in Zeila

Somal was always used by rural somalis
It became an ethnic identity after the fall of adal
But the name certainly always existed

 

[Shangani]

Dont know wallahi, what I do know is that they only live in barwa

They're originally from Barawa but there's Barwani communities spanning hundreds of years in Bardheera, Kismayo, Xamar, Merca, Baido and all over the Lower Shabeela

 

[Shangani]

How come explain why pls what’s their history

Sabaki languages are a group of closely related Bantu languages spoken from Barawa to the Comoros, Mozambique, and also Siddi in Pakistan. Swahili, Mijikenda, Pokomo,Bajuni (Kibajuni) Spoken by the Bajuni people in the Lamu Archipelago of Kenya and Somalia, and an extinct language in Socotra Bajuni, Chimini, and Swahili proper to my knowledge are all part of the same sub family with bajuni being the oldest.

 

[Idilinaa]

According Medieval writers and Geographers. The Swahili Coast was seperated from The Somali coast as Zanj and Barbar.

Anything south of Barawa was Zanj(Swahili) and anything North of it was Barbar(Somali). They wrote about Barawa most times in connection with Merka and Mogadishu with same cultural set up unlike Swahili. They wrote that Barawa was a Barbar town and it was governed by a council of clan elders.

Made a post about this, Have a read:

What's different about Barawa and Tunni's is that Barawa is a far southern town and it has strong trade ties to the Swahili coast south of them. The Somali groups that live there historically like Tunni/Garre have been spread out to cover the areas from Southern Somalia down to lake turkana and came in cultural-contact with a number of Northern Swahili speech communities who were migrating north. They left behind their cultural imprints and remnant groups in form of Boni and Rendille.

That's what sets them and the town apart from say Merka and Mogadishu whose urban population speak only a coastal Somali dialect. Because they don't have strong contact or trade tries with the Swahili coast or Swahili speakers.

Some more information on how medieval geographical writings corroborate and support oral Tunni tradition about their settlement:

About the towns bilingualism and Somali influences in Chimiini:

Some examples of Somali influences from the same book i showed earlier:

Aside from this, the town and Brawa society itself is organized and divided into Somali clan structure of qabil and lineages ''reer'' they call it ''reeri'' and Guurti(council of clan elders), which can be seen in Todobo Tol ''Seven Lineages'' that govern the town.