LANGUAGE The use of the word Madow in Somali history

[Soul Kaizer]

When did Somalia first start using the word madow to start describing black people.

Was it something that we have always been using or is it something we learnt from the colonial era.

Basically what I am asking what was the pre-colonial way to refer to black people.

Was it always madow?

 

[Northern Swordsman]

Somalis used to differentiate between other Africans and themselves. Somalis used to call their skintone maariin which is reddish brown and other africans were madow.

Ex. The Oromo invasion in the 17th century was called the Dagaaladii Gaal Madow.

Somalis still do not refer to themselves as madow - as we know.

 

[Zak12]

Somalis used to differentiate between other Africans and themselves. Somalis used to call their skintone maariin which is reddish brown and other africans were madow.

Ex. The Oromo invasion in the 17th century was called the Dagaaladii Gaal Madow.

Somalis still do not refer to themselves as madow - as we know.

How about the ones in Mogadishu where Somalis called themselves Gibil Madow in contrast to Gibil Cads?

 

[Northern Swordsman]

How about the ones in Mogadishu where Somalis called themselves Gibil Madow in contrast to Gibil Cads?

Good point. I assume that resulted only after the intermixing became widespread.

 

[mohammdov]

Somalis used to differentiate between other Africans and themselves. Somalis used to call their skintone maariin which is reddish brown and other africans were madow.

Ex. The Oromo invasion in the 17th century was called the Dagaaladii Gaal Madow.

Somalis still do not refer to themselves as madow - as we know.

Who told you that Somalis do not consider themselves black in Somalia?

 

[Zak12]

Who told you that Somalis do not consider themselves black in Somalia?

Well they certainly don't consider themselves the same as Bantu and Nilotes who are the "traditional" blacks the rest of the world sees

 

[Himmler]

Was it something that we have always been using or is it something we learnt from the colonial era.

Basically what I am asking what was the pre-colonial way to refer to black people.

Was it always madow?

We have always considered ourselves distinct from Black Africans aswell as Eurasians and North Africans, this viewpoint existed way before the colonial era.
We don’t need colonialists to tell us we are different from other Sub Saharan Africans, every bit of our physiognomy says it for us.

Axumites considered themselves “qey’h” which in there language means Red, they use this in contrast to black(tselim) and white(tasada), so they consider themselves intermediate between to Sub Saharan Africans and Eurasians which is supported by there genetics aswell. There’s texts going back to the something like 6th century BCE, where the Habesha are calling there people “red”, and there’s 4th century CE texts describing people in Sudan/Nubia as “red” so they obviously felt racial kinship with lower Nubians as they use this term as a racial one, later texts apply this term to lowland East Cushitic groups.
So Horners have always considered ourselves to be an intermediate distinct people on a cline between Blacks and Whites/Arabs.

 

[Banadiri Warrior]

How about the ones in Mogadishu where Somalis called themselves Gibil Madow in contrast to Gibil Cads?

Gibil madow was a broad term for people of darkskin origin it includes bantus and cushitics, wasn't only used in mogadishu was also used in Marka and by Geledi and Bagadi confederacies

 

[Banadiri Warrior]

When did Somalia first start using the word madow to start describing black people.

Was it something that we have always been using or is it something we learnt from the colonial era.

Basically what I am asking what was the pre-colonial way to refer to black people.

Was it always madow?

The word madow has always been used for the colour black