Emir of Zayla
𝕹𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖔𝖋 𝕻𝖔𝖊𝖙𝖘
But if you’re looking for something more stylish and formal, this would be it.
Traditional men's clothing
- Thread starter Nur_
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balanbalis
"Ignore" button warrior
My mum told me that kurdad and googorad was a reer miyi style outfit in the 1980s (the one on the right is sadex qayd)I'm just doing an anthropological post, not trying to recreate it. But the clothing for men who did pastoralism is probably the most enduring. You found it across the broader "Barbaria."
The jouke can't be more than the medieval age. It has history among us so it is definitely traditional, although you would have found similar styles across northeast Africa during that temporal period, for example, among the Sudanese.
The macawiis is not traditional whatsoever. That shit came pretty recently and it is the equivalent what jeans is to America.
I disagree with balabalis on the gogarad. That existed since at least the early Islamic period in the coastal and city regions. Women had more variability than only the guntiino. But the typical dirac probably came around the same time as the macawiis. But Somali women clothing is an amalgamation of clothing tapestry rather than a narrow one thing replacing the other. It became more of a phenomenological amalgamation that phased together.
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You would see this for many centuries back in the coastal regions. Guntiino is the equivalent to the male clothing I showed.
The shirt for men came during colonialism, where Somalis (in Somaliland) imported textiles from America.
Somalis had long trade with the broader world since ancient times that would reflect on the clothing. But the typical clothing I showed would probably not go back over 3000 years for us.
Also, I would not say it is the equivalent of the average rice farmer at all. Roman senators wore something similar, we just had it more ubiquitous. Our clothing did not reflect class because the majority were elites. A wealthy agro-pastoralist-trader would dress like that, as the guy who barely had any livestock or other forms of wealth. Rice farming in the Confucian system was respected but low class. In Somali culture, we had a pastoralist ideology as a cultural archetype, despite our living ways being complex, these are things we acquired from our ancestors in Nubia. The cultural and social capital lied in the pastoralist and tribal pedigree.
We can't even be compared to these agrarian civilizations because we developed a completely different socio-political paradigm. The socio-economic organization of Somalis was very distinct and the social value of herding was also the channel for elite expression (the wealthiest man had massive livestock). Meaning, there is nothing in China or Europe that could be compared and measured against it. A pastoralist can at best be compared to the feudalist land owner, not the peasant himself. If you don't know the history of northeast Asians, peasants were almost slave-like. They were exploited by the elites, they could not accumulate wealth. A Somali pastoralist is like a landlord, not the peasant, although even that is not equivalent, since Somalis were agro-pastoralist-traders. The economic activity was unique and not feudalistic like the Ethiopian highlands, where the royals taxed the peasants heavily while not being able to expand wealth.
A lot of people have a very wrong view about the history of Somalis and how the society functioned, how wealth was seen, how the social, political and traditional tribal forces related. It's so distinct from China that trying to set a class-based value judgment of low-class agrarian metric symbolic clothing or subsistence towards pastoralists in Somali society by relating to slave-like feudalist peasants that own nothing is frankly ignorant. No offence to that but I have seen it before and it could not be further from the truth.
I feel like the city style looked more quality in comparison (patterns, better material, better fit etc)
Bonus: here are some women with a guntiino googorad combo
balanbalis
"Ignore" button warrior
I think macawiis just replaced the traditional white lower wrap for menThe macawiis is not traditional whatsoever. That shit came pretty recently and it is the equivalent what jeans is to America.
Here's an image from 1846!
balanbalis
"Ignore" button warrior
I have never seen these cloaks before, do you have any details?
I need the source of the first image please
The alchemist
VIP
The lower wrap was something the people used when they were in conflict mode. No one walked around with lower wraps all the time unless it was super casual outside your house stuff which was not a typical wear for the pastoralist. It was only specifically for martial posture. Or if they were working manual labor (you can see they used the upper half as a belt with the one bellow):
But one could unwrap that and make it the normal style. It's basically two variations in one clothing. Or they could put on a shorter fabric. But I have never seen Somalis treck the desert looking like the guy bellow.
This one looks shorter, but this one, including yours, seems like with the rest, that they just used the upper half as a belt, changing based on convenience using the same clothing:
I also think these spesific wraps were for adolescent boys. Like not children but not yet men.
You can see how they wrapped the upper part on their waist:
Basically when Somali men wanted to fight, do something physical or even sometimes chill, they would wrap it around.
It's only this one that was short but this is very unusual:
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balanbalis
"Ignore" button warrior
Based on the headpiece i'd think this guy was Oromo
The alchemist
VIP
The cloak is Habash. I know it since it was mentioned in Periplus 2000 years ago. They sold smaller cloacs and the king used a large cloak as well. You have people still wearing it for cultural evens or weddings. But it was really a Habash thing:
Also, they used white fabrics but never wore it like us. They had also a wrap, like how you see the farmers in the highlands use or old priests in the mountains.
This was Axum in 1930. You can see the priest wearing the large cloak:
This was the 2000 year old source describing what this king was wearing:
It was stated they sold cloaks:
Basically these Habash have been wearing the same stuff since 2000 years ago.
It gets chilly up there so they looked like this (wihtout the pants):
Some Habash these days have appropriated it (since it was never a thing commoners wore) and wear it in weddings:
An actual friend pulled up on that, lol.
The Habash nobility:
I wrote and posted that to say, keep that cloak business away from us. It's emblematic of the historical Habash @Emir of Zayla
The alchemist
VIP
I was definitely going to say that. Because even the lower short piece he had on was unusual (Somali men never walked around nearly naked). Oromos had on a headpiece because they had an obsession with phallic symbolism and were brutal. They used to castrate their defeated enemies. The Ethiopian government had to ban it.
The alchemist
VIP
Thanks. Are the photos from just Somalia or the countries you named?
I waa trying to respond in order but this caught my attention.
The alchemist
VIP
Just letting people know I never make anything up:I waa trying to respond in order but this caught my attention.
They used to tie a wooden penis called 'kalacha' to the forehead, now they usually make phallic-like items that look more like chess pieces than penises (not always), but they used to be like the link below. White people are selling them as ornaments:
Some Borana still do itwithout modifications:
Horta is there a reason why I've never seen anybody with a gun in any of these pictures? Is it because the people taking the photos don't want them holding any guns ?
It feel like these pictures where all they're holding is a spear and shield gives the false impression that guns were far less common than they actually were
It feel like these pictures where all they're holding is a spear and shield gives the false impression that guns were far less common than they actually were
Emir of Zayla
𝕹𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖔𝖋 𝕻𝖔𝖊𝖙𝖘
You’re probably right on that cause the second image I sent was from Dir Dhabe, it looked similar to the Jouke so I posted it, thanks for the lesson.
Also I’d like to add what Somalis wore in antiquity, robes dyed in colorful “parrot-dye” and they also made use of sea snails to dye their robes purple, similar to what the Phoenicians did. Purple dyed clothes was exclusively worn by elite higher-class Romans, the average Roman citizen couldn’t afford purple nor had access to it. The cost of purple would be equivalent to an annual salary of a Roman worker. This likely could have been one of the ancient Somali’s exports to the Roman Empire
cunug3aad
3rdchild · Aw geelale
Maybe and also. I think because the sword looks more honourable than the gun
I just looked up if there was any parrots in the roman empire at the time . The only ones available were the rose ringed parrots brought from India. Which look like this.
Kinda wild to imagine somalis walking around with green colored robes.
cunug3aad
3rdchild · Aw geelale
Green and white do seem to be somalia's natural colors for architecture
