What is it that you love about being Somali?

[Grimmer]

We fear nothing about being who we are, and how it’s in our nature to take care one another(outside of rural areas).

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[dhaxabaay]

Guuntinos and dahaab

 

[Gracias]

Everything. I love that we’re brave and not cowardly. I love being able to rely on random Somali strangers.

 

[Devilsadvocate]

The food, language, culture, hospitality, the banter, our looks and the diverse landscape.

 

[Rayaale]

One thing I love about Somalinimo is how much we help each other no matter what

 

[Xareen]

I do think a case can be made for us being descended from actual Old Kingdom Egyptians. Somalis' Y-DNA E-Z813 subclade is from 2300 BCE and is shared with two Nablusi Palestinians, a Sudani and an Upper Egyptian. If it was originally an Egyptian lineage that moved into Nubia rather than an early Nubian lineage that came from Egypt during the Predynastic period then we may very well have still been experiencing gene-flow and intermixture from Upper Egypt as late as nearly 1,000 years after their civilization surfaced.

But either way what you suspect is a given, I think, and I cover this in the post. Lots of evidence to support that we are descended at least from Predynastic Egyptians who intermixed with a Dinka-like group or an earlier mix of Prehistoric Egyptian and Dinka-like in Nubia and Sudan. More for another time/the post on that, though.

How do you reconcile our complete lack of ANF? And the lack of cultural continuity? Pre-proto-Egyptian is what makes the most sense to me.

 

[Shimbiris]

How do you reconcile our complete lack of ANF? And the lack of cultural continuity? Pre-proto-Egyptian is what makes the most sense to me.

We definitely have ANF, even outside of our Arabian ancestry. It’s just being muddied by how G25 has a hard-on for Natufian in pretty much all groups with significant ANA like us and Arabians.

Horner mtDNA at the very least makes it plain there’s something Anatolian at play. We also wouldn’t fit so well with that Old Kingdom sample in those models I’ve seen y’all throw around if we lacked it.

I’ve knocked it many a time for good reasons but in this respect I have to say that qpAdm is probably in the right for skewing us more toward Neolithic Levantines and other such later samples.

 

[Midas]

How do you reconcile our complete lack of ANF? And the lack of cultural continuity? Pre-proto-Egyptian is what makes the most sense to me.

You have to realize the Sinai penisula before the domestication of the donkey was essentially impassable. Thats why even though it took 4,000 years for anatolian farmers to cross all of Europe and arrive in Morocco. It was those mixed anatolia farmer/berbers that brought agriculture to eygpt before anybody else.

It's why that old kingdom sample only had 20% of its ancestry traces back to Mesopotamia and the Levant

 

[NidarNidar]

I always found Somali poetry so strange as someone who's main exposure to poetry was through English. English poetry is still very much the same day-to-day spoken language just with some extra pith and wit and maybe a tendency to rhyme depending on the poetry's format but the Soomaali poems my mother would share with me or I'd see or read around legitimately felt like a distinct language from the normal spoken language.

I honestly would frequently require my mother translate a poem for me as though I was listening to or reading something from a distinct but similar language. I found this so strange; almost like there was a form of diglossia at play which was so weird for a language the supposedly didn't have a long literary tradition.

Began to make more sense when we all dug up that stuff on Somalis clearly using Ajami scripts going back to the Middle-Ages and then many even desert-dwelling pastoralists being literate and able to read and write Arabic which they learned by often translating Arabic words into Somali. Just didn't add up that our ancestors simply "loved poetry" and developed such mature poetic styles.

It's the poetry 100%

Cilmi Ismacil Liban was born around 1910 in a border region nestled between Ethiopia and Somalia - which was under British Colonial Rule at the time; hence his nickname "Boodhari" which is a neologism of the English word "Border". Not much of his childhood or adolescence is documented, the limitations of Somali historiography is that it's one of oral traditions, so like many oratorical renditions the fat has been trimmed unfortunately. We do know however that in 1931 as a young man he left the traditional camel-herding lifestyle of the nomadic Somali people and moved to the ancient port city of Berbera to work at a teashop. Teashops are pivotal social avenues within Somali culture. They can be ornate buildings made of considerable quality but more often than not they were usually huts made of mud bricks and clay, roofed with corrugated tin and aluminum, and furnished by simple wooden benches and tables. Inside young men chattered away about all manner of topics: their personal lives, heated debates and discussions, news and politics, local scandals, and poetry recitations - all in typical Somali fashion: full of passion and dramatic flair. In Somali culture love songs were always cast as light-hearted artistic expressions. Men often sang love songs they've composed themselves or roared the classics many enjoyed, but it was never held to a serious standard within the apex of Somali artistic tradition. It was said that the love songs were for the youth, but for the elders it was the gabay.

Gabay is the height of Somali poetic achievement. It was the most complex in length and meter, full of various rules of composition and alliteration, and delved directly into the psyche, identity, and philosophy of the people. It was often a joyous and rowdy scene when love songs were sung by the patrons but once gabay was uttered the entire room sat in silence and absorbed every syllable of the what was being recited. It was through gabay Somalis could let people into the depths of their souls: their sorrows and their grief, their pride and their happiness, their faith or their disillusionment, their love or their hate - all was laid bare for others to witness and experience. Cilmi took no part in the going-ons of the teashop, he simply was there for work and nothing else. He never composed any songs or poems, never joined in the appraisals or criticisms of the singers or poets, he simply had no interest. Although he was ambivalent to it all he must have still listened all the same. Perhaps subconsciously the works of the legendary poets Sayid Maxamed Cabdille Xasan, Salaan Carrabey, and Raage Ugaas may have fostered an unknown influence on him and his future artistic expressions, but its only speculation. As far as anyone else was concerned there wasn't a remote possibility of him having any poetical inclinations, let alone a talent for it.

In Somali culture there is the concept of calaf - which in basic terms is the belief of predestination, the future of our lives pre-ordained by divine omnipotent decree. So in the Somali view not even Cilmi could escape his fate, for it was already pre-written. He was working for his Uncle at the time, at a shop owned by members of his family when one day a chance encounter would not only change the course of his life but also alter the cultural sensitivities of the entire nation. A girl walks into the shop, exchanged a greeting with him casually, inquires about a type of bread, pays for it and then leaves. What most would consider an ordinary encounter was far from it for Cilmi, for he fell completely and helplessly in love with her. By all accounts she was described by others as a rather plain girl but for Cilmi he found within himself an all consuming and fiery passion for her. Most people don't believe in love at first sight, but for Cilmi this one fateful encounter with the girl who bought bread from him would haunt him for the rest of his life. Her name was Hodan Cabdulle Walanwal. He kept his feelings for her a secret to everyone around him but as the days drew on he couldn't conceal his feelings for her any longer and decided to confide in his close friends about her. After working up the nerve he approached her family and begged them to be allow him to marry her, but they outright refused. They did not see it as a proper match for their daughter, his own direct family and clan disapproved as well. It was considered an insult to both their families. He was of a lesser clan and was mired in poverty, whereas she came from a more noble clan and middle class family, her father worked as an interpreter for British colonial employees and made a decent living. He was considered an ill suitor for Hodan. He asked them if he could pay the bridewealth (mehr/yarad) if they would allow him the opportunity to marry her and was told that they would consider it. She was fifteen years old and there was no rush for her to get married at that point in time. So it was settled, he departed from the blistering hot coastal port-city of Berbera to Djibouti, where the wages were higher. He worked tirelessly for years as a laborer on the docks to save enough money for the bridewealth. Eventually he made enough money and returned to Berbera with his procured wealth and hopes, but disaster struck. He stayed away far too long. In his absence Hodan was married to another man, one of considerable stature - they called him Maxamed Shabel (Maxamed the Leopard). He was left devastated, he would walk around the city aimlessly in an intense state of severe melancholy and depression. He could not escape the confines of the prison of love he had for Hodan so he quickly fell ill. It was then one of the most extraordinary transformations in Somali artistic history took place. It was then Cilmi Boodhari became a poet.

 

[Reformedlaais]

I love the resilience of Somali women & girls. I love the random acts of kindness elderly Somali hooyos display in public I honestly feel the safest around around Somali women

 

[DengAppreciator]

I would definitely say our sense of hospitality. Every time I meet a random Somali on vacation they would help me, take care of me, be kind, etc. Especially the aunties. It’s like I’ve known them for 5 minutes and they treat me as if I’m their own family.

 

[bobby_hill-Punt]

The language. If I meet a stranger that Somali they always greet me as family Upti and Adeer and Habo iyo Edo. .

 

[Reformedlaais]

Somalis are probably the only Cushitic people that are more bigger in groups that have expanded their names into the whole of the horn region. I think we’re the only groups in the horn that have a name before us. Which is a huge deal.

Im sooo glad we’re not like Ethiopians or Sudanis imagine others branding your ethnic group/ land

 

[queasyian]

Very easy to go to strangers that have just met to associates/phone contact within one day.

 

[chaehyun]

I love our clothing, language (land of the poets), and sacred beauty techniques us women use. I love using qasil, uunsi, kohl, and henna. I also appreciate our humor and how close-knit and helpful we are to one another.

 

[Khal Mah Oma]

Im sooo glad we’re not like Ethiopians or Sudanis imagine others branding your ethnic group/ land

Somalis are more homogeneous than other groups which is why we have that advantage. Somalliand (a separatist state) even still call themselves Somali even though they don’t want anything to do with Somalia.




It’s all to do with how homogenous it is. Pretty cool.