Bump gotta get back to this thread. @Trajan @Swagnificent do yall have any interesting info yall have not shared yet? 
Lets Talk African History: Somalis. An underrated history
- Thread starter Bawon Samedi
- Start date
Bump gotta get back to this thread. @Trajan @Swagnificent do yall have any interesting info yall have not shared yet?
To be honest I don't know much about Somali history outside of the fact they had a close relationship with Ancient Egypt in antiquity. They were called the land of Punt. The Ancient Egyptians represented them as looking the same as them and having a similar culture. The Egyptians also imported Giraffes and other exotic animals from the land of Punt. The land of Punt was also called "the Land of the Gods" because according to Kemet historians, it was where the Gods of Kemet originated and thus where the people of Kemet themselves originated as well.
Other than for what the Ancient Egyptians said about them. The Ancient Greeks called the peoples of the Horn of Africa "Berbers". Which translates to Barbarians. The peoples of North Africa are now called Berbers. My guess is that the peoples of North Africa and the people of East Africa looked the same in antiquity which is why North Africans are today called Berbers which the same term that people in East Africa were called 2,000 years ago.
We're back! And for this episode of "Lets talk African history" we're going to be discussing an interesting history. Thats right Somalis from Somalia. First off to be honest I do not know much about Somali history compared to other East Africans like Ethiopians, the Swahilis or Nubians. I do know about the Ajuran empire but only the basics. Many of yall requested this thread be made however I feel discussing Somali history would be good because it would give more context behind the Swahili's role in the Indian Ocean since Somalia(Mogadishu) was also a big player in the Indian Ocean trade from Africa and were very powerful in terms of military. Whats interesting about Somalis is that they seemed to always have a maritime culture that even last till today. When you read more on Somali history you realize that because of their maritime history they like their Southern Somali cousins were literally EVERYWHERE in the Indian ocean.
Somalis are a Southern Cushytic group native to the modern area of Somalia. Anyways, I know many people have varying opinions on where Punt was located but some believe it was partially located in modern day Somalia at least. Lets see what the "Land of Punt" was about shall we?
Read more.
However, even if Somalia was not the location of Punt, Somalia alone still disproves the myth that "Sub-Sahara Africa" was a "dark continent" isolated from the world during classical times.
History of Somalia - Wikipedia
As we can see since classical period Somalis been trading with people like Egyptians, Romans, Indians Greeks and many others. Dispelling the myth that the area below the Sahara in Africa was isolated.
I will be posting better sources in next post.
@Grano-Grano @Karbaash @Broke Wave @Max B @FAH1223 @BocaRear
God damn its a lot of you nomads on here.
Looks like you already broke down the connections between Ancient Somalia and Ancient Egypt.
With this post I just want to address how Islam came to Somalia. And I hope I do not offend some of the Somali brehs with this, just the sources I found... Islam into Somalia seems to me a big mystery for me.
Read more
Islam in Somalia - Wikipedia
The Red Sea from Byzantium to the Caliphate: AD 500-1000
Like I said the introduction of Islam into Somalia seems to be blurry as hell with different arguments. IMO I think Somalis converted view trade, Arab migration and some avoiding being taken as slaves similar to other East Africans(Swahili). Correct me if wrong.
And now time for medieval Somalia where things get FUN. Stay tuned.
This makes sense. The Oromos famously did not convert to Christianity or Islam for the longest time and that is why they were sold as slaves by the Christian Ethiopians to the Arabs.
The idea that Somalis convered to Islam to avoid the same fate as their Oromo cousins makes sense.
This thread
Can't post much right now due to Ramadan and time constraints.
Will post what I can find later on. Would also love to explore the subject of Somali identity since it keeps coming up over and over again (especially in relation to xenophobia).
Somalis like other ethnic groups in East Africa are a combination of different peoples throughout history. The main source group is an ancient East African population native to the region that is today called the "Omo Valley" where Ethiopia, Sudan, and Kenya meet. Linguists believe that is where the Cushytic and also Afro-Asiatic languages originated. The theory in linguistics is that language families originate in the area where there is the most diversity of that language family. And southern Ethiopia/Sudan and northern Kenya is the place where the Afro-Asiatic language family is the most diverse and thus that is where it is thought to have originated. There are dozens of Afro-Asiatic languages native to that small region in the Omo Valley.
So from this Ancient East African population native to the Omo Valley, you get the main DNA stock of most East African males which is the E1b1b haplogroup. We also know that the main DNA stock of most East African females is the haplogroup L which also originated in East Africa. The interesting thing genetically with East Africans is there is a large part of their maternal ancestry that is NOT native to Africa. That is the mtDNA haplogroups of M and N (I know some wanna argue that those are also native to East Africa but I believe the argument is as flimsy as those that wanna say E1b1b originated outside of Africa). As a result, roughly 50% of East African female ancestry is thought to have originated in Asia.
Now this is simply a guess on my part, but I believe that at some point in the ancient past the original population native to East Africa combined with a population of Asiatics similar to the Dravidians of Southern India (which is where the mtDNA M and N dominate). Its was the absorption of these South Asian females into the Ancient East African population that created the modern populations of East Africa we see today. Its possible that these Dravidian type females from Asia were brought into East Africa in the same fashion the Moors imported in many European females to North Africa as sex slaves.
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M1 is now African tho. Because of an SNP event.
thatrapsfan
Superstar
My Grandafather and father were reer Aden. Still have many direct relatives who live there. Theres a lot of history to be written about the history of the Somali presence there, the influence is significant. Theres even a neighbourhood in Aden named after a Somali word (Qalooca after Somali word Qaloocin) and the word Adenis use for neighbourhood is hafa from Somali xafaad. Many other words too like laxoox are shared. Makes sense because of proximity of Aden to Somali peninsula.
Trajan
Veteran
Trajan
Veteran
In addition to the Egyptians Somalis also traded extensively with the Romans.
Sarapion - Wikipedia
Essina - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_(Somalia)
Sarapion - Wikipedia
Essina - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_(Somalia)
.More consistent evidence points to the Horn for Punt.
Then there is the baboons. Which are mostly found in the Horn. Then there is the art which mostly resembled Cushytics than Pygmies. Along other stuff.
The Egyptians themselves said they got pygmies and certain only iron minerals found outside of the Horn from Punt.
Art isn't evidence to me tbh as it is too subjective.
I'm also not saying Punt didn't include the Horn but it was obviously much greater than just that region.
Art isn't evidence to me tbh as it is too subjective.
I'm also not saying Punt didn't include the Horn but it was obviously much greater than just that region.
