Did The Older Generation Of Somali Fail to Authorize and Legitimate Somali History?

[Keep it a boqol]

I see young dudes online doing extensive research on Somalia and the horn of africa and even on this site, which makes me think that the older generation failed to educate and authorize our history.

There is a Somali professor of african history in UOT who claimed on twitter that italians brought bananas to somalia.


No wonder we have so many swahili and ethiopian hoteps taking and discrediting so much of our history.

 

[peterpeter]

I see young dudes online doing extensive research on Somalia and the horn of africa and even on this site, which makes me think that the older generation failed to educate and authorize our history.

There is a Somali professor of african history in UOT who claimed on twitter that italians brought bananas to somalia.


No wonder we have so many swahili and ethiopian hoteps taking and discrediting so much of our history.

Somali elders failed in many metrics, you can't really count on them for things like this it's up to us.

 

[Hilmaam]

I see young dudes online doing extensive research on Somalia and the horn of africa and even on this site, which makes me think that the older generation failed to educate and authorize our history.

There is a Somali professor of african history in UOT who claimed on twitter that italians brought bananas to somalia.


No wonder we have so many swahili and ethiopian hoteps taking and discrediting so much of our history.

it’s true though banana farming was not something our ancestors did they were nomads . hunting for food farming all that stuff was not looked at favorably

 

[Midas]

I see young dudes online doing extensive research on Somalia and the horn of africa and even on this site, which makes me think that the older generation failed to educate and authorize our history.

There is a Somali professor of african history in UOT who claimed on twitter that italians brought bananas to somalia.


No wonder we have so many swahili and ethiopian hoteps taking and discrediting so much of our history.

I think the effor was probably getting more serious but the state collapsed but now young Somalis everywhere are getting more intrestes in looking into thiee history. There are these young guys in somalia wrote a book on the adal sultante a year ago while they were still in college. They literally spoke with people from all over and even traveled to harar. They had lots of young people coming to their talks. And even received a bunch of orders from somalis in London who wanted to teach this stuff . They were even at this year's mogadishu book fair

 

[Step a side]

it’s true though banana farming was not something our ancestors did they were nomads . hunting for food farming all that stuff was not looked at favorably

This is not true. Section of the Somalis have always been farming while others are full blown nomads. Then you have the in-between who are Agro-pastoralists. My clan for example have been farming for 1300~years on the Ethiopian highlands and on the Shabelle river. Of course there are other members within the clan that are nomads while others are merchants etc. Many of the RX and Madow for example are are not nomads.

 

[The Oponian Guild]

it’s true though banana farming was not something our ancestors did they were nomads . hunting for food farming all that stuff was not looked at favorably

This is just our Mudug mentality, not all Somalis were nomadic. Some settled and farmed.

 

[Keep it a boqol]

it’s true though banana farming was not something our ancestors did they were nomads . hunting for food farming all that stuff was not looked at favorably

This is not true. Section of the Somalis have always been farming while others are full blown nomads. Then you have the in-between who are Agro-pastoralists. My clan for example have been farming for 1300~years on the Ethiopian highlands and on the Shabelle river. Of course there are other members within the clan that are nomads while others are merchants etc. Many of the RX and Madow for example are are not nomads.

@Step a side heres evidence of the exporting and cultivation way before italian contact.

@Hilmaam This the nonsense i’m referring to. If your specific family tree didn’t do anything productive or significant, keep you langaabnimo to yourself and stop projecting it to the rest of us.

 

[Step a side]

@Step a side heres evidence of the exporting and cultivation way before italian contact.

@Hilmaam This the nonsense i’m referring to. If your specific family tree didn’t do anything productive or significant, keep you langaabnimo to yourself and stop projecting it to the rest of us.

Great find brother. That guy did his research

 

[Hilmaam]

This is not true. Section of the Somalis have always been farming while others are full blown nomads. Then you have the in-between who are Agro-pastoralists. My clan for example have been farming for 1300~years on the Ethiopian highlands and on the Shabelle river. Of course there are other members within the clan that are nomads while others are merchants etc. Many of the RX and Madow for example are are not nomads.

Ain’t no clean that

@Step a side heres evidence of the exporting and cultivation way before italian contact.

@Hilmaam This the nonsense i’m referring to. If your specific family tree didn’t do anything productive or significant, keep you langaabnimo to yourself and stop projecting it to the rest of us.

U have monkey

 

[Hilmaam]

This is not true. Section of the Somalis have always been farming while others are full blown nomads. Then you have the in-between who are Agro-pastoralists. My clan for example have been farming for 1300~years on the Ethiopian highlands and on the Shabelle river. Of course there are other members within the clan that are nomads while others are merchants etc. Many of the RX and Madow for example are are not nomads.

1300 year old somali clan please share that abtiris

 

[Step a side]

1300 year old somali clan please share that abtiris

You can see the Dir clan has a tmrca of 1600. Yfull is of course not 100% accurate with the age estimates so plus or minus it by 200-300 years. So we are looking at an age estimate of roughly 1300~ years for the Dir clan. Not to mention 800+ year ago Hawiye was already a large clan stretching from Merca to Ras Xaafuun according to several early medieval Muslim cartographers. You also have the people of Hobat (Old Hawiye kingdom) appearing in Ethiopian historical records as early as the 1300s fighting Amda Seyon. This means the clan founder was born much earlier in time.

 

[Idilinaa]

I believe this thread and that tweet is in response to the thread i made on Somali historian

A Thread on Somali historians who wrote in Arabic and their works

-The great historian Ahmed Abdallah Rirash: Author of the book ''Uncovering the History of Somalia and Their Seven Kingdoms'' - Dr Ahmed Abdo Mohammed : Author of two books ''Sheikh Rashid Rida: His life and literature'' and ''Al-Tha'alibi and his book ''The Orphan of the Age'' - Sheikh...

www.somalispot.com

A few Somali historians/scholars actually researched our pre-islamic history mainly Somalis trade with the romans and other civilizations. One of the historians Ahmed Jamali, i mentioned in thread he begins one of his books with Somali relations with the ancient Egyptian, Iraqi, Indian, Persian and Roman civilizations.

As for Post-Islamic History , i am assuming he means modern history there as well . Historians like Ibrahim Hashi Mahamud chronicled the pre-independence period in 'Kifah al-Hayat(The Struggle) and Aw Jama Umar Issa Tarikh al-Sumal fi al-Usur Wusta Wa-al Haditha (The Modern and Medieval History of Somalia) with a special emphasis on the Dervish movement, he also published a book on the history of Somali political movements and the history of the army.

Also Ali Ahmad Nur book ''Historical Background of the Somali-Ethopian dispute'' an important part of this study deals with the 1977/1978 Ogaden war

I could go on, but the older generation that grew up before the state collapse dedicated a great deal in documenting and researching Somali history but a lot of it was in Arabic or Somali.

I agree with Midas , i believe it has to do with the collapse of the country and a great amount of educated people being displaced , set us back in terms of writing about Somali history, researching and translating available materials which requires a great deal of time and investment not necessarily available to us who have different obligations.

 

[Aseer]

Theres a reason why I call that generation the "Failed Generation", they destroyed our country, barely innovated, barely published intellectual books or material and much more thats why the generation before them and after them is much more high IQ and productive, most of our problems and issues came from the failed generation.

 

[Ya.dhahay]

Most of what we know as ethiopian history is just government funded propaganda, I think for a multi-ethnic country like Ethiopia and as a former empire that (with the help of its western allies) expanded their empire and subjugated new ethnic groups just decades before, ’creating’ what is now known as ethiopian history was necessary to defend the states existence and to construct a national identity

Somalia is obvs very different in that we are very homogenous, share a common identity/language/culture.. I guess for that reason it was not a big priority for both past and present somali government.

I also think we’ve never really had many people educated in the humanities.

 

[Grimmer]

it’s true though banana farming was not something our ancestors did they were nomads . hunting for food farming all that stuff was not looked at favorably

I agree farming is something people picked up over the last century if we’re being real honest.

 

[Idilinaa]

Theres a reason why I call that generation the "Failed Generation", they destroyed our country, barely innovated, barely published intellectual books or material and much more thats why the generation before them and after them is much more high IQ and productive, most of our problems and issues came from the failed generation.

I wouldn't exactly call them failed generation, because alot of them partook in the country before it's collapse and published stuff during and some time after it. What happened is that people were displaced a lot of them had to take on new jobs and found themselves switchin careers

For example Mohamed Hussein Ma'alim i shared earlier, he studied in univeristy of Mecca, Somalia and Sudan during the 70s/80s/90s awarded PHD in Islamic history, published books through Mogadishu state press and now he is teacher in Norwegian Universities and also part of intellectual organizations scattered around the world.

The History of Somali Scholars by Mohamed Hussein Ma'alim

The earlier Arabic version of it:

Put yeah we are starting to see new revival happening lately with book fairs and new publishing houses,

What i hope to see more than anything with the new is to see the past work being reintegrated with present and future work.

 

[Midas]

Most of what we know as ethiopian history is just government funded propaganda, I think for a multi-ethnic country like Ethiopia and as a former empire that (with the help of its western allies) expanded their empire and subjugated new ethnic groups just decades before, ’creating’ what is now known as ethiopian history was necessary to defend the states existence and to construct a national identity

Somalia is obvs very different in that we are very homogenous, share a common identity/language/culture.. I guess for that reason it was not a big priority for both past and present somali government.

I also think we’ve never really had many people educated in the humanities.

Yeah it's a new generation. One thing I think people don't appreciate if they don't speak somalis. Is how large the somali media landscape is. There's literally a radio and local broadcast for every little deegan and they organize little ururs and gatherings to discuss local issues. There are dozens of major news organizations like horntv or astaan tv. Every major Somali city has a book fair now.

You can't really do this type of stuff in ethiopia. The government basically controls the media and this limits their media landscape. You can't really have thag many books or large culutral events since they require govr approval. And what authoritarian govt wants large groups of people gathering.

 

[Zak12]

Much of what we know of Somali history was written and researched by Somali historians and archeologists.

 

[Idilinaa]

it’s true though banana farming was not something our ancestors did they were nomads . hunting for food farming all that stuff was not looked at favorably

Different Somali clans farmed a variety of crops between Juba and Shabelle river and upper shabelle river tributaries around harar uplands and this historically extend into awash and northwest Somaliland. In Puntland they planted date farms. Pastoralism was still viewed as superior and more sustainable in the semi-arid climate, so often times Somalis would combine both herding and farming.

If Italians introduced Banana , how do you explain it being widely consumed in Mogadishu in year 1700?, This is more than a century before the Italians arrived.

They had banana and rice for breakfast and dinner. So it was pretty much a staple in their diet
A description of Magadoxa

 

[Zak12]

it’s true though banana farming was not something our ancestors did they were nomads . hunting for food farming all that stuff was not looked at favorably

The idea that Somalis were "nomads" is false. All Somali clans practiced a mix of agricultural and pastoralist lifestyles, arguable the former more so since Somaliweyn has the largest concentration of stone towns and urban centers than anywhere else in East Africa which strongly suggests farming being widely practiced.