"EAST AFRICAN"? NO, I AM SOMALI!

[𐒁𐒚𐒒𐒂𐒘𐒂𐒗 𐒎𐒚𐒗𐒗𐒒]

What's with this 'East African' nonsense being pushed on social media??

This bullshit title is how our culture is being appropriated by insecure and cultureless, culture-vultures. Please, for the love of Allah SWT, stop calling yourself 'East African' and STOP ascribing our clothes, features or anything else as East African. Since when do we have 'cultural trade' with these people? Have you ever in your life seen a Somali woman doing eskista or wearing Habesha clothes or braids? Do you see us wearing Kenyan or Tanzanian clothing, Ugandan clothing?


Please don't allow people to call Somalis, 'East African' let alone our culture. Our culture, language, dances, features are not something that is shared. It's not our responsibility to foster this fake sense of union with people we share nothing in common with. No need to be rude, but beenta hala joojiyo.

 

[Sigmundd]

And all these other East African nations don't respect us and are the first to side with other maadows when we are roasted. There's no unity with us and East Africa.

 

[𐒁𐒚𐒒𐒂𐒘𐒂𐒗 𐒎𐒚𐒗𐒗𐒒]

And all these other East African nations don't respect us and are the first to side with other maadows when we are roasted. There's no unity with us and East Africa.

We already have the issue of Bantus in Somalia, who twerk whilst wearing baati and diracs. Of course, they are Somali nationals and we can't tell them not to do their traditional niiko even though it's debasing.

To add insult to injury, now we have other Bantus in East Africa, twerking in our traditional clothing and pretending that it's their culture, and when pressed, pretending that we have a 'shared' East African culture. No, we don't.

 

[The Oponian Guild]

In all honesty I don’t think I’ve heard any Somali refer to themselves as an East African, only like people from Kenya/Tanzania use that term.

 

[Sigmundd]

We already have the issue of Bantus in Somalia, who twerk whilst wearing baati and diracs. Of course, they are Somali nationals and we can't tell them not to do their traditional niiko even though it's debasing.

To add insult to injury, now we have other Bantus in East Africa, twerking in our traditional clothing and pretending that it's their culture, and when pressed, pretending that we have a 'shared' East African culture. No, we don't.

We need more Somali women to sell our traditional clothing. More somali fashion lines and a trademark or something to combat these thieves. Pisses me off how we cant have anything nice

 

[𐒁𐒚𐒒𐒂𐒘𐒂𐒗 𐒎𐒚𐒗𐒗𐒒]

In all honesty I don’t think I’ve heard any Somali refer to themselves as an East African, only like people from Kenya/Tanzania use that term.

Sadly, a lot of Somali and other Horner girls have been calling themselves 'East African' for a while now, and it's due to trying to find a word to describe 'Cushites' and instead they've brought in that entire side of Africa in this weird 'club'. It's clear there is some shared ancestry with Cushites, but people lack the knowledge or the language and now we have this 'East Africa' bullshit label.

 

[𐒁𐒚𐒒𐒂𐒘𐒂𐒗 𐒎𐒚𐒗𐒗𐒒]

We need more Somali women to sell our traditional clothing. More somali fashion lines and a trademark or something to combat these thieves. Pisses me off how we cant have anything nice

We do, and it's Somali traders who brought our clothes to Bantu nations. Honestly, I don't even care anymore, as nobody rocks diracs like Somali women, but it's still annoying. I also know for a fact, that WHEN not IF, Somali women change up our traditional styles, the copycats and culture vultures will be right on our heels.

 

[Juliet]

I noticed anytime Somalis are getting praised or do something great, you have Ethios and Kenyans in the comments talking about "East African", these same people are the first to throw us under the bus and join in the hate fest when we're getting dragged. Abihiin wass.

 

[seoulmates]

When Somalis made the StepUp app popular aidthiopians were trying to say “East Africans made the app popular.” Glad Somalis gathered her in the comments.

When it’s something positive suddenly it’s “Kumbaya. Muh East Africa.” Then turn around and be racist and xenophobic towards us

 

[CABDULWALI XASAN.]

Yup seen this on tiktok piss me off, just yesterday I saw one. They take lot of somali culture photos may that be clothes, food or even history and pass it off as East African.

Then in the comments you will see mostly Ethiopians claiming it without shame. Some of them are even confused talking about how this isn't their culture while the Somalis in the comments are split, the docile minority celebrate while the others ask and think why their passing off somali culture as east african when east africa includes many more cultures then just somali.

 

[Sigmundd]

When Somalis made the StepUp app popular aidthiopians were trying to say “East Africans made the app popular.” Glad Somalis gathered her in the comments.

When it’s something positive suddenly it’s “Kumbaya. Muh East Africa.” Then turn around and be racist and xenophobic towards us

Ohhh hell no. So many Habeshas are laughing at our hate. Ain't no way we should share anything with them. Call them out if you see them say "East african" or any kumbaya crap. They are only using us because of our success and be the first to push us infront of a train when shit hits the fan.

 

[𐒁𐒚𐒒𐒂𐒘𐒂𐒗 𐒎𐒚𐒗𐒗𐒒]

Someone posted a clip of a Jamaican woman asking EAST AFRICANS about Somali dirac. This is how far it has gotten. There is a group of people, who are pushing this fake 'East African' culture, and it's mostly Somali culture, images of Somali women, Somali clothes, dahab iyo uunsi. Been badana.

 

[empressjamila]

Honestly yea, we don’t really share anything culturally with other East African countries other than things that were stolen/copied from us (dirac shiid, alindi etc)

Eastern Africans in general don’t have that kind of unity. It’s not like west Africans that all have their own version of jollof and similar tribes in each country

 

[Ghengis Kaarhis]

When Somalis made the StepUp app popular aidthiopians were trying to say “East Africans made the app popular.” Glad Somalis gathered her in the comments.

When it’s something positive suddenly it’s “Kumbaya. Muh East Africa.” Then turn around and be racist and xenophobic towards us

What’s the StepHp app?

 

[𐒁𐒚𐒒𐒂𐒘𐒂𐒗 𐒎𐒚𐒗𐒗𐒒]

omg that was the first thing I noticed when I watched a video, she's talking about OUR diracs, wtf do other East Africans have to do with it?

And Somalis aren't saying anything about it in the comments either.

 

[seoulmates]

Also Somalis stop begging kinship with Oromos and other East African Muslims. Because of that “one ummah” crap. Stop letting them invade Somali Twitter and be comfortable to make xenophobic “jokes.” That they wouldn’t let fly if you made them.

Stop defending them when they get gather by other Somalis for tryna claim the Dirac/Baati as their clothing.

 

[𐒁𐒚𐒒𐒂𐒘𐒂𐒗 𐒎𐒚𐒗𐒗𐒒]

Also Somalis stop begging kinship with Oromos and other East African Muslims. Because of that “one ummah” crap. Stop letting them invade Somali Twitter and be comfortable to make xenophobic “jokes.” That they wouldn’t let fly if you made them.

Stop defending them when they get gather by other Somalis for tryna claim the Dirac/Baati as their clothing.

Whenever I see an Oromo wearing Alindi now, I wonder if it's those communities that have been Oromised, or those who intermarried with those people. It's actually disturbing how closely they follow us around.

Oromos need to start Orommummaa or whatever it's called regarding their own culture.

 

[Sigmundd]

Also Somalis stop begging kinship with Oromos and other East African Muslims. Because of that “one ummah” crap. Stop letting them invade Somali Twitter and be comfortable to make xenophobic “jokes.” That they wouldn’t let fly if you made them.

Stop defending them when they get gather by other Somalis for tryna claim the Dirac/Baati as their clothing.

It's tiktok thats destroying our culture and getting other East Africans to steal our clothing. Can't wait when that awful app gets shutdown permanently globally. Somalis don't have a voice on tiktok since we get dwarfed by everyone else. Twitter at least Somalis are vocal there.

 

[Sigmundd]

Whenever I see an Oromo wearing Alindi now, I wonder if it's those communities that have been Oromised, or those who intermarried with those people. It's actually disturbing how closely they follow us around.

IlWhy didn't us somalis assimilate them? our population could have been bigger. These oromos are smart.

 

[𐒁𐒚𐒒𐒂𐒘𐒂𐒗 𐒎𐒚𐒗𐒗𐒒]

The truth is, there are gorgeous Somali ladies on Tiktok, who make the dirac and other Somali clothes look so nice, and everyone wants some of that shine on themselves. That's why if Somali women randomly started wearing cow hide, they would copy us immediately. Our best tactic, is to not allow our culture to be called anything other than Somali. Politely and firmly rebuke any other label.