somali traditional shoes

[Burqad]

The Gaboye made the kabo:View attachment 343379

The leather itself came from the hunting of animals by Madhiban, sometimes drawn from typical livestock. Oryx beisa was often the go-to when making durable material for the shield.
View attachment 343380

You had also other prized animal hides that were less available than the oryx:View attachment 343381

These animals were found in abundance 150 years ago.

View attachment 343382

True story from the Hawd. The guy survived.

Shoes weren’t made by gaboye but by urban craftsmen and by Quran teachers in rural areas.

Fun fact: the Somali term for money comes from how shoes were bought in the old days, a clan would send a person from every shoe size to the market and they would have to buy shoes for the people in their clan with the same shoe size, eventually people when buying and selling would say “waxan ma ila cag tahay”, and that’s how lacag as a word came about.

 

[The alchemist]

Shoes weren’t made by gaboye but by urban craftsmen and by Quran teachers in rural areas.

Fun fact: the Somali term for money comes from how shoes were bought in the old days, a clan would send a person from every shoe size to the market and they would have to buy shoes for the people in their clan with the same shoe size, eventually people when buying and selling would say “waxan ma ila cag tahay”, and that’s how lacag as a word came about.

Most if not all old source that mentioned the making of sandals that I have come across, noted by foreign travelers that touched ground in the 19th and early 20th century, explicitly emphasizes that the Gaboye crafted the sandals like the one you read above and just ignored for whatever stubborn reason. Here is a random one from the late 19th century again:

The urban craftsmen and non-urban craftsmen were made by artisans who were Gaboye. Leatherwork, ironwork, etc. all were the domain of very specialized castes. Every clan had their Gaboyes in serf-like conditions for them to do those works as a sub-economic classification. This is very well documented and is common knowledge among Somalis and the Gaboye themselves.