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.

 

[Idilinaa]

Wow I didn't know that thier were leatherworking traditions that the swahili adopted from us. We honestly need to revive all these handicraft traditions. Since I'd say your avg somali doesn't know any thing about this.
Oh and what source is that book by the way.

From my understanding there is small groups of people in the cities that still do them and trying to keep it alive and revive it, it faced major setbacks due to the civil war .

Before that their were dozens of handicrafts, textiles and jewlery shops by traditional craftsmen and it was sort of a like a cultural tourist attraction similar to what you now see in Oman today, as you have seen in the video from the 70s.
People used to buy them as souvenirs and presents.

And the different motifs and geometrics designs from some of the crafts where used in art posters like the one i shared earlier as cultural symbols.

It is the same book i linked to you in another thread: About Somali influence in manuscripts production on the swahili coast and how the revival was linked to Somali Sheikhs. https://www.researchgate.net/public...d_Qur'an_Manuscripts_from_Coastal_East_Africa

 

[Idilinaa]

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:View attachment 343399

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.

Urban craftsmen were not Gaboye at all. When those 19th century orientalist sources mention this they are focusing on rural bondsmen in Miiyiga who btw are descended from various clans , Gaboye is not a clan and their role is often reduced because food production take up the more importance, so they are secondary to that.

The urban ones were different they were organized into the formal professional guilds and were also from various lineages. They crafted things for market places and traded it.

Found some more information on Somali urban artisans and how they apparently organized themselves in guilds

From the; Peoples of the Horn of Africa (Somali, Afar and Saho): North Eastern

ARTISAN AND GUILD ORGANIZATIONS

These occur in the coastal towns of the south (there is no information for the north) and may well be the urban development of the institutions just described. A man wishing to apprentice his son to a carpenter, builder, or craftsman, takes him to the master with a gift (faddi). After a feast attended by apprentices at which roasted coffee is served, the lad joins the craftsman's family and remains under his authority. In return for lodging and keep, the apprentice works for his master's profit until, on reaching the status of craftsman, he desires to be independent. Then he purchases his freedom by a payment of money, a man's kercheif (garbasar) and a shield (gashan), returning his tools. Emancipation is celebrated ritually with feasting. It appears that often, by the time the apprentice is expert, his master has died, and we are not told what happens in this case.

There are similar guilds of weavers and silver-smiths, the second forming a kind of cast probably similar to the Tumaal..

@Shimbiris @xLibaxsenderx @Aurelian

This is also seen within the city of Harar in the 1800s where Somalis are the main craftsmans/artisans: The History of Harar and Harari:

To concretize this relationship, here are some examples; Burton’s description of the population of the city of Harar shows there were 2500 Somalis engaged in different activities (Burton, R., 1956). The spatial organization of the city and the quarters also has some ethnic stratification. Accordingly, the Somalis were predominantly found in the Suqtat Bari, engaged in occupations such as handicraft, smithery and leatherwork.

Is why Hararis name for Somali is ''Tumur'', their pronounciation of ''Tumaal'' and their word Blacksmith is a borrowing from from that ''Tumtu''

Guilds simulated kinship structure and was headed by an ''Aw'' or Father.

And when other Somalis moved into the towns and cities they would often take up on the same occupations , the same with the rural Gaboye as they were no longer were bondsmen when they settled in the major towns and as it was more common place.

Although it was done on a minor scale by the rural ones, it was the urban craftsmen that crafted the bulk the traditional crafts, and other stuff and they regularly exchanged it with the nomads and agriculturalists in return for other pastoral/agro products and raw materials.

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