The swahili theories are outdated bunk pseudo history. There was already Somalis living on the Southern coast all the way down to the Lamu Archipelago by the time they met Swahili speakers in Northern Kenya that was moving north and Swahili speakers didn't reach mainland Somalia.
There is updated linguistic evidence that shows this:
When Northern Swahili met Southern Somali
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Then we have the perpilus historical trading document and archeological evidence that show the whole coast was settled by natives more than 2 thousands years back that carried out a similar agro-pastoral lifestyle and trading.
Funny he says the coastal cities were not developed by desert people when you consider the fact that the coast of Mogadishu and Barawa is a literal desert covered in sand dunes and no real immediate zero resources and it's immediate surroundings are unsuitable for cultivation.
The interior is actually fertile with forests, grassland and woodland and rivers.
The coastal villages, towns and cities were developed as a commercial outlet for the interior and it's the interior agro-pastoral population that would develop it and open up for trade .
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The earliest mentions of Mogadishu/Merca in medieval sources paints the same picture, connecting it to it's hinterland and describing the 50 farming villages along the banks of the river.
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Ibn Batuta's own writings actually supports early Somali settlements on the coast. He not only says the Sultan in Mogadishu is a Barbar and but also says that the citizens have many camels and sheep (indicating pastoral orientation), it actually gives the town a localized native picture.
His name is Abu Bakr son of shaikh 'Umar. He is in origin from the Barbara, and his speech is Maqdishi [Somali?], but he knows the Arabic tongue.
[to Mogadishu] a town endless in its size. Its people have many camels, of which they slaughter hundreds every day and they have many sheep. Its people are powerful merchants. In it are manufactured cloths named after it which have no rival, and are transported as far as Egypt and elsewhere.
He also gives a definition to what he means by ''Barbar'' and says that they are black people that inhabit the coast all the way down from Zeila and ends in Mogadishu and they have many camels and sheep. Same as how he describes mogadishu the city, so you can see it's just connected to a native cultural landscape. It's never described as an enclave by people from elsewhere
I arrived at the city of Zeila, the city of the Barbar, who are a people of the blacks; Shafi'i [following Sunni Muslim laws] by rite. Their country is a desert which extends for two months' journey, its beginning is at Zeila and its ending is at Mogadishu. Their livestock are camels and their sheep are famed for their fatness. The inhabitants are black in color and the majority are Rejecters
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He also provides linguistic evidence that Mogadishu population spoke Somali, when , mentions their words for certain fruits in the Maqdisihi language.
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As well as describes Mogadishu organized under the Somali ''abaan'' institution which is a local commericial practice that is used from north to south.
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The southern coastal Somali dialects are big proof they that they were majority inhabited by Somalis at a very early date.
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Also there is zero evidence of any substratum. If Somalis came to a coastal area that was already inhabited by a seperate group of people later on. We would essentially be placing ourselves on top of them, like how Habeshas are influenced by South Arabian immigrants and now speak a semetic addstrate but with a cushitic substatum that points to Agaw and others were there before. Non of that is evidenced in the Southern Somali Dialects
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