Why don't somalis eat fish?

[Rocktheboat]

We have the biggest coastline in Africa and have a lot of fish but I hardly see any somalis eating it...why is that?

 

[Shimbiris]

It goes way back. There were Somalis, or basically Somali ancestors, who settled the coast since Classical times and fished and a lot of them did eat their catches rather than simply trade them but they were vilified by the wider populous, especially the rural people of the interior. This seems to come from an ancient fish taboo that came to the Horn with our Cushitic ancestors.

I don't have the sources on me right now or remember it all perfectly but early Cushites developed this general taboo toward fish because one of their main rival groups back when they lived in Sudan who I believe were Nilo-Saharans were heavy fish-eaters who lived along the banks of the Nile and to sort of differentiate themselves from these people the Cushites looked down on subsisting off of fish and stuck mainly to their livestock of cattle, goats and sheep.

 

[Factz]

It's due to an abundance of livestock. Countries that have small populations of livestock or lack arable land will incorporate seafood into their diet. There is also a cultural element tied to it were eating seafood was looked down upon. They call it the Cushitic fish-taboo.

Among the Somali people, most clans have a taboo against the consumption of fish, and do not intermarry with the few occupational clans that do eat it.[56][57]

There are taboos on eating fish among many upland pastoralists and agriculturalists (and even some coastal peoples) inhabiting parts of southeastern Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, and northern Tanzania. This is sometimes referred to as the "Cushitic fish-taboo", as Cushitic speakers are believed to have been responsible for the introduction of fish avoidance to East Africa, though not all Cushitic groups avoid fish. The zone of the fish taboo roughly coincides with the area where Cushitic languages are spoken, and as a general rule, speakers of Nilo-Saharan and Semitic languages do not have this taboo, and indeed many are watermen.[57][58] The few Bantu and Nilotic groups in East Africa that do practice fish avoidance also reside in areas where Cushites appear to have lived in earlier times. Within East Africa, the fish taboo is found no further than Tanzania. This is attributed to the local presence of the tsetse fly and in areas beyond, which likely acted as a barrier to further southern migrations by wandering pastoralists, the principal fish-avoiders. Zambia and Mozambique's Bantus were therefore spared subjugation by pastoral groups, and they consequently nearly all consume fish.[57]

 

[Shimbiris]

I don't have the sources on me right now or remember it all perfectly but early Cushites developed this general taboo toward fish because one of their main rival groups back when they lived in Sudan who I believe were Nilo-Saharans were heavy fish-eaters who lived along the banks of the Nile and to sort of differentiate themselves from these people the Cushites looked down on subsisting off of fish and stuck mainly to their livestock of cattle, goats and sheep.

I think this was more a theory some scholar came up with when I think harder on it. Don't see how they'd have any concrete proof as people weren't literate during the Neolithic nor is there anything I know of in the mythologies of Cushitic groups that fully explains the origin of this taboo but it is as Factz has shown an observed overall taboo among Cushites.

 

[elite1337]

i will eat fish until i dhimo

 

[Factz]

Realistically speaking there is no excuse for Somalia/Somaliland to avoid eating seafood when our offshore has one of the richest fishing grounds on the planet. This could provide a great alternative during a drought period when there is a lack of food storage not to mention the population will witness a rise in IQ along with longevity and numerous health benefits that come with it. If the country invests in the fishery sector and export seafood to other countries. This will help boom the economy.