Somali ethnicity indicates the genetic origins of Somalis, a Cushitic people native to Greater Somalia on the Horn of Africa, comprising the Federal Republic of Somalia and Somaliland (an autonomous region of Somalia), as well as the eastern parts of Ethiopia and Kenya. Historic trade routes across the Indian Ocean have seen significant cultural diffusion between the Horn of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian subcontinent. The emergence of Islam in the nearby Hijaz region of Arabia significantly affected Somalia, as Somali Muslim scholars converted the entire region to Islam as early as the 7th century. The region was home to several powerful medieval sultanates and empires, fortified by the bustling commercial world of the Indian Ocean. Today, the vast majority of Somalis are Sunni Muslims.
Somali ethnicity distribution
People of Somali ethnicity make up about 85% of Somalia’s population of 15 million, with large populations also present in Ethiopia and Kenya. Smaller communities are spread across Djibouti, Yemen, Europe, and North America.
Somali history
Archeologists believe that as early as the 2nd millennium B.C.E., proto-Somali sailors from the Land of Punt on the Horn of Africa were central to a transregional trade in myrrh, spices, gold, and frankincense, connecting the ports of ancient Egypt, Phoenicia, and Rome with those of India and China. During the 1st millennium B.C.E., the Macrobians — a proto-Somali herding and seafaring warrior people — established a powerful and wealthy kingdom in the area of modern Somalia. According to Greek sources, Macrobians were the “tallest and handsomest of all men,” with an extremely long life-expectancy: more than 120 years. After the dawn of the Common Era, several city-states flourished in Somalia, competing with the Sabaeans (South Arabia), Parthians (Persia), and Aksumites (Ethiopia) over the affluent Indo-Greco-Roman spice trade.
In the 7th century, early adherents of the Prophet Muhammad who were fleeing persecution in Mecca made their way to Somalia. The 6th-century Masjid al-Qiblatayn in the town of Zeila, located along the northern Somali seaboard, is the oldest mosque in Africa. Zeila remained an important political center in Somalia, housing the Sultanate of Ifat (12th–15th centuries) and the Adal Sultanate (15th–16th centuries), which maintained a vibrant commercial and political relationship with the Ottoman Empire. In southern Somalia, the Sultanate of Mogadishu (9th–13th century) was described as the richest and most powerful polity in the region, and a center of Islamic learning across the Indian Ocean. The successor Ajuran Sultanate (13th–17th centuries), which had developed distinct fortification architecture and advanced hydraulic engineering techniques, enjoyed robust commercial relations with Indian Ocean and Mediterranean ports in Arabia, Persia, India, the Moluccas, China, Venice, and Portugal. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Majeerteen Sultanate controlled much of northern and central Somalia, entering into a series of treaties with European powers such as Britain and Italy. During the 18th–19th centuries, the port of Berbera — located east of Zeila on the shores of the Gulf of Aden — was the central port for commercial traffic in the region. Between November and April of each year, tens of thousands of people congregated in Berbera from across the Indian Ocean to trade in various goods procured from the Somali interior, such as livestock, coffee, frankincense, myrrh, ivory, gold, and more. The seasonal supply of livestock to the British settlement of Aden in South Arabia earned Berbera the nickname “Aden’s butcher-shop,” and prompted the British to establish a protectorate over the northern seaboard, named British Somaliland, in 1888. Italy, in turn, extended its holdings in East Africa to include Italian Somaliland, centered in Mogadishu and stretching down the eastern seaboard of the Horn of Africa.
Beginning in 1899, Somali religious leader Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (known by the British as the “Mad Mullah”) rallied an anti-colonial resistance movement which harassed the British for 2 centuries, gaining the support of the Ottoman and German empires before finally collapsing in 1920. During World War II, Fascist Italy launched an invasion of British Somaliland and successfully wrestled Berbera away from British hands. A year later, in 1941, the British retook British Somaliland and further occupied all of Italian Somaliland.
Following the conclusion of the war, the United Nations granted Italy a mandate over Italian Somaliland, while British Somaliland remained a British possession. The political education gained by native Somalis in the UN mandate proved to set it apart from the area of British Somaliland, which enjoyed no such benefit. Political and economic disparity was evident when it came time to integrate the 2 territories in 1960, as Somalia finally gained independence. In 1969, a coup d’état led by Siad Barre saw the Somali Army seize power over the country, disband parliament, and suspend the constitution. The military government implemented a highly successful urban and rural literacy campaign. The 1980s saw increasing resistance to Barre’s military junta; in 1991, clan-based armed opposition groups successfully overthrew the Barre government. The power vacuum that resulted from Barre’s deposition bred violent competition for influence among rival armed factions, as the country spiraled into a devastating civil war.
During the 1990s, a humanitarian crisis in Somalia prompted action from the international community, including U.S. military involvement. A transitional federal government inaugurated in 2004 failed to stabilize the country, as rival Islamist militias engaged in fierce fighting both against the government and among each other. Today, after nearly 20 years of foreign interventions, no Somali government has yet succeeded in attaining peace and stability in the country. Nevertheless, at a local level, Somalis have been employing traditions of conflict resolution to reestablish security in their communities.
Somali culture
The long-standing relations between Somalia and the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean worlds has brought Arab, Persian, Indian, and Italian nuances as well as other flavors from the Horn of Africa and the Swahili Coast to Somali cuisine. Popular regional and transregional-inspired dishes include anjero, similar to the Ethiopian injera, but smaller and usually served with honey spread; bariis ishkukaris, a rice dish similar to pilau, seasoned with fragrant spices and cooked in a meat broth; and sambusa, a samosa-like triangular fried pastry often filled with spicy minced meat or vegetables. Malawah, a traditional pancake resembling the Indian paratha, is considered a staple of Somali cuisine. Nafaqo, a fried potato stuffed with a hard-boiled egg, is a truly unique Somali dish.
Somali culture and politics are guided by traditional patrilineal clan membership. The two major clan groups are the Samaal and the Saab, named after two brothers who are said to have been members of the Prophet Muhammad’s tribe. Known as a “Nation of Bards,” Somalia is home to a rich tradition of poetry that aims to glorify the individual poet’s clan identity and pass on important historical lore. Mohamed Abdullah Hassan (d. 1920), the religious leader who led the anti-British resistance movement in the late 19th century, is among the most famous Somali poets, together with Seylici (d. 1882), “Sheik Suufi” (d. 1904), and Sheik Uweys Maxamed (d. 1905). Due to the Islamic injunction against representing human or animal forms, geometric designs and patterns pervade Somali visual arts, especially in the intricately-painted henna adorning Somali women’s hands and feet.
Somalia’s long-standing political and social turmoil has bred generations of individuals dedicated to alleviating the plight and distress of their fellow Somalis. One such person is Ilwad Elman, a Somali-Canadian social activist from the Elman Peace and Human Rights Center in Mogadishu, herself the child of the late entrepreneur and peace activist Elman Ali Ahmed and social activist Fartuun Adan.
Somali languages
Most Somalis speak the Somali language, a Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. There are 3 main groups of Somali dialects: Northern, which forms the basis for Standard Somali; Benadir, spoken on the Benadir coast in southeastern Somalia; and Maay, principally spoken by Somalis in the southern reaches of the country. Due to cultural and historic ties with neighboring Arabia, Arabic is spoken by approximately 2 million Somalis and is an official language in Somalia. English is the most widespread European language in the region.
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- Ethnicities around the world at MyHeritage
- What Is My Ethnicity? How MyHeritage Estimates Ethnicities at MyHeritage Knowledge Base
- Where's My Ethnicity?!: Why An Ethnicity Might Not Show Up In Your DNA (and How To Find Evidence Of It Anyway) at MyHeritage Knowledge Base