Geledi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Template:Short description

Script error: No such module "about".Page Module:Infobox/styles.css has no content.

Geledi
رير غلدي
Digil Somali Clan
EthnicitySomali
LocationTemplate:FlagiconSomalia
Parent tribeDigil
LanguageSomali
ReligionSunni Islam
Sultan Osman Ahmed (mounted) and his soldiers

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Sidebar/configuration' not found.The Geledi are a Somali clan that live predominantly in the environs of Afgooye city. They are a sub-clan of the Digil and led the Geledi Sultanate during the late 17th to early 20th century.[1] They are divided into two main lineage groups: the Tolweyne and the Yabadhaale.

History

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote".

Origins

The nobles within the Geledi claim descent from Omar al-Din (Abadir) who arrived from Harar.[2] He had 3 other brothers, Fakhr and with 2 others of whom their names are given differently as Shams, Umudi, Alahi and Ahmed. Together they were known as Afarta Timid , 'the 4 who came', indicating their origins from Arabia. However the Geledi people like the other Rahanweyn are of true Somali stock and like the Darod and Isaaq claiming Arab lineage was a phenomenon.[3] Aw Kalafow a descendant of Omar is stated to be the first to use the title Garad.[4]

Ajuran Sultanate

The Geledi and their Wacdaan allies were under the rule of the Ajuran client Silcis.[5] The grandfather of Ibrahim Adeer was Geledi (clan) general who inflicted a large defeat on invading Oromo at Lafagaale. Following the weakening of the Ajuran the two notable rebellions came from the Geledi and Hiraab with Ibrahim Adeer carving out his own sultanate and defeating the Silcis.[6]

Geledi Sultanate

View of the Bardera Citadel in the mid 1800s by Baron Karl Klaus von der Decken.

The new Geledi Sultanate rose to become a powerful state that ruled large parts of the Horn of Africa exerting heavy influence on the Banaadir coast and dominating trade on the Jubba and Shabelle rivers. The sultanate grew to encompass nearly all of the Rahanweyn under the reign of Mahamud Ibrahim reaching its apex under Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim.[7] The sultanate conducted foreign policy with neighbors on the Swahili Coast and was connected with rulers of southern Arabia. Facing two jihadist insurrections the state was able to defeat and resubjugate lost territory on its western frontier as a result of these wars.[8] Ultimately failing to end a rebellion in the key city of Merca the sultanate declined steadily but still managed to fend off the Ethiopian Empire before the death of its last final ruler Osman Ahmed.[9]

Geledi-Bimaal conflict

Genealogical tree of Somali clans[10]

The first documented conflict between the Geledi and Bimaal Somali clans would be the Battle of Adaddey Suleyman. After geledi sultan Yusuf Mahamud Ibrahim won a battle at the island of siyu over the Salafi Somalis led by Haji Ali Majeerteen, the Witu Sultan would send aid to sultan Yusuf before he departed to meet the Bimaal rebels, who refused to join his battles against the Salafist Somalis in Bardera, and even allied them in Mungiya.[11] The two forces finally would clash at Adadday Suleyman in 1848, a village near Merca. The Bimaal defended themselves, and after three days of fierce warring, Sultan Yusuf Mahamud and his brother were killed, and ultimately lost against the Omani aligned Bimaal rebels in 1848.[12]

Years later, in 1878, sultan Yusuf's son;Ahmed Yusuf Mahamud made preparations to finally defeat the Bimal, as his father failed to. Ahmed's brother Abobokur Yusuf warned him, not to go through with the attack as the Geledi had an influential ally refuse to join the upcoming campaign. Sultan Ahmed, Reprimanding his brother, said he could watch the women & children then. Abobokur eventually deciding to accompany his brother, the Geledi marched out to meet the Bimaal at Cagaaran near Merca. The two forces would enter a fierce engagement, the Geledi initially tiding the battle in their favor, however, the Geledi would eventually lose to the bimaals, and the Sultan's army would be routed. Killing both Sultan Ahmed and his Abobokur in battle.[13][14]

Upon seeing the bodies of the dead noble men, the women of the Merca reportedly marveled at the beauty of Ahmed Yusuf and his brother, which resulted in a public uproar with them demanding a proper funeral for the late Sultan.[15]

Modern

Following the end of the Geledi Sultanate and its incorporation into Italian Somaliland, the Somali Republic would soon be born in 1960. The Geledi people had gone from one of the most dominant subclans in all of Southern Somalia to humble farmers in the wake of illegal land grabbing and marginalization by the Somali government. Large scale movement into Afgooye by Somalis not native to the city and the grants of land traditionally reserved for Geledi cultivation caused significant tension in the community.[16]

Culture

File:Guillainexpeditiontogeledi.jpg
Charles Guillain's caravan expedition in 1848, meeting members of the Geledi clan, departing from Mogadishu.
An example of Somalis engaging in mock combat

New Years celebrations in the town of Afgooye are well marked by the Geledi people and they continue until this day. With men and women donning traditional white cloth a man wielding a wooden trumpet or buun leads the people in procession. They are marked in certain lines behind the trumpeter and poets lead chants and people break into song. Like other Rahanweyn the Geledi speak the maay dialect but their close proximity to maaxa or standard Somali speakers has marked them.[16]

Istunka Afgooye

The Istunka Afgooye or isgaraac is an annual stick fight performed in the city by its inhabitants stretching back hundreds of years. It first began in the Ajuran period but was later formalized with teams and rules by Geledi Sultan Ahmed Yusuf. The festival coincides with the harvest being a joyous time in the city[17] The event itself consists of a mock fight between the people residing on each side of the river bed in the town of Afgooye. Symbolizing the defence of one's community and honor, it coincides with the start of the main harvest season. Istunka was originally performed in full combat gear, with battle-axes, swords and daggers. However, for safety reasons, performers later replaced those weapons with large sticks or batons.[18]

Poetry

British ethnologist Virginia Luling in 1967

The Geledi retained their rich oral tradition and evocative poetry that differed from the more well known northern style. In southern Somalia the poet and reciter would be one and the same. British ethnologist Virginia Luling noted during her visit to the town that poetry was to be conceived and recited simultaneously with no prior preparation. The poets or Laashin relied on their wit and memory to construct beautiful poems and entertain the audience. As the Geledi are Rahanweyn, they speak Af Maay and not Af Maaha which is sometimes classified as a separate language from Af Maaha or the ubiquitously known 'Standard Somali'.[16][19]

Geledi Laashins during Luling's 1989 stay in Afgooye sang about the ever present issue of land theft by the Somali government. The Sultan in these poems was asked to help the community and reminded of his legendary Gobroon forefathers of the centuries prior.[16]

The poem The law then was not this law was performed by the leading Laashins of Afgooye, Hiraabey, Muuse Cusmaan and Abukar Cali Goitow alongside a few others, addressed to the current leader Sultan Subuge.[16]

Here the richest selection of the poem performed by Goitow Template:Verse translation

References

Page Template:Reflist/styles.css has no content.

  1. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.James Stewart Olson (1996). The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 194.
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Luling, Virginia. The social structure of southern Somali tribes (PDF). University of London. p. 28.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Luling, Virginia (2002). Somali Sultanate: the Geledi city-state over 150 years. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-1-874209-98-0.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Mukhtar, Mohammed (25 February 2003). Historical Dictionary of Somalia. Scarecrow Press. p. 87. ISBN 9780810866041.
  5. ^ Luling 1971, 31
  6. ^ Cassanelli 1973, 41
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Mukhtar, Mohamed Haji (25 February 2003). Historical Dictionary of Somalia. p. xxix. ISBN 9780810866041. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Marguerite, Ylvisaker (1978). "The Origins and Development of the Witu Sultanate". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 11 (4): 669–688. doi:10.2307/217198. JSTOR 217198.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Mukhtar, Mohamed Haji (25 February 2003). Historical Dictionary of Somalia. p. 210. ISBN 9780810866041. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Farah, Ali (2026-01-01). "The Total Somali Clan Genealogy". Ali Farah. doi:10.5281/ZENODO.18648956.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Mukhtar, Mohamed Haji (25 February 2003). Historical Dictionary of Somalia. Scarecrow Press. p. 266. ISBN 978-0-8108-6604-1.
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Luling, Virginia. The Social Structure of Southern Somali Tribes. University of London. p. 185.
  13. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Mukhtar, Mohamed Haji (25 February 2003). Historical Dictionary of Somalia. Scarecrow Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-8108-6604-1.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Reese, Scott Steven (1996). Patricians of the Benaadir: Islamic Learning, Commerce and Somali Urban Identity in the Nineteenth Century (PhD thesis). University of Pennsylvania. p. 55.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Luling, Virginia (2002). Somali Sultanate: The Geledi City-state over 150 Years. HAAN Publishing. p. 26.
  16. ^ a b c d e Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Luling, Virginia (1996). "'The Law Then Was Not This Law': Past and Present in Extemporized Verse at a Southern Somali Festival". African Languages and Cultures. Supplement. 3 (3): 213–228. JSTOR 586663.
  17. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Istunka: A New Year's Ritual". Retrieved 2019-03-19 – via HAMA Association.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Wasaaradda Warfaafinta iyo Hanuuninta Dadweynaha (1974). Somali Culture and Folklore. Ministry of Information and National Guidance. pp. 29–30.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Maay - A language of Somalia". Ethnologue. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
Retrieved from "https://cosmopedia.co/index.php?title=Geledi&oldid=12974275"