Bajuni: People, Society, Geography, History, Language 1. Introduction
Bajuni: people, society, geography, history, language TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction 2 Comments on sources 3 Geography and economy 4 Settlements north to south 5 Clans 6 Ruins north to south 7 History of the Bajuni 8 Attitudes, the future 9 Alternative, mainly colonial, names, for some localities 10 List of Bajuni places from north to south 11 Sources 1. Introduction For at least five centuries, the Bajuni subsisted simply but fairly peacefully, fishing, trading, and farming in a string of settlements from Kismayuu in southern Somalia down to the northern tip of Pate Island in Kenya, a distance of some 250 km. They were few, their mainland neighbours (recently Somali, formerly Oromo) were many, they were fairly defenceless, their mainland neighbours were armed and aggressive. The balance between them and the neighbours was fragile but stable. The main settlements were on the islands, with agricultural areas on the mainland opposite. When times got bad, Bajuni living or working on the mainland withdrew to the islands. There is little suggestion that their pastoral neighbours showed much inclination to cross over to the islands, probably because they were not too interested in what was on offer – a lot of fish, limited edible flora, and few domestic animals. In Somalia this all changed in 1991, with the fall of Siad Barre, the President of Somalia. In what follows, this period and the events from 1991 on are referred to as The Troubles. The historical balance broke, ethnic Somalis rolled across the mainland settlements and flooded onto the islands. Ethnic Somalis (Hawiye, Darod/Marehan) decided to evict Bajunis from the islands where they had lived for centuries.
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