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THE GALL a in NORTHERN SOMALILAND •> I. M. LEWIS Riassunto

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THE GALL a in NORTHERN SOMALILAND •> I. M. LEWIS Riassunto THE GALL A IN NORTHERN SOMALILAND •> I. M. LEWIS Riassunto.- Da tempo£ statoprovato che una volta i Galla occuparono zonedel territorioora somalo.II presentearticolo mostra che, prima dei Somali, essistanziavano in alcunipunti di quelloche oggi £ il Protettoratobritannico e ne ricostruiscel'allontanamento sotto la spintadell'espansione dei gruppisomali nella Somaliasettentrionale. R£sum£.- Depuislongtemps il est prouv£que les Galla occupaientdes par- tiesdu payssomali avant les Somali.Le presentarticle montre qu'avant les Somali ils 6taient£tablis dans certainsendroits de l'actuelProtectorat britannique et suit leurd£placement dans la Somalieseptentrionale sous la pressiondes groupesSomali avacant. Summary.- Therehas longbeen evidence that the Galla occupiedparts of Somalilandbefore the Somali. Thispaper shows that before the Somali they were stationedin partsof whatis todaythe BritishProtectorate and tracestheir with- drawalunder pressure from the expanding Somali communities inNorthern Somaliland. That the Galla occupied what is today centraland southernSomalia prior to the Somali is securely established. Dr. Cerulli has brilliantly reconstructedthe sequence of Somali migrationswhich, fromperhaps as early as the 12th century,began to bringa medley of Somali groups fromtheir earlier positions in the north of Somaliland into the centre and south at the expense of the earlierGalla inhabitantswho were driven south-westwardsinto Ethiopia. In the 17th century the Galla were forcedacross the Juba River, and by about 1910 the Dar5d Somali had advanced as far south as the Tana River in Kenya where they were halted by the establishmentof fixedgrazing areas a). That at an earlier period the Galla also preceded the Somali as the inhabitants of Nor- thern Somaliland is not so well established, although it is suggested by traditionswhich trace the originsof the Galla to NorthernSomali- x) This paper is based on materialcollected in Somalilandduring my tenureof a Colonial Social Science Research Council Fellowshipin Social Anthropology.I am greatlyindebted to the Councilfor theirgenerosity and to the Governmentof the Somaliland Protectorate. For criticismof an earlierdraft of this paper I am especiallygrateful to Mr. B. W. Andr- zejewski and to Dr. M. Pirone. 2) See B. CERUiyiyi,Le popolazionidella Somalia nella tradizionestorica locale, "RendicontiR. Accademiadei Lincei (ScienzeMorali) 1926 pp. 150- 172; I. M. Lewis. Peoples of theHorn of Africa, London, 1955, pp. 45-8; and CERUUJ,Somalia , Scritti Vari Editi ed Inediti, vol. I, Rome, 1958. This content downloaded from 193.205.142.142 on Mon, 01 Feb 2016 09:56:47 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 22 I. M. I/EWIS land 1). Some evidence has also been furnishedthat the Galla formerly occupied northernMijerteinia 2) (in the northof what is today Somalia), and also parts of the presentOgaden regionof Harar Provinceof Ethio- pia 3). In this paper I adduce new evidence which to my mind makes it almost certain that the Galla did in fact occupy much of northern Somaliland priorto|the Somali. I. Before presentingmy evidence, it is necessary to referbriefly to a linguisticpoint which has been a source of much confusionin evalu- ating local Somali traditionsconcerning the Galla. In contemporary NorthernSomali thereare two distinctlinguistic expressions which have oftenbeen taken as the same. These are Galla, the name by which the Galla people are known to the Amharas, Arabs, and others, and gal (PI. galo, and with the article,galada) a pagan, infidel,or non-Muslim in general4). In contemporarySomali these are separate and distinct terms; and Somali are well aware that many of the Galla people, whom they also referto collectivelyas Gallawi or if they cultivate, as Qoti), are Muslims and thereforenot galo. In Ethiopia, the Amharic word " Galla has the sense of subjects those under government5);and al- though the Galla peoples are known collectivelyto outsiders by this title, they do not apply it to themselves. Indeed, there is apparently no collective name used by all the various Galla groups to designate themselvesas a distinctcultural entity 6). It has howeverbeen suggested that this name, whichis firstrecorded in the 16th century7) and which x)See G. W. B. HunTingford,The Galla of Ethiopia, London, 1955, p. 19. " 2) CERUI^I,Tradizioni storiche e monumentidella Migiurtinia, Africa Italiana ", iv, 1931, pp. 153-169. See M. Pirone, e tradizionistoriche dei Somali 3) Leggende" Ogaden, and Le popolazionidelV Ogaden, in Archivioper l'Antropologiae 1' Etnolo- gia lxxxiv, 1954, pp. 119-143. 4) As is well-known,the wordgal is commonlyapplied by Somali to Europeans,often without any directlyderogatory intention. In NorthernSo- malilandgal in thiscontext is usedas widelyas the moreneutral word faranji . 5) B. W. Andrzejewski,personal communication. 8) The name Oromowhich includes the majorityof the Galla people does not includethe Boran Galla of the NorthernProvince of Kenya and cannot thereforebe taken as an ethnicname for the whole Galla group. B. W. Andrzejewski,personal communication. 7) It is apparentlyfirst recorded in Bahrey'sHistory of the Galla (1593). See C. F. Beckinghamand G. W. B. HunTingford,Some Records of Ethio- pia, 1^3-1646, London, 1954; The Galla of Ethiopia,cit., p. n. This content downloaded from 193.205.142.142 on Mon, 01 Feb 2016 09:56:47 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE GAI&AIN NORTHERNSOMAIJIyAND 23 " Cerulli apparently erroneouslyrefers to as the ethnic name of the Galla has been adopted by Somali in the formgal, infidelor pagan, referringto a time when the Somali had adopted Islam but while the Galla were still non-Muslims1). But no secure evidence has yet been adduced in proof of this theory,and the fact remains that in modern NorthernSomali, at least, galo and Galla are quite distinct,although this may of course have not been so in the past. It is necessaryto establish this linguisticpoint because the many " stone mounds, loosely referredto as Galla graves with which Nor- thern Somaliland is studded, have often been taken as evidence that the Galla formerlyoccupied the regiona) when Somali usually attribute them not specificallyto the Galla people but ratherto unspecifiednon- Muslims or pagans (galo). Somali generallyregard them as the work " " of the people who were before - an ambiguous descriptionwhich may mean anything - and because they differin constructionfrom contemporaryIslamic burials suggest that they are the work of non- Muslims. However, a Radio Carbon analysis of wood fromone such grave which I excavated indicates that some at least of these burials are not morethan two hundredand fiftyyears old and probablycontain Somali remains8). The traditionswhich I discuss in this paper and exa- mine in the light of other evidence referspecifically to the Galla people rather than to unidentifiednon-Muslims. n. RESIDUALGAIXA GROUPS AMONGST THE NORTHERNSOMAU. I begin my argumentby discussingthe many small pocketsof Galla which still survive today in the British Somaliland Protectorateand Ogaden region of Harar Province of Ethiopia. " " In 1946, the total population of the Reserved Area of Ethiopia (then under British Administration)was estimated at 300,000 souls, of whom 5,000 were Amharas, Arabs, and Indians, mainly residentin Jigjiga. Of the remainder,10,000 were Galla, mainly Akiso, and the x) See Ceruuj, op. cit., 1931, p. 154. a) See e. g. Huntingford,op. cit.,1955, p. 19; Ceruuj, op. cit.,1931, p. 163; and N. Puccioni, Antropologiae Etnografia delle Genti della Somalia, vol. iii, Bologna, 1936, p. 121. 8) I hope to reporton the resultof theseexcavations and the analysis of humanremains from the in a later articleon the so-called" Galla " graves graves of NorthernSomaliland. This content downloaded from 193.205.142.142 on Mon, 01 Feb 2016 09:56:47 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 24 I. M. IvEWlS rest Somali l). The Akiso are a segmentof the Barentu or Eastern Galla who forma prominentelement in Harar Province of Ethiopia and who extend to the east of the ancientcity of Harar in the directionof Jigjiga towards British Somaliland. Among the Somali Yabarre, Bartirre, Geri, and Abaskul clans of the Darod clan-family2), and the Bursukof the Dir clan-family,today residentin the Harar-Jigjiga regionand stret- ching towards the east and south-east to the Ogaden, live small groups of Galla Waraitu, Waradayo, Asabo, and L,ehile. Further to the east in the Ogaden amongstthe Somali Darod clan of the same name (i. e. the Ogaden) live groups of Obo Galla 3); and with the Somali Habar Awal clan of the BritishProtectorate who extend into the same region live Galla Waramiyo, Warapito (or Warabito), Warakiyo, Igo, and Waralogo. Finally, the Rer Roble Bdrama living amongst the Somali Gadabursi clan of the west of the British Protectorateare said to be Galla, and there may well be other groups4) . The extent of admixture and the character of incorporationof these Galla communitiesliving amongst Somali varies very much from place to place. With the incorporationof Garso and Babile Galla, the Dardd Geri of the Jigjiga regionhave split up into two separate groups, one to the northof Jigjiga,and the otherto the south. In each the Geri Somali are politically dominant,but the Geri Garso, who in contrast to the Geri Babile are largely agricultural,are Galla-speaking5). I have directpersonal knowledge of such residualGalla communities only amongst the Habar Awal of the west and centre of the British Protectorate. Here these are not Galla-speakingand are closely assimi- lated to the Somali of the area. Indeed physically- at least to the eye - and culturallyand linguistically,they are indistinguishablefrom the Somali amongst whom they live and with whom they are heavily intermarried. Amongstthe Habar Awal Sa'd Muse cultivatorsin the Hargaisa-Gebile-Boramaregion in the west of British Somaliland, they are distributedin small autonomous farmingcommunities, or resident as individualsin the cultivatingvillages of the local Habar Awal Somali. " " x) These figuresare taken from the Jigjiga District Notebook with the of the DistrictCommissioner, Hargaisa. permission " " 2) I use the term clan-family to referto the largestSomali lineage divisions.
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