Bajuni: People, Society, Geography, History, Language1
1 Bajuni: people, society, geography, history, language1 1 Introduction 2 Comments on sources 3 Geography and economy 4 Settlements north to south 5 Clans 6 Ruins north to south 7 History 8 Bajunis, Bajuni, Somalia, Somali 9 Bajuni and Swahili, language change 1. Introduction For at least five centuries the Bajuni2 thrived, living a fairly peaceful subsistence existence, fishing, trading, and farming, in a string of cross-border settlements, from Kismayuu3 in southern Somalia down to the northern tip of Pate Island in Kenya, a distance of some 250 km. They did not live luxuriously, 1 The information for this overview has come from several sources, other than those published: Alessandra Vianello, Brian and Tiffy Allen, Mohamed Bakari Mohamed (elder of Chula village), Yusuf Omar Mwalim (elder of Chovae village), Said Ahmed Abdurahman (Brava), bajuni.com (= Mohamed). I am grateful to Alessandra Vianello and Sarah Rose for editorial assistance. Brian Allen held over 350 face to face interviews with anonymous Somali Bajuni refugee claimants. I myself listened to evidence from some anonymous 80 Somali Bajuni refugee claimants. Together, these two sets of refugee claimants came from: Kismayuu, Fumayu, Koyama, Chovae, Chula, Mdova, Ras Kiamboni. Some information from these sources is also used. h h 2 Also known as T ik uu, Tiku, Gunya, and al-Jazira. Bajunis is their own preferred name. Gunya is used by some Bajuni to refer to people among them who were originally slaves. In Brava, while not referring to slave origin, the term Gunya is slightly derogatory and one would not tell a person to their face that they are a m-Gunya.
[Show full text]