The Habesha Culture is SO beautiful!...Do Somalis even have a culture!?

[original dervish]

Yes they do.....rape, robbery & murder.

[AwRastaale]

First of all Africans have wonderful cultures and all should be not only embraced but studied.

Somalis do have a wonderful culture but I am disappointed the people attacking you have not enlightened you about the culture. The truth is these same individuals on your throat would also love to see the Somali culture disappear in favoritism over Arab culture. They rather see Arab cultural imperialism than Somali culture. They deem our culture pagan and infidel.

So do not pay much attention to them. They are more enemies to the Somali culture than someone like you who simply enjoys the wonderful Habesha culture next door.

No culture is free of some foreign influence and the Habesha culture is no different. Much of it came from Orthodox regions such as Alexandria in Egypt (Coptic Church), the Greeks and Armanians as well as aspects of Asyrians to southern Arab culture. Everything is there.

The traditional cloth made from a material called shamma was no different. It was introduced by the Orthodox church and it still enjoys its meskelya symbol (which is that Orthodox cross often on the edges.

The shamma can be kept as toga (go'o) or sewn together to make a dress or Habesha qemis. As you can see it clearly qemis is Arabic word (Qamis/qamees).

The term Qamis, also known as Kameez and Qameez refers to a long tunic or gown worn in many cultures. The word is of Arabic origin.

The Qamis is a long top that can be of varying lengths. It can be worn with or without lower garments.

You can find this material in Greece, used by the early Greek civilization, later the Orthodox Church adopted it.

The dress is usually worn with a shawl called ne'Tela (shalmad/garba sar), which again has heavy Church influence.

They also wear a coat called kaba. Normally worn during festive such as weddings. Again it was imported. You can find it in Greece, Turkey and Armenia.

The coffee ceremonials were introduced as well. Habesha did not grow coffee on their own. You have to remember the size of Axum/Abyssinia back in the days. That region had no coffee plantation. The coffee was found in present day southern Oromia in a region called Wollega specifically Kaffa (with Jimma as its capital).

Kaffa by the way means qahwah in Arabic hence coffee.

You see the sentence below is not all accurate:

Abyssinia, now Ethiopia, is the original home of the coffee (arabica) plant. Kaffa, the province in the south-western highlands where they first blossomed, gave its name to coffee.

Abyssinia conquered the south only in the 1880s.

Coffee ceremony was introduced to the Habesha by Arabs and Coptic priests who used coffee an frankincenses to elevate the mood. Khat was discovered by Arabs too. I'm certain Arabia traded with regional kingdoms outside Abyssinia and Abyssinia itself either traded with Arabia or directly with these separate kingdoms such as those that ruled regions such as Wollega in pre-Ethiopian empire (19th century empire or Menelik II expansion).

The other region where coffee was either introduced centuries ago or native to the land is the Sidamo region. Oromia (2/3) and Sidamo (almost the rest) produce the bulk of coffee today.

Anyways to make it short, Somalis have more authentic and indigenous culture than Habesha. The Somali culture like the rest of the Cushitic was always native to the land until Arabs imported their imperialism culture masked under Islam and its Sunnah.

Yes indeed Ma'awis/dirac and even guntino (the colorful one) were introduced in the 18th-19th century by merchants.

Somalis wear white clothe as did Oromo, Afar, Beja, Sidamo, Saho and the rest of the Cushitic family.

The colorful guntino was introduced to Somalis by reer Xamar and it was known as Banadiri. Only the reer Xamar know how to sew it. Even they are the ones who used to sew the diraac together. That's why you see them in malls.

Somalis still have xeer, xeer soor, botaar, jaandheer, dhaanto, geerar, gabay, dabshid, martisoor, galbiis, caleemo-saar, totoba bax, etc.

Saylaci is not Somali culture. It was a suufi chant and that's why they chant; salaala cala hooyaale, bismillah, etc. It was introduced in Saylac by suufi clerics.


The real Somali culture; as you can see northern Somalis and Habesha always had contacts and shared a lot of similarities.

Ras

[Djiboutian]

You forgot to mention, Ethiopia over centuries produced the best slaves. I don't know how my life was going to be without Ethiopian maids and watchmen

Let's keep it real brother .somebody who goes to another country and who gets a job is not a slave , c'mon now !There are more maids who are somali than Habesha , actually most of the maids are , as far as I know , girls who can be trusted with the kids and the family's property and usually are of the tribe of the wife or husband {in our case}. Back in the day , the help's expectation was to marry in the family , nowadays they get compensated for their work .Slavery is the lowest form of human exploitation , nothing to joke about .

I didn't say anyone who travel to another country to seek low paid job is a slave!! Reread my comment. I said Ethiopia over centuries produced the best slaves. About the Ethiopian maids and watchmen that was another sentence.

I don't know how people trust their kids with Ethiopian maids! Other than washing dishes and cleaning the house there is nothing I can trust them with. I prefer Yemeni maids to take care of children.

P.S. Please PM me Somali maid's number who lives in Djibouti (I'm dead serious).

[Fortuna]

^ I've seen many Somali maids in Djibouti.


The power level of Arcturus post is pretty darn high...