Voltage wrote:Somali Bantu speak Somali, you ARE the same ethnicity because you speak the same language as Somali Bantus. Jamaicans speak English, therefore, they ARE the same ethnicity as British people.Get my drift?
You don't make any sense at all. Somali Bantus are not the same ethnicity as Somalis but are co-nationals. In the same sense A Somali-British speaking English doesn't make him "English" but rather sharing the same nationality as a British person of English origin. The irony here is Tigray in Ethiopia and you do speak the same language. The applicable example is a Somali Kenyan (Sijou) who is of Kenyan nationality or a Somali Djiboutian speaking the same tongue and having the same culture as a Somali from Somalia. That is what makes an ethnic group. The Somali Bantu was taken from his homeland and doesn't speak Somali in Tanzania. In fact it is the opposite, and they are of the same ethnic group as the people they came from. Which in this case wouid imply prior to modern nationalities, a Tigray of Mekele was the same as a Tigray of Asmara.
Lets start from the top ---I'm going to post the leading scholar on the concept of ethnicity and what makes an ethnic group.
There are many factors involved in the concept of "ethnicity." Each society or tribe of humans gives different value to the various aspects of relationships and social order. Among the first to bring the term "ethnic group" into social studies was the great German sociologist Max Weber, who defined it as:
“
Those human groups that entertain a subjective belief in their common descent because of similarities of physical type or of customs or both, or because of memories of colonization and migration; this belief must be important for group formation; furthermore it does not matter whether an objective blood relationship exists…ethnic membership does not constitute a group; it only facilitates group formation of any kind, particularly in the political sphere. On the other hand it is primarily the political community, no matter how artificially organized, that inspires the belief in common ethnicity.” (
1978, Max Weber, p. 389)
Max Weber also adds on:
“
ethnicity can be broadened or narrowed in boundary terms according to the specific needs of political mobilization. Ethnic identities re-articulated by interest-seeking individuals when it is appropriate and advantageous to do so and ignored when other wise. Ethnic groups are thus conceived as arbitrarily created, temporarily sustained, situation-responsive, goal-oriente groups.” (
2009, Miguel N. Alexiades, P.168)
Your basing ethnicity on what language you speak, disregarding all the variables of the concept of ethnicity, and ofcourse, disregarding the most important aspect of ethnicity being self-identification. I'm trying to come from an intellectual view point, while you are trying to dumb-it-down to a classification of similarities or since this group speaks a similar language to yours, they therefore MUST be the same as you (btw, I'm Tigre for the record). That's your whole argument in a nutshell, you assume that someone who speaks a similar language to another group MUST be the same ethnicity, therefore, any one using your logic can easily come to the conclusion that since Somalis and Somali Bantus speak Somali (disregarding the dialects), and since they are both Muslims and adhere to a wider Somali identity, they too must be the same ethnicity, again using your logic, this is more than accurate, because I too am ignoring the history behind both identities, how they perceive one another and to the fact that Somalis don't regard Somali Bantus to be the same ethnicity as them. Yet you are not giving that fundamental right to the Biher-Tigrinya Eritreans, instead, you are demanding they be called Tigray, even though you have no clue about the historical relationship, the background of their ancestry and thousands of other aspects between both ethnic groups. Your problem is you are trying to find similaraties as your a common denominator in giving birth to an ethnicity and I, along with the scholars, are telling you it's not that simple. You have to remember, the most important factor in this recent 20th century European invention of ethnicity is self-identification or the the psychological dimension. You don't wait around for outsiders to give you a name, your parents give you a name or yourself name yourself and others call you by it. You are trying to say, hold up, you look similar to joe, therefore, your name must be joe too, regardless of this person's name.
One more time, the most important factor of determining ethnicity is the psychological aspect of it, as professor Joshua A. Fishman illustrates:
The psychological dimension of ethnicity is perhaps the most important because, regardless of variations in the biological, cultural, and social domains, if a person self-identifies as a member of a particular ethnic group, then he or she is willing to be perceived and treated as a member of that group. Thus, self-ascribed and other-ascribed ethnic labels are the overt manifestations of individuals' identification with a particular ethnicity. (
2001, Joshua A. Fishman, p.115)
) and after that a Marehan who is mentioned in history books from Futuh Al Habesha to Siad Barre's 21 year reign of Somalia am the first to attack the notion of "midgaan". I would actually profess to use "ma-dhibaan"(those who do no harm).
