Forgiving My Brother's Killer - Erigavo, Somaliland

[Twist]

A short and interesting video made by a Finnish NGO about a 20 year long conflict amongst Lo' Jir clansmen in the remote mountains of Sanaag, Somaliland.

PS: In the video it says that Lo' Jir (which I didn't hear/read about before today) is a sub-clan of Gurgure (or the other way around) and according to Google Gurgure is Oromo? Don't know. They speak and look Somali to me, plus the video was shot in Erigavo area so......

[SecretAgent]

Gurgura is the eldest son of dir they live in sanag,gabiley,dire dawa some even in djbouti.

[Twist]

SA, do the ones in Dire Dawa consider themselves as Oromo? I ask that cuz I Googled it after I watched the clip now and I saw people saying they're Oromos (mainly some old threads from here, Snet, from the Google results).

[SecretAgent]

They speak afaan oromo language like the other dir somalis jarso,akishe,midigan,issa clans. Dire dawa is a federal city so both oromos and somalis claim but some dir sub clans claim oromo like jarso,gurgura mostly.

[Twist]

That makes sense. Thanks.

[zumaale]

Twist, Secret Agent.

Lojir are considered some sort of occupation clan that descend from Gurgura and acquired their name due to their tradition of cattle rearing. They lived next to the Warsangeli mostly but only intermarry among themselves mainly due to their semi-outcast status. I do not know what their ancestor did in the past to be shunned by their own kin and neighbouring clans.

Gurgura are not the eldest son but descend from the eldest son of Dir, Madaxweyne. They are mentioned in Futhul Habash. After they adopted farming in the 19th century, they intermarried with the Oromos and became distant from their Somali kin. They are actually very numerous but are predominately Oromo speakers and bilingual in some areas. They mainly inhabit territory stretching from Harar to Dire Dawa and neighbour the Cisses in Erer. The Camel herding ones are all Somali speakers while the Oromo speakers are farmers such as the Gurguras in the Noole confederacy. There are a small number of Gurguras who descend from followers of the Sufi Tariqa in Sheikh and the Madigan in Gabiley region. The vast majority of Madigan reside in the lush Harar valley with their Noole Promo fellow confederates. They are the natives of Dire Dawa and the mayor hails from Gurgura while the vice mayor is always Ciise.

[Twist]

Twist, Secret Agent.

Lojir are considered some sort of occupation clan that descend from Gurgura and acquired their name due to their tradition of cattle rearing. They lived next to the Warsangeli mostly but only intermarry among themselves mainly due to their semi-outcast status. I do not know what their ancestor did in the past to be shunned by their own kin and neighbouring clans.

Gurgura are not the eldest son but descend from the eldest son of Dir, Madaxweyne. They are mentioned in Futhul Habash. After they adopted farming in the 19th century, they intermarried with the Oromos and became distant from their Somali kin. They are actually very numerous but are predominately Oromo speakers and bilingual in some areas. They mainly inhabit territory stretching from Harar to Dire Dawa and neighbour the Cisses in Erer. The Camel herding ones are all Somali speakers while the Oromo speakers are farmers such as the Gurguras in the Noole confederacy. There are a small number of Gurguras who descend from followers of the Sufi Tariqa in Sheikh and the Madigan in Gabiley region. The vast majority of Madigan reside in the lush Harar valley with their Noole Promo fellow confederates. They are the natives of Dire Dawa and the mayor hails from Gurgura while the vice mayor is always Ciise.

That's great info. Thank you. It's the first time I came across (I am generally ignorant about Somali clans) both the Gurgure & Lo' Jir clan names and Google returned them being Oromo and in the video they were speaking pure Somali and the location was Erigavo so I was kinda confused.

[zumaale]

Twist, this is a video of the funeral of the Gurgura Ugaas in Dire Dawa 2012. Both Oromo and Somali speaking Gurguras pay homage to the same Ugaas.

[zumaale]

They speak afaan oromo language like the other dir somalis jarso,akishe,midigan,issa clans. Dire dawa is a federal city so both oromos and somalis claim but some dir sub clans claim oromo like jarso,gurgura mostly.

Secret, Madigan are a subclan of Gurgura while Jarso are a confederation of Dir, Darood and Oromo clans. Akiisho Madaxweyne Dir subclan are split into Somali and Oromo speakers. The ones bordering the Somalis speak Somali while a significant number in Jijiga zone speak Afan Oromo. A few of them live in Gabiley too but they constitute a minute percentage of the Akisho population. Subclans of the Akisho such as the Gurre in Afdheer zone and the small farming Obo community in Gode zone are also found in Kilil 5.

[SayyidUmar]

there are huge populations of gurgure, madigaan, akisho, cabdullah xasan, sheikhash in somaliland especially in hargeisa and have been living their for generations sometimes as long as other isaaqs. they also settle in gabiley and galbeed, bebera, burco, shiekh they are urban dwellers. they are reer magaal mostly and are relgious. they are all somalilanders. the three gurgure, akisho, madigaan have seats in the upper house or guurti of somaliland.the ones in sl are same as the isaaq you can't tell the difference, but the one that live in ethiopia ones are similar to qoti's or oromo. one of the biggest mufti in hargiesa is akisho shiekh maxamed cismaacil.

[zumaale]

there are huge populations of gurgure, madigaan, akisho, cabdullah xasan, sheikhash in somaliland especially in hargeisa and have been living their for generations sometimes as long as other isaaqs. they also settle in gabiley and galbeed, bebera, burco, shiekh they are urban dwellers. they are reer magaal mostly and are relgious. they are all somalilanders. the three gurgure, akisho, madigaan have seats in the upper house or guurti of somaliland.the ones in sl are same as the isaaq you can't tell the difference, but the one that live in ethiopia ones are similar to qoti's or oromo. one of the biggest mufti in hargiesa is akisho shiekh maxamed cismaacil.

Sayid, the Madigan are a subclan of Gurgura but most people assume that only the ones from Sheekh are Gurgura. You also have some Layilles who got lost from their Cali Madaxweyne fellow tribesmen and are allied to Reer Gadid in Hargeysa.

[SayyidUmar]

Secret, Madigan are a subclan of Gurgura while Jarso are a confederation of Dir, Darood and Oromo clans. Akiisho Madaxweyne Dir subclan are split into Somali and Oromo speakers.

madigaan consider themselves separate to gurgure. jaarso are combination of isaaq, gadabrusi, dir, darood, hawiye who fought along side imam axmed guray and have been oromized through several centuries of living with oromo. language is not important you have isaaq that are oromo speakers and have been oromized like the barsuug arab, differences between Somali and oromo in killah shanad is occupation, if u are somali/oromo by lineage or language and ur occupation is camel herders than u are a Somali. Likewise, if you are somali or oromo by lineage or language and ur occupation is cow herding or farming you are considered oromo.

[Geedi81]

You are confusing yourself with the name "Gurgure", the Gurgure in the video is is about a subsubclan called Gurgure who together with Abokar Ali clan constituted "lojir clan", you will also find isaaq subsubclan with the name gurgure and also in the gadabiirisi clan.

As for the Gurgura clan then their is no confusion about their identity, if you look in the ethiopia politics they have all their sits under the "Somali People's Democratic Party". In Dirir dhabe parlament Oromo party(OPDO) have 40 seats and Somalis(SPDP) 40 seats, The Gurgure clan gets all their allocated share of 27 seats from the somali SPDP party, they get this large share because they are the largest group in the city.

[0sman]

OK Geedi81, who's just made this account to make that post. lol

PS: Nah, I didn't confuse myself with anything as I didn't (and still don't) know anything about the tribes mentioned in the video and posted it coz the story and the beauty of that nomadic life & land and the way the video was made seemed fascinating to me.

And yeah, Twist is my other account.