Rahanweyn

The Rahaweyn (Somali Maay: Reewin; Maxa Somali: Raxaweyn, Arabic: رحوين‎) is a Somali clan that is part of the wider Digil clan family.[1] It is one of the major Somali clans residing in the Horn of Africa whom are native to South West and Jubaland.

Rahaweyn
الرَحَوَيْن
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Af-Maay
Religion
Islam (Sunni)
Related ethnic groups
Hawiye, Dir clan, Isaaq, Darod and other Somali people

Overview

The Digil sub-clan mainly consists of farmers and coastal people, while the Mirifle are predominantly nomadic pastoralists.

According to our constitutional law, Somalis are linguistically grouped into Mai Terreh and Maxaa Tiri. The vast majority of the Somalis who speak Mai Terreh (also known as Mai-Mai or Af-Maay) are the Rahanweyn, while the speakers of Maxaa Tiri (i.e. Standard Somali) belong to other clans (Darod, Dir, Hawiye and Isaaq).

Distribution
Somali clan map showing distribution of the Rahanweyn clan. [2]

The Digil and Mirifle (i.e. the Rahanweyn) are mainly concentrated in the South West gobols of Bay, Bakool, and Lower Shebelle, but are also found in adjacent regions such as Mogadishu, Hiiraan, Gedo, Middle Juba. They are also found in the Somali Region of Ethiopia and the North Eastern Province of Kenya.

History

The Rahanweyn clan were mentioned as the people of Reewing who lived in the fertile lands and coastal provinces and were very wealthy and powerful people during the antiquity period in southern Somalia. They were said to be a sub group of Barbara or Barbaroi people ancestors of the Somali people.

Along with Hawiye, Rahanweyn clan also came under the Ajuran Empire control in the 13th century that governed much of southern Somalia and eastern Ethiopia, with its domain extending from Hobyo in the north, to Qelafo in the west, to Kismayo in the south.[3]

At the end of the 17th century, the Ajuran Sultanate was on its decline, and various vassals were now breaking free or being absorbed by new Somali powers. One of these powers was the Geledi Sultanate who was established by Ibrahim Adeer, who was an Ajuran general at that time, successfully pushed back the imperial Ajuran army out of Afgooye. He subsequently established the Geledi sultanates ruling house, the Gobroon dynasty, after having first defeated the Ajuran vassal state, the Silcis Kingdom.

Geledi Sultanate was a Rahanweyn Kingdom ruled by the noble Geledi clan which controlled the entire Jubba River and extending parts of Shebelle River and dominating the East African trade. The Geledi Sultanate had enough power to force the southern Arabians to pay tribute to the noble Geledi Rulers like Ahmed Yusuf (Gobroon).[4]

The Geledi Sultanate was eventually incorporated into Italian Somaliland Protectorate in 1908 by the Geledi ruler: Osman Ahmed who signed multiple treaties with the Italian colonials and the Kingdom ended with the death of Osman Ahmed in 1910.[5]

At the turn of 1991 when the Somali central government collapsed, the Rahanweyn clan formed their own autonomous state known as South West State of Somalia which was able to establish its own government, economy, army and flag. The Southwest state was able to successfully keep the stability in southern Somalia.[6][7]

Clan tree

There is no clear agreement on the clan and sub-clan structures and many lineages are omitted. The following listing is taken from the World Bank's Conflict in Somalia: Drivers and Dynamics from 2005 and the United Kingdom's Home Office publication, Somalia Assessment 2001.[8][9]


      • Sagaal
        • Jilible
        • Gasaargude
        • Gawaweeyn
        • Baroosile
        • Geeladle
        • Luwaay
        • Hadame
        • Yantaar
        • Hubeer
      • Sideed
        • Haraaw
        • Harin
        • Eelay
        • Jiron
        • Naasiye
        • Leyasan
        • Maallan Wiin
        • Diisow
        • Eemid

In the south central part of Somalia the World Bank shows the following clan tree:[10]

  • Rahaweyn
    • Digil
      • Geledi
      • Jiddo
      • Begedi
      • Shanta-Alen

Christian Bader lists the principal Digil and Rahaweyn subclans as follows:[11]

  • Sab
    • Amarre
      • Daysame
        • Digil
          • Maad
            • Rahaweyn
              • Jambaluul
              • Midhifle
              • Begedi
              • Aleemo
            • Maatay
              • Irroole
              • Dabarre
            • 'Ali Jiiddu
            • Dubdheere
              • Waraasiile
              • Tikeme
            • Duubo
            • Digiine
            • Iise Tunni

Notable Rahaweyn people
  • Neil Armstrong, astronaut who partook in the first moonlanding of 1969
  • Sharif Hassan, former speaker of Somali Parliament, former deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, first president of Southwest State of Somalia.
  • Abbas Siraji, former Minister of Public Works and Reconstruction
  • Abdallah Deerow, former Minister of Constitutional Affairs of the Transitional National Government
  • Abdi Kusow, Professor of Sociology at Iowa State University
  • Abdihakim Haji-Faqi, former Minister of Defence of Somalia
  • Abdullahi Haji Hassan Mohamed Nuur, former Foreign Minister of Somalia, and former Minister of Agriculture and Livestock
  • Aden Madobe, former Speaker of the Parliament of the Transitional Federal Government, and former interim President of Somalia
  • Hasan Shatigadud, former chairman of the Rahanweyn Resistance Army, former Finance Minister, first President of Southwestern
  • Mohamed Haji Mukhtar, professor of African and Middle Eastern History at Savannah State University
  • Mohamed Ibrahim, former Minister of the Transitional National Government
  • Mohamed Jawari, Speaker of the Federal Parliament of Somalia
  • Mohamud Siraji, Member of Parliament and Chair of the Committee on Budget, Finance, Planning and Oversight of Government Financial institutions
  • Mohamed Hamud, Minister of Defence of Somalia
  • Muhammad Ibrahim Habsade, former rebel and Minister Agriculture in the Transitional Federal Government
  • Mustafa Mohamed Moalim (Mustafa Maxamed Macalin), first fighter pilot in Somalia, Chief of Somali Air Force School and Chief of Somali Air
  • Uways al-Barawi a very famous Islamic Saint and a religious leader who rebelled the Italians on the Benadir coast.
  • Mohamed Abdinur, Senior Statistician at the Somalia National Bureau of Statistics.
  • Sheikh Mukhtar Mohamed Hussein, former Speaker of Parliament and interim President of Somalia
  • Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Mansur,former member and spokesman for Al Shabaab and now leading his own group in the south west Somalia forest
  • Osman Ibrahim, Former deputy minister of labor and social affairs and current deputy minister of mater and energy
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See also

Notes
  1. HAAN Associates, p. 260
  2. "Somalia Maps - Perry–Castañeda Map Collection - UT Library Online". www.lib.utexas.edu. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  3. Lee V. Cassanelli, The shaping of Somali society: reconstructing the history of a pastoral people, 1600-1900, (University of Pennsylvania Press: 1982), p.102.
  4. Luling (2002), p.272.
  5. Historical Dictionary of Somalia. p. 210. Retrieved 2014-02-15.
  6. "SOMALIA: RRA sets up autonomous region". IRIN. 1 April 2002. Archived from the original on 29 July 2013. Retrieved 2007-02-04.
  7. "Third autonomous region breaks with Somalia". Afrol News. 2 March 2002. Retrieved 2007-02-04.
  8. Worldbank, Conflict in Somalia: Drivers and Dynamics, January 2005, Appendix 2, Lineage Charts, p.55 Figure A-1
  9. Country Information and Policy Unit, Home Office, Great Britain, Somalia Assessment 2001, Annex B: Somali Clan Structure Archived 2011-07-16 at the Wayback Machine, p. 43
  10. Worldbank, Conflict in Somalia: Drivers and Dynamics, January 2005, Appendix 2, Lineage Charts, p.56 Figure A-2
  11. Bader, Christian (1999). "Genealogies Somali". Le sang et le lait: brève histoire des clans somali [Blood and milk: A brief history of the Somali clans] (in French). Paris: 9782706813733. p. 246. ISBN 2706813733. Retrieved 2010-03-09.

References
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