Rahanweyn

The Rahanweyn ( Maay: Reewin ) or Digil - Mirifle are one of the five major clan families of Somali. They live mainly in Südwestsomalia in relatively fertile area between the rivers Jubba and Shabeelle, in the administrative Bay and Bakool regions. As its center is the town of Baidoa.

They differ in several respects from the other Somali. So they live mostly not as nomads, but as sedentary farmers. Their political structures are more hierarchical than in the nomadic Somali. They speak the Maay variant of the Somali language, the Somali is a classic counterpart to the Maha or Maxaa, which forms the basis of the standard Somali; the Digil speak a number of heterogeneous dialects, whose unit is questionable. In addition, the Rahanweyn to a greater extent members of other clans and non - Somali ( " Bantu " and Oromo ) included in their communities. For these reasons they are considered "fake Somali " or Sab compared to the " actual Somali " or Samaal - clans of the Hawiye, Darod, Isaaq and Dir

Clan structure

Sub clans of Rahanweyn are the Mirifle and Digil. Mythological they are returned to the two forefathers Mirifle and Digil, the sons of Mad ( Mahamad ) Reewin were.

The Mirifle divided in turn into two sub- clans Sagaal ( "nine" ) and Siyeed ( " eight "); the Sagaal include nine clans ( including the Hadame ) and the Siyeed sixteen ( including Harin, Haraw, Eemid, Leysan and Elay ). The Digil include seven clans (including Geledi, Tunni, Jiiddu, Garre and Dabarre ) and Bantu groups.

The Rahanweyn added to a much larger extent than the nomadic Somali clans and members of other non- Somali by assimilates these and / or formally "adopted" were. In many Rahanweyn clans represent the " original " Clan Members only a small minority dar. This fact helps that the nomadic clans - which place great importance on their "pure" mythological lineages, which they attribute to Arab forefathers - against View the Rahanweyn as superior.

Way of life

The Rahanweyn in Bay mostly live in villages with 100 to 1,000 inhabitants, which are dug ponds as the source. Larger villages have numerous pools as well as madrasas, mosques and other facilities. Your livelihood is dryland farming, an important horticultural product is sorghum. In addition, most Rahanweyn farmers also keep livestock ( Agropastoralismus ), an investigation of the FAO in 1977, according to an average of five camels, three cows and four sheep or goats. The counted among the Digil Garre and the Hawiye belonging Gaalje'el as nomads through the region.

Language

The language of the Rahanweyn is the Af Maay variant of Somaliland, the northern of the Somali Language ( Af - Maxaa ) differs.

The spelling " Rahanweyn " goes back to the standard Somali; today it is increasingly being replaced by the notation " Reewin " corresponding to their own pronunciation more. The name was previously on the basis of the standard Somali on weyn ( " great") and rahan ( " millstone " ) returned as an indication of their agronomic activity, alternatively rahan was also interpreted as a " crowd ", suggesting the mixing with other Somali Clans and non - Somali meant to indicate. A more recent theory, which starts from Maay, stating ree of reer for " family " come and win / Wiin / weyn " old " mean.

History

The precursors of Somali immigrants from the southern Ethiopian highlands into its present area. Conscience ethno-linguistic evidence indicates that the Rahanweyn may have been the earliest group of Somali, from which the other groups parted later.

During the colonial period was 1947 Hizbia Dighil Mirifle (HDM, Digil - Mirifle Party ) as a political organization of Rahanweyn. It was later renamed Hizbia Mustaqil Dastur al - Sumal ( HDMS, Somali Independent Constitutional Party ). Their main demands were a census, which should show the actual numerical strength of the clans, the introduction of a Constitution and a decentralized political system. This should prevent the Rahanweyn would dominated by the approaching independence of Somalia from the other clans. The Somali Youth League as the main party, however, did not respond to these demands. A census for clans was also therefore never carried out, because they would probably come to the conclusion that the Rahanweyn and not Darod were the largest communities. After the independence of Somalia in 1960, the Rahanweyn felt increasingly marginalized.

In the Somali civil war fought from 1991 Habar - Gedir - Hawiye under Mohammed Farah Aidid, the Somali Patriotic Movement of Ogadeni - Darod and Marehan Darod under Siad Hersi Morgan around the area of the Rahanweyn and in particular for control of their country. Together with the Somali Bantu Rahanweyn were most affected by looting, violent land expropriations and expulsions by other clans. This led to the 1991-1993 famine in their area, in which up to 500,000 people perished. Baidoa was known at that time as the "City of Death". Also supplies for the starving were looted by members of other clans.

This traumatic experience led to a stronger political agreement, the Rahanweyn. From 1995, they could, with the support of the neighboring country Ethiopia improve its military position and establish the Rahanweyn Resistance Army ( RRA). The RRA 2004 tried to establish their own state Südwestsomalia, but this failed because numerous different clans and Kriegsparteienin the region are present. To date, various warring parties are active in the area.

Known Rahanweyn are the RRA leader Mohammed Nur Shatigadud, the Islamist Mukhtar Robow and the professors and authors Mohamed Haji Mukhtar Abdi and Kusow.