Postby Grant » Tue Apr 17, 2007 9:58 am
The Article says the Bantus were from Tanzania and points south. They did not come from Kenya or Uganda. Some may have been indigenous to the Shabelle area. It says, of the estimated 7.5 milion Somalis, 600,000 are Bantu.
"Many Bantu refugees can trace their origins back to ancestors in southeast African tribes who were enslaved in the 18th century by agents of the Sultanate of Zanzibar. These ancestral tribes include, among others, the Makua and Yao of southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique; the Ngindo of southern Tanzania; the Nyasa of southern Tanzania, northern Mozambique, and northern Malawi; and the Zaramo and Zigua of northeast Tanzania. Other southeast African tribes represented among the Bantu refugees include the Digo, Makale, Manyawa, Nyamwezi, and Nyika. "
Most scholars believe that the Wazigua are the founders of Goshaland along the Juba River, a safe haven for runaway slaves. Late in the 19th century, Egypt, Zanzibar, Italy, and Britain recognized this haven as an independent entity. Although other gama (autonomous communities) later existed in Goshaland, the Wazigua remained as an autonomous society with a distinct political structure. That is probably why the Goshaland people are generally known by the name of their founders, the Wazigua. Until the 1920s, the Bantu people of Goshaland were divided into nine gama groups, which constituted the core of their confederation. They are Makale, Makua, Molema, Mushunguli (Zigua), Ngindo, Nyamwezi, Nyassa, Nyika, and Yao. Later, some of these groups were either assimilated into the indigenous Bantu/Jareer of the Shabelle River or incorporated into other Somali clans such as Biamal, Garre, Jiido, Shiqaal, and so on.
Since independence in 1960, Somali governments have promoted the false notion that Somalia is a homogeneous nation, a claim reinforced by some Somali nomadic scholars and non-Somalis as well. The myth of homogeneity falsely represents Somalia's dominant nomadic culture and tradition as the nation's only culture and tradition. Somalia, in fact, is made up of diverse communities. Indeed, some experts estimate that up to one third of all Somalis are minorities, representing a variety of cultures, languages, and interpretations of the dominant Sunni Islamic religion."
[/quote]
"
