A Gara Man Cushite Thread

[Monk-of-Mogadishu]

Camels didn't reach subsaharan Africa until they came to Nubia in the 9th century BC, and likely took another few centuries to reach Somalia. Cattle, meanwhile, has been around for much longer and is much more ubiquitous among subsaharan Africans - although both species were domesticated recently (13,000 years ago) in Asia. If you look at ancient Somali art, like those in Somaliland, you will notice that everything is centered around cattle, not camels.

[gurey25]

monk yes it is established that camel culture is recent.
no more than 1500 years..

The somalis were cattle herders like everyone else.....
even the beja picked it up very late, Egyptian, greek and roman period writings mention them as cattle herders as recently as 100AD.
Today the camel is the most important part of their culture like somalis...

ill look for the quote for the camel genes..
it only says that rendille camels are related to beja camels..

[Mckuus]

Only the northwest and inter-riverine regions are suitable for cattle pastoralism. All the other parts of Somalia are not.

The Laas Geel site did depict camels:

[Awraadle]

I agree with Voltage and Mckuus. They showing facts and mature argument. Somalis are indeed since existance Camel herders.

[gurey25]

this is whats interesting..
if camels were introduced into north africa at least 1000BC if not earlier,
and there are depiction in lasgaal..

why was camel culture recent?
was it due to cultural change?

the start of camel culture coincides with the start of the oldest somali geneologies.
even Dir does not go past 700AD.

[gurey25]

we need more data..
someone needs to trace a route through all the major watering holes and wells, and trading posts from the highlands down to northern kenya..

and collect the animal bones, and carbon date them..
this should tell us how long we have been eating camels, and when the change from camels to cattle started..

They did this in central asia, a Soviet study and they traced the domestication of camels and horses,

[Awraadle]

Looking at ancient Somali poets, camels are mentioned frequently. Bare in mind we are currently the number 1 in camel population in the world, and you will never find a wild camel in Somalia. Every Camel has its keeper. How long does it take for small population of people to all own the most populated camels so easily?

[Voltage]

The Somali peninsula has had that geography for thousands of years, way before our existence as a people. If we are talking about the existence of Somali people, which of course would be younger than the existence of the proto group we branched off of, then we can say cattle not extensively reared by Somalis because even today most of our land is unsuitable for herding cattle. It makes no sense. Now you take into consideration our geography, the central importance of camel to our social life, and the depictions of those drawings then you could theorize we have always been a very strong camel based group at least in so far as our modern origins as a Somali people unit.

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

Whats is cushite?

[Gara Man]

^ Oh shid I should of mentioned this first.

Cushite----- The people who revel in feces

[BlackVelvet]

^^

[Gara Man]

^My list is still ongoing BV, care for you or anybody else to add to the list?

[BlackVelvet]

Gara - the people who like to fight, from the word garac

[Gara Man]

Good one.

but i dont think that literally fits me.

[Aliyyi Oromada]

this is whats interesting..
if camels were introduced into north africa at least 1000BC if not earlier,
and there are depiction in lasgaal..

why was camel culture recent?
was it due to cultural change?

the start of camel culture coincides with the start of the oldest somali geneologies.
even Dir does not go past 700AD.

Livestock is an issue of convenience, my guess would be it had something to do with climate and desertification (loss of grazing land). But because the oromo word for camel (gaala) is similar to the somali word, then that probably means camels have been in the region before the somali language developed.