Hawiye

Hawiye
The Hawiye is the largest Somali clan family. Members of this clan traditionally inhabit central and southern Somalia, Somaliland, Djibouti, Ethiopia (Somali, Harar, Oromia and Afar regions) and Kenya (North Eastern Province, Eastern Province). They are also the majority in the capital city, Mogadishu.
Origins
Like the great majority of Somali clans, the Hawiye trace their ancestry to Aqil ibn Abi Talib, a cousin of the prophet Muhammad and an older brother of Ali ibn Abi Talib and Ja'far ibn Abi Talib. They trace their lineage to Aqil through Samaale (the source of the name 'Somali'), the purported forefather of the northern pastoralist clans such as the Hawiye, the Dir, and –matrilineally through the Dir– the Isaq and the Darod. Although these genealogical claims are historically untenable, they do reflect the longstanding cultural contacts between Somalia (especially, though not exclusively, its most northern part Somaliland) and Southern Arabia.
Hawiye Somalis also share a long affinity with Cushitic speaking peoples of the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, forming the ancient proto Somali Kingdom of Kush, Land of Punt and Macrobia.
Distribution
With the arrival of Samaale in the areas of Somaliland, the Hawiye, eldest son of Irir, son of Samaale, further crossed into Ethiopia, said to be the traditional homeland, before descending along the Shabelle Valley.
In Somalia, Hawiye subclans can be found inhabiting the areas of fertile lands in the Shabelle River of Beledweyne in the Hiran region and Jowhar in the Middle Shabelle region and stretching from the coast immediately south of Mogadishu to the north of the ancient port town of Hobyo in the desert central Mudug region. The Abgaal and the Hawadle sub-clans of Hawiye are the majority in the Hirshabelle state of Somalia, while in Galmudug the Habar Gidir are the majority followed by other Hawiye clans such as Abgaal, Duduble and Murusade. The Hawiye also have a second majority presence in the Lower Shabelle region. They can also be found in Jubbaland and the Bay and Bakool region. The Fiqishini subclan of the Habar Gidir inhabit the Sool region of Somaliland.
The Hawiye also live in their traditional birthplace Ethiopia, holding a sizeable population in the Somali Region of Ethiopia as well as cities like Babile and Imi in the Oromia regions. In the southern parts of the Somali Region, Hawiye are majority in 2 of the 9 zones, namely the Liben zone and the Shabelle. The Hawiye are also present in the other zones such as the Dollo, Jarar, Sitti and the Jigjiga zone. A small number can also be found in the Afar region.
In Kenya, the Hawiye can also be found in the North Eastern Province (Kenya) region of Kenya where the Degoodi sub-clan is 3rd majority out of Somali clans in Kenya and the majority in the Wajir region, followed by another Hawiye sub-clan, the Ajuran and then the Murule who are the majority of the Mandera region as shown in the Kenyan census.
Major Hawiye cities include the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, Beledweyne, Jowhar and Mandera.
Role and Influence in Somalia
The Hawiye have historically played an important role in Somalia. The majority of Somalia's founding fathers hailed from the Hawiye. At Independence in 1960, the first President, Prime Minister and the father of the Somali Military were all Hawiye. Aden Adde the first President was Udeejeen. The first Prime Minister Abdullahi Issa was Habar Gidir. The father of the Somali Military Daud Abdulle Hirsi was Abgaal. As was the initiator of the October revolution coup d'état in 1969, Brigadier General Salaad Gabeyre Kediye. The military leader to overthrow and exile the successor of the coup President Siad Barre of the Supreme Revolutionary Council in 1991 before fighting and defeating subsequent US occupying forces (1993-1995) was General Mohamed Farrah Aidid, a Habar Gidir. Since then the Hawiye have produced five more Presidents and four more Prime Ministers.
The Hawiye elite played a leading role during the Somali Rebellion in opposing the post civilian era dictatorship of President Siad Barre under the auspices of SODAF, the SSDF and the Somali National Movement (SNM) before converging to form their own branch the infamous United Somali Congress (USC). The long-standing clan conflicts that had engulfed other clans in the rest of the country under the ex dictatorship continued unabated into the late 90s with its eventual victors setting up autonomous regional states (Somaliland and Puntland) while Mogadishu underwent a new Civil War starting in late 1991 with the city divided between warring Hawiye factions of Aidid and Abgaal President Ali Mahdi. Despite 2 interim governments built from Djibouti and supplanted in the capital with its elected Hawiye Presidencies in Ali Mahdi Muhammad in 1991 and Abdiqasim Salad Hassan (Habargidir) a decade later, 14 national peace conferences throughout their tenures and a 3-year UN/US humanitarian & peacekeeping intervention (1992-1995), the Mogadishu Civil War remained a stalemate until 2006 which saw the rise of the popular Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a predominately Hawiye-based Islamic Fundamentalist Organisation that ended the rule of factional warlords and their chiefdoms, with the ICU promoting religious reform while conquering large parts of the country. But even with its moderate leadership and revolutionary appeal, the International Community, encouraged by the US global War on Terror campaign, endorsed a historically damaging Ethiopian Occupation to overthrow the ICU and prop the weak internationally recognised interim federal government (TFG) of President Abdullahi Yusuf, a Darod Majerteen, which was built in Kenya in 2004 and based there before moving into the city of Baidoa. With the TFG reliant on neighbours Ethiopia and Kenya, adopting their principles of federalism, the moderate ICU leadership moved to Djibouti and Eritrea in exile, eventually returning to power under a new name, the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) and successfully ending the Ethiopian occupation. A coalition of sorts in later successive governments have since been formed, with new challenges posed by radical offshoots Al-Shabaab, an Alqaeda affiliate takfeer group notorious for bomb attacks that hasn't spared the old, the women or the children though claiming to solely fight the Government and its partners from the African Union peacekeeping forces.
The Hawiye figure prominently in many important fields of Somali society such as the Business & Media sector. For example, Abdirahman Yabarow, the editor-in-chief of VOA Somali is kin. Yusuf Garaad Omar who was the Chairman of BBC Somali for over a decade and helped pioneer its rise during his tenure, is also a member. As are the heads of major national corporations - Jubba Airways and Hormuud Telecom.
Currently the Hawiye play a leading role in the regional states of Galmudug, Hirshabelle and Benadir (Mogadishu), but also in Somalia and among the Somali people as a whole.
History
According to 12th-century author Al-Idrisi, the Hawiye clan occupied the coastal areas between Ras Hafun and Merca, as well as the lower basin of the lower Shabelle river. Al-Idrisi's mention of the Hawiye is the first documentary reference to a specific Somali group in the Horn of Africa. Later Arab writers also make references to the Hawiye clan in connection with both Merca and the lower Shabelle valley. Ibn Sa'id (1214–74), for instance, considered Merca to be the capital of the Hawiye, who lived in fifty villages on the bank of a river which he called "the nile of Mogadishu, a clear reference to the Shabelle river.
One must mention the Hawīya and Garğēda who are also represented as clan families or clans among the Somali. Both groups seem to have been long established in the Sultanate of Bale: the early immigrants from Merca started from a Hawiya-occupied region and oral traditions relate the Garğēda with the time of the "holy war" in the 1530s.
Along with Rahanweyn, the Hawiye 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.
Known to medieval writers as the Ajan Coast Harold Marcus credits the role of the Hawiye-led commonwealth alliance in expanding and islamizing the communities of what is now southeast Ethiopia and southern Somalia during the 15th and 16th centuries.
The Hawiye are also featured in the early history of the northern Ifat Sultanate during the reign of Emperors Zara Yaqob and Amda Seyon I. Sabr ad-Din of Ifat who declared war on Amda Seyon, had summoned 15 notables for the battle, the 8th notable was the King of Harla and the 9th notable was the King of Hubat. According to best known travel and tourism handbook "Guide to Ethiopia" by author Phillip Briggs
and ecologist professor Marco Viganó, the Kundudo (Qundhura) mountain ranges which sits at the mouth of Gursum, Somali (woreda) and easiest to access via Babile was the locality of ancient Hubat, an early settlement area pre-dating and surrounding Harar particularly towards the South East and also historically inhabited by nomadic highland Hawiye clans who had turned to farming and cultivation during the rainfall season according to J.Spencer's "Islam in Ethiopia" where they later repelled and neighboured the Oromo Invasions. Many old towns and villages bearing Hawiye ancestral names can still be found in the modern Eastern Hararghe region today.
With Adal Sultanate succeeding Ifat Sultanate, the Hawiye figured prominently as leaders and soldiers in what culminated to become the 16th century conquest of Ethiopia (Futuh Al-Habasha). The most famous and widely read Public Historian of Ethiopia, former Minister of Education, Arts & Culture and Dean of the National Library under Haile Selassie, Takla Sadiq Mekuria, author of the "History of Ethiopia; Nubia, Aksum, Zagoe till the Time of the Reign of Aşe Yækunno Amlak", had state devoted the largest study - a 950 page book in 1961 to the life and times of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (known as Ahmed Gurey or Mohamed Gragne, the Atilla of Africa and the King of Zeila) as well as the history of the elite core family-unit of the Malassay Army in his rough monograph on the Gragn Wars called "Ya Gragn Warara" (The Conquests of Gragn), in it he draws on the evidence from Arab Faqih Sihab Uddin and the chronicles of Sarsa-Dengel. Through the mediation of Dagazmac Wargnah he interviewed Ahmed Ali Shami, the most senior authoritative scholar of Harar to have produced the concise manuscript history of Harar (in his Fatah Madinat Harar manuscript) for several European institutions and maintains several preserved Arabic manuscripts, which all provide the only extensive family tree and genealogical known tradition of 8 generations of the father and relatives of Gragne's lineage from the Karanle Hawiye branch with his mother stated to be of the ethnic Harla. This is also found in the Aussa chronicles and books authored by Manfred Kropp, Layla Sabaq and Berhanu Kamal and others. Gragne's wife was also the daughter of Emir Mahfuz, an important relative, ruler of Zeila and a Balaw, a common Ethiopian mistranslation of the Coptic Christian synaxarium of Alexandria's "muslim badawī (bedouin/nomadic descent)" for Muslims in Egypt, Sudan, Somalia and the Red Sea Gulf. See example - Ethiopian chronicles of 10th century Muslim convert Saint George the Egyptian Balaw. Weakened by centuries of northern conflict, a fraction of the Hawiye of the post Adal Harar Emirate continued to remain powerful in the Somali interior and would later form a dynasty of jurists in early modern Zeila.
Since sections of the Hawiyya were migrating southward before and during Gragn's jihad, it is not inconceivable that they brought certain theocratic notions with them. Indeed, the Ajuran maintained a wakil (governor) in the region around Qallafo. This area was not only the traditional Hawiyya homeland, but also stood midway geographically between the emirates of Harar and the Benaadir, an ideal link for the transmission of political and religious ideas.
Enrico Cerulli, an Author on key Somali social development and early history, mentions the following passage on the birth and succession of the Ajuran Sultanate.
The oral sources also provide us with recurrent themes that point to certain structural features of Ajuran rule. The descendants of the Ajuraan (among which are the Gareen imams) can therefore be understood to have inherited the spiritual (Islamic) and the secular (numerical) power provided by the alliance of the first three Hawiyya “brothers”. Ajuran power reposed on the twin pillars of spiritual preeminence and Hawiyya kinship solidarity, a potent combination in the Somali cultural context. In historical terms, a theocratic ideology superimposed on an extensive network of Hawiyya-affiliated clans helped uphold Ajuran dominance over a wide region. The Darandoolle, it should be noted, were part of the Gurqaate, a clan section collateral to the Jambelle Hawiyya from whom Ajuran (and Gareen) is said to have been descended. Intermarriage among the descedants of these uterine brothers on the one hand helped reinforce the solidarity of the Hawiyya. On the other hand, competition between collateral lines was very common in Somalia, particularly where the titular leadership of a larger clan-confederation was at stake. Such a struggle for the dominant place within the Hawiyya-dominated Ajuran confederation may also be reflected in the rise of the Silcis and El Amir in the later years of Ajuran rule. Both are said to have been descedants of Gurqaate Hawiyya, as were the Abgaal Darandoolle. Thus it can be argued that the dominant groups which appeared toward the end of the Ajuran era—the Darandoolle near Muqdisho, the Silcis near Afgooye, and the El Amir in Marka—represent the partition of the Ajuran imamate among collateral Hawiyya sections. Or perhaps one branch of the Hawiyya—namely the Gurqaate—forcibly replaced another (the Jambelle) as leaders of the clan.
The Hiraab Imamate was the main successor state of the Ajuran Sultanate. The reason for their rebellion was the Ajuran rulers, in the end, became extremely prideful, neglected the sharia law, and imposed a heavy tax on their subjects which was the main reason for the rebellion. Other groups would follow in the rebellion which would eventually bring down Ajuran rule in the inter-riverine region and Benadir coast.
Lee Cassanelli in his book, The Shaping of Somali society, provides a historical picture of the Hiraab Imamate. He writes:
"According to local oral tradition, the Hiraab imamate was a powerful alliance of closely related groups who shared a common lineage under the Gorgaarte clan divisions. It successfully revolted against the Ajuran Empire and established an independent rule for at least two centuries from the seventeen hundreds and onwards.
The alliance involved the army leaders and advisors of the Habar Gidir and Duduble, a Fiqhi/Qadi of Sheekhaal, and the Imam was reserved for the Mudulood branch who is believed to have been the first born. Once established, the Imamate ruled the territories from the Shabeelle valley, the Benaadir provinces, the Mareeg areas all the way to the arid lands of Mudug, whilst the ancient port of Hobyo emerged as the commercial border and Mogadishu being its capital for the newly established Hiraab Imamate in the late 17th century.
Hobyo served as a prosperous commercial centre for the Imamate. The agricultural centres of El Dher and Harardhere included the production of sorghum and beans, supplementing with herds of camels, cattle, goats and sheep. Livestock, hides and skin, whilst the aromatic woods and raisins were the primary exports as rice, other foodstuffs and clothes were imported. Merchants looking for exotic goods came to Hobyo to buy textiles, precious metals and pearls. The commercial goods harvested along the Shabelle river were brought to Hobyo for trade. Also, the increasing importance and rapid settlement of more southerly cities such as Mogadishu further boosted the prosperity of Hobyo, as more and more ships made their way down the Somali coast and stopped in Hobyo to trade and replenish their supplies.
The economy of the Hawiye includes the predominant nomadic pastoralism, and to some extent, cultivation within agricultural settlements in the riverine area, as well as mercantile commerce along the urban coast. At various points throughout history, trade of modern and ancient commodities by the Hawiye through maritime routes included cattle skin, slaves, ivory and ambergris.
Richard Burton, a famous 19th century British explorer said to have been the first European to reach the Holy Islamic sites of Mecca and Medina in secrecy, on visiting the country of the Somalis in 1854 noted among other authors at the time, the northern and southern expansion of the Hiraab prior to the Imamate's deeper conflicts with the advent of Colonialism, said the following;
To the south the Nogal valley touches the Hawiyah, the Marehan and some small neighbouring countries. The Hawiyah are doubtless of ancient origin; they call all Somal except themselves Hashiyah (Aji) and thus claim to be equivalent to the rest of the nation. The antiquity of the Hawiyah is proved by its present widely scattered state; it is a powerful tribe in the Mijjarthayn country and yet it is found in the hills of Harar. It should be noted that the movement towards the South West is faster for the more northerly Hawiyah tribes and therefore further away from the rivers.
Soon afterwards, the entire peninsula was snapped up by Colonial powers and it led to the birth of a Modern Somalia. However, the Hiraab hereditary leadership has remained intact up to this day and enjoys a dominant influence in national Somali affairs.
Clan tree
Due to antiquity and oldened traditions, there is no clear agreement on the clan and sub-clan structures and many lineages are omitted. Ali Jimale Ahmed outlines his genealogical clan tree of the Hawiye in The Invention of Somalia.
Samaale
Irir
Hawiye
Karanle
Kaariye
Gidir
Sexawle
Baad
Murusade
Sabti
Abakar Sabti
Abdalle Sabti
Habar Idinle
Foorculus
Habar Ceyno
Habar Maxamed
Gugundhabe
Molkaal (Molcal)
Baadicade
Afgaab
Maamiye
Subeer
Baydisle
Saransoor
Gaaljecel
Caloofi
Makaahil
Dirisame
Barsane
Degoodi
Fai
Dumaal
Ciise
Masarre
Jidle alias Murule
Abdi (Yabarsein)
Kuulow
Sharmarke
Nacabsoor
Jijeele
Reer Faqay
Gorgaarte
Hiraab
Mudulood
Maxamed (Cabdi Sheikh)
Darandole
Hilibi
Cismaan
Wacdaan
Maalinle
Samakaay
Moobleen
Magacle
Ilaaway
Abgaal (Cali)
Harti (Rati)
Agoonyar
Warsangeli
Owbakar
Wacbudhan
Daud
Isaaq Daud
Yusuf Daud
Galmaax
Yusuf
Maxamed Muuse
Cumar Galmaax
Reer Mataan
Celi Cumar
Abdulle Galmaax
Kabaale
Saleeban Muuse
Xeyle Muuse
Waceysle (Warculus)
Cali Gaaf
Macalin Dhiblawe
Abdirahman Saleban
Absuge
Duduble (Maxamuud Hiraab)
Maxamed Camal
Maqlisame
Owradeen
Sheekhaal
Loobage
Maxamed Cagane
Qudub
Garwayne
Habar Gidir
Sacad
Saleebaan
Cayr
Saruur
Wadalaan
Silcis
Hawadle
Ali Madaxweyne
Yabar Madaxweyne
Ibrahim Ciise
Abdi Yusuf
Agoon Abdalle
Jambeelle
Hintire
Ajuran (clan)
Gareen
Waalamage
Xaskul
Owsaan
Raaranle Hawiye
NOTE The Sheekhaal, Xawaadle and Saransoor (Gaaljecel, Dagoodi, Ciise, Masarre, Tuuf Garre) are historically counted as Hawiye lineages under Hiraab, Gorgaarte and Gugundhabe respectively. The Ajuuraan are similarly descendants of Jambeelle.
Notable Hawiye figures
Rulers
Sheikh Hussein (saint), 13th Century Muslim Saint of East Africa and Ruler of the Sultanate of Bale
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi nicknamed "Ahmed Gurey", Somali Imam and General of the Adal Sultanate, Ruler of Harar and Conqueror of Ethiopia
Caaqil Dheryodhoobe, Legendary Warrior Chief of Central Somalia and Strategic Thinker
Sheikh Hassan Barsane, Religious and National Anti Colonial leader
Olol Dinle, Last Sultan of the Ajuran Sultanate
Ahmed Gabyow, Somali Patriot and War Poet of the Benadir Coast
Politicians
Abdullahi Issa, Prime Minister of Somalia, 1956–1960
Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, President of Somalia, 1960–1967
Haji Farah Ali Omar, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister of Somalia, 1967–1969
Hussein Kulmiye Afrah, Vice President of Somalia, 1971–1990
Mohamed Ibrahim Liqliiqato, President of the National Assembly, 1982–1989
Ali Mahdi Muhammad, President of Somalia, 1991–2000
Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, President of Somalia, 2000–2004
Ali Mohammed Ghedi, Prime Minister of Somalia, 2004–2007
Nur Hassan Hussein, Prime Minister of Somalia, 2007–2009
Sharif Ahmed, President of Somalia, 2009–2012
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, President of Somalia, 2012–2017, 2022–Current
Hassan Ali Khaire, Prime Minister of Somalia, 2017–2020
Mohamed Hussein Roble, Prime Minister of Somalia, 2020–2022
Sheikh Ali Jimale, Cabinet Minister, First Opposition Party Secretary-General and Runners Up in the 1961 Presidential Elections
Abdullahi Ahmed Addow, Governor of the Central Bank, Minister of Economic Affairs, later Somali Ambassador to the United States 1970–1980
Mohamed Sheikh Osman, Former Minister of Finance, Commerce and Industry
Omar Hassan Mohamud "Istarliin", 1960s Mayor of Mogadishu and Chairman of the Somali Rebellion SODAF
Ali Mohamed Osoble "Wardhigley", MP Elected from Mogadishu, Minister of Information, Health and Labour, Vice Chairman of SNM, Chairman of USC
Mohamed Afrah Qanyare, Politician, Businessman, Chairman of the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT)
Abukar Umar Adani, Islamist, Tycoon, Owner of the El-Ma`an Port which served as Mogadishu's temporary Port since its closure in 1995
Abdullahi Mohamed Ali "Sanbaloolshe", Politician, Diplomat, Secretary of State for National Security and Intelligence Chief (NISA)
Shaaban Ali Issack, Former Member of Kenyan National Assembly/Parliament, Assistant Minister for Urban Development, 1995–2007
Hassan Mohamed Hussein Mungab, Mayor of Mogadishu, Chief of the Somali Supreme Court, 2012–2016
Mohamed Nur, Popular Mayor of Mogadishu, 2009–2012, famously nicknamed Tarzan
Mohamed Hussein Ali, Former Member of Kenyan National Assembly/Parliament, 2007-2013
Military personnel
Daud Abdulle Hirsi, First Commander-In-Chief of the Somali National Forces in 1960, Commanding Officer of the 1964 Ethiopian–Somali Border War
Salaad Gabeyre Kediye, Brigadier General, Father of the 1969 Kacaan Revolution
General Mohamed Farrah Aidid, Chairman of the United Somali Congress that toppled Dictator Siad Barre, battled US Delta forces and UNOSOM during Operation Restore Hope and a self-declared President of Somalia before his Death, 1987–1996
Mohamud Barre Faytaan, First Chief of the Somali Air Defence Corps and later Somali Airlines
Mohamed Ali Dhagaxtuur, SYL Horseed Militia leader, Martyr of the 1948 Four-Power Commission Hanoolaato riots in Mogadishu named after the Dhagaxtuur Monument
Mohamed Abdulle Halane, Posthumous Gold Medallist of the 1964 Ethiopian–Somali Border War commemorated in the Halane Elite Training Camp
Ahmed Sheikh Mao, Cayr, First Commander of the Somali Air Force
Osman Sheikh Mao, Cayr, First Commander of the Somali Navy
Colonel Ahmed Maxamed Xasan, Abgaal, Award Winner fighter jet pilot who famously refused government orders to bomb Somaliland in the lead up to the Civil War, 1988–1991
Abdi Hasan Awale Qeybdiid, Longest reigning Police Commissioner, dubbed Tiger Abdi in the infamous Black Hawk Down
Hassan Dahir Aweys, Decorated Colonel of the Ogaden War, Founder of the Islamic Courts Union
Mohamed Abdi Hassan, Entrepreneur, Somalia's "Pirate Kingpin" who captured the MV Sirius Star Ship, 2008
Leading intellectuals
Hussein Sheikh Ahmed Kaddare, Linguist, Author of the 1952 Kaddariya script
Ismail Jim'ale Osoble, Human Rights Lawyer, Journalist, Cabinet Minister, Author of the 1990 Somali Manifesto
Abdulkadir Yahya Ali, Peace Activist, Founder of the Center for Research and Dialogue
Elmi Ahmed Duale, Director General of Somali Public Health, World Health Organization East Africa Programme Coordinator, Permanent Representative of Somalia to the United Nations
Ahmed Mumin Warfa, Senior Government Advisor, Philanthropist, Scientist and Rector of the Zamzam University of Science and Technology, discovered the Cyclamen somalense species
Osman Aden Abdulle, Haemotologist, Physician, Geneticist, Director of the Blood Transfusion Services in Mogadishu and son of a former president, discovered a new Rh gene complex producing the rare Cx (Rh9) antigen in Somalia
Farah Weheliye Addo, Politician, Chairman of the Somali Football Association, Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations, Somali Olympic Committee and vice-president of the African Football Confederation (CAF)
Yusuf Garaad Omar, Editor-in-Chief of the BBC Somali Service
Abdi Mohamed Ulusso, Writer, Historian, 2004 Presidential Candidate
Ali Jimale, Educator at the City University of New York
Ali Sheikh Ahmed, Dual President of Mogadishu University and Al-Islaah
Elman Ali Ahmed, Entrepreneur and Social Activist
Hilowle Imam Omar, Chairman of the Somali Civil War Reconciliation Program
Ibrahim Hassan Addou, Former professor of Washington University, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Courts Union in 2006
Hussein Ali Shido, SYL Politician, Ambassador and later founding member of the United Somali Congress
Music and literature
Abdi Bashiir Indhobuur, Poet and Composer
Abdulle Geedannaar, Poet
Hasan Adan Samatar, Famous Musician in the 1970s and 1980s
K'naan, Somali-Canadian Poet, Rapper and Musician
Magool (Halima Khalif Omar), Musician
Political factions and organizations
Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) a Somali alliance created by various faction leaders and entrepreneurs
Hizbul Shabaab, the Youth Movement wing of the ICU before ceding the organisation to Aden Hashi Farah "Eyrow"
Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a rival administration to the Transitional Federal Government.
Juba Valley Alliance (JVA), primary opponent of the Somali Patriotic Movement
Somali National Alliance (SNA), formed by Mohamed Farrah Aidid
Somali Salvation Army (SSA), the Ali Mahdi Muhammad branch of the United Somali Congress
United Somali Congress (USC), formed in 1987, played a leading role in the ouster of the dictatorship
See also
Somali aristocratic and court titles
Notes
References
Sources
Somali clans in Ethiopia