SOMALIA IN EASTERN AFRICA is a land of dry, hot desert.
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CLIMATE |
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Northern Somalia is very hot and humid but with a low rainfall. The central plateau region is cooler. The highest rainfall is on the southern plains.
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On the Horn of Africa
Little is known of the ancient history of Somalia (soe-MAH-lee-uh). Rock paintings and carvings found in the north confirm that the region was occupied in Stone Age times. The hot, dusty landscape was the home of nomadic herders, ancestors of today’s Somali and also of the Oromo peoples, who now mostly live in Ethiopia (see ETHIOPIA). From about thirteen hundred years ago, Persians and Muslim Arabs founded trading ports such as Mogadishu (moe-guh-DEE-shoo) around the coastline. Their wooden sailing ships, or dhows, traded far across the Indian Ocean and down the eastern African coast and islands.
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FACTS AND FIGURES |
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Official name: Somalia Status: Independent state Capital: Mogadishu Major towns: Hargeysa, Marka, Kismaayo, Berbera Area: 246,154 square miles (637,539 square kilometers) Population: 8,900,000 (This estimate may be inaccurate because of the large number of refugees.) Population density: 36 per square mile (14 per square kilometer) Peoples: 85 percent Somali; 15 percent other Official languages: Somali and Arabic Currency: Somali shilling National days: Independence Day (June 26); Foundation of the Republic Day (July 1) Country’s name: Somalia means "land of milk," referring to the traditional diet of the nomadic herders.
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Islam soon took root in Somalia, and mosques still stand that date back to the 1200s C.E. City-states ruled by sultans (Muslim kings) developed. One of the most powerful of these states was called Zeila, located near what is now the Djibouti border. The sultans became increasingly powerful, expanding their territory to the south and west and by the 1300s were clashing with the ancient Christian empire of Ethiopia.
By the 1500s the Somali sultans faced a new enemy—the Portuguese, whose aim was to dominate Indian Ocean trade. Soon other Europeans were also sailing into these waters to challenge the Arabs, Indians, and Portuguese.
Inland regions of Somalia attracted few visitors. The landscape was harsh and dry, and the people were divided into warring clans (groups sharing descent from a common ancestor). By the early nineteenth century, Somali power was declining as its rulers fought each other in endless feuds. The Ethiopian Empire took over the Ogaden (oe-GAH-den) Desert region, the homeland of many Somali herders. The Sultanate of Oman annexed southern Somalia, too, as part of its growing eastern African coastal empire, which stretched southward to Zanzibar (see TANZANIA).
