There wasn’t a permanent “Issa Somali village” in New York in 1914, but a distinct group of over 60 Issa Somalis arrived at Ellis Island in March 1914, brought for exhibition. Ciise Sitti oo bandhig Carweed dhaqana geeyaay New York bishii saddexaad 1914 kii. Part I. On a cold morning, 14 March 1914, the…
Zeila, an ancient port in the Horn of Africa, has long been a hub of trade and cultural exchange. During the Middle Ages, the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela linked Zeila with the Biblical Havilah, though modern scholarship identifies it more likely as Avalites, mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and by Ptolemy…
A Monarch Between the Desert and the Empire: The 14th Ughaz of Issa In the second half of the nineteenth century, when the Horn of Africa was swept by imperial ambitions, trade rivalries, and the slow encroachment of colonial borders, there emerged from the plains of the Issa a figure of remarkable poise and influence,…
