UNITED BANTU OF OHIO

The Somali Bantus are an ethnic group from Somalia, largely from the Shebelle and Jubba River valleys, in the Southwestern part of the country. Somali Bantus are ethnically and culturally different from the general Somali population, made up of the Cushitic Somali clan, and Arab and Italian minorities (Eno & Van Lehman, 2003). Thus, there is a need for culturally relevant services specific to the needs of this community. The Somali Bantus are the descendants of many Bantu ethnic groups primarily from the Niger-Congo region of Africa (Gure, 2018). 

 

Brought to Somalia in the 19th century by Arab slave traders, Bantus endured centuries of oppression in the horn of Africa as agricultural laborers. In the beginning of the 20th century, Italian colonizers in Somalia abolished slavery (Besteman, 2016). However, in the years following, Italy proceeded to establish over 100 plantations in the Jubba and Shebelle River Valleys, and introduced labor laws that forced Bantu people to work as farm laborers on plantations exclusively owned by the Italian government (Eno & Leahman, 2003). As a result, many Bantu people were still considered enslaved people well into the 1930s. At this time, though, there was an effort within Bantu communities to become associated in larger Somali clan membership to avoid some of the abuse that shadowed enslaved status in the country (Besteman, 2016).

When civil war broke out in Somalia, the Somali Bantus were sent from their homes and farms by armed people of the Somali clan. The legacy and stigma of slavery made the Bantu population particularly vulnerable and many Somali Bantus were killed, tortured, and raped by the ethnic Somalis as the famine increased. The ones who were able to flee walked anywhere from two to four weeks to reach the Kenyan border.

In Somalia, lineage and clan structure provided the basis for social and political life. Bantu families often claimed membership in three of Somalia’s five major clans: Darood, Rahanweyn, and Hawiye clans. Despite clan membership, loyalties between families of different clans certainly outweighed their clan kinship; lineage and clan membership was more impactful for claiming membership within larger Somali society than it was for informing day to day life within Bantu villages (Besteman, 2016).

 

Further, membership to either jileec (Somali national) or jareer (minority) groups was far more important for determining one’s socio-political standing and thus, quality of life (Besteman, 2016). As agricultural minorities, Bantu people suffered harrowing brutality at the hands of Somali pastoralists in surrounding towns. These Jileec people were often part of the Darood sub- clan, a vein of the majority Cushitic Somali clan, and felt entitled to pillage and assault Bantu people and their property, despite the Bantus attempts to claim clan loyalty that may reflect their own. In fact, many Cushitic pastoralists completely disregarded the Bantus efforts to be aligned with larger Somali clans, noting that their agricultural laborer status far outweighed their efforts to find membership in shared clan alliances. Some cushitics during this time even suggested that Bantu people avoided re-enslavement only because national laws spearheaded by Siad Barre, Somalia’s dictator-president, had outlawed the country’s clan system, which made social hierarchies based on clan membership or previous slave status illegal (Besteman, 2016).