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Land, People and Economy
LAND
Somalia is geographically divided into northern desert and southern coastal plains and plateaus. The northern "burned" zone of desert plains rises through a series of hills to the Ogo and Migiurtinia mountains, which reach 2,408 m (7,900 ft) at Surud Ad. The Ogo Plateau extends south from the mountains into the grazing land of the Haud Plateau. In the south the sandy and arid coastal plains lead to the Shebeli-Juba lowlands and plateau with their more temperate climate.
Average annual rainfall totals 76 mm (3 in) in the north and about 300-500 mm (12-20 in) in the south. In summer the northeast coast is brutally hot, with average temperatures of 35 degrees to 38 degrees C (95 degrees to 100 degrees F). In the south the mean annual temperature is about 28 degrees C (82 degrees F), and the humidity is high.
All Somalia's major rivers flow into the Indian Ocean. The main river system is composed of the Juba and Webi Shabeelle rivers, which descend from Ethiopia and flow through the south. The two largest northern streams are the Daror and the Nugaaleed (formerly Nogal); both are ephemeral. Only 13 percent of the land is arable. Evidence suggests the presence of untapped deposits of uranium, thorium, iron ore, tin, zinc, copper, petroleum, and rare earth minerals.
PEOPLE AND ECONOMY
Somalia has an ethnic homogeneity unusual in Africa, with SOMALI constituting 98 percent of the population, but the Somali are divided into six major clans (including the Isaaq of the north, the Ogadeni of the south, and the Hawiye of central Somalia) and thousands of subclans that command people's primary loyalties and exercise power through temporary alliances with other subclans. Traditional clan rivalries were exacerbated by the divide-and-rule policies of Siad Barre, whose regime had one of the world's worst human rights records.
About 70 percent of all Somalis are nomads who travel with their herds through Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. Almost everyone speaks Somali, a written form of which was introduced in 1972. Arabic is also widely used. Nearly all Somalis are devout Sunni Muslims. After MOGADISHU (Somali: Muqdisho), the capital and chief city, the most populous town is Hargeisa. Education is free and officially compulsory, but educational and health facilities are meager, and literacy is low.
The nomads' livestock and livestock products are the chief export, with bananas the leading cash crop. Maize and sorghum are the principal food crops. Overgrazing and soil erosion are serious problems. Drought from 1978 to 1981 and again from the mid-1980s, plus the huge regional refugee population created by civil wars in Somalia and Ethiopia, devastated the economy. By late 1992 up to one half of all Somalis had died or faced death by starvation due to drought and civil war, which kept farmers from planting crops. Within a year, however, normalcy began to return to much of the country outside Mogadishu.
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Reconstructing the Somalia History
Since 1990 Somalia was redefined in relation to its history, people, and its political process. In the process many fallacies advocated by early writers of Somali history are refuted. For instance there are no basis of classifying Somalia as Sab & Samaale.
Now it became apparent (to the Somalis and to the international community) that Somalia is not a homogeneous country that speak one language, rather Somalia consists many people who are distinctive from each other in terms of their language, culture and history.
Digil & Mirifle (D&M) is one of the Somali people whose history was distorted due to dominance of Mahatiri speaking Somalis who misled the early history writers. With this understanding, it is essential to put the record straight and to reconstruct the history of Somalia so that the new generation would not be misled like their predecessors.
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