Beneath this level, the most significant groups in the national genealogy are six large clan-families’. Of these the Dir live in the northwest, extending into French Somaliland and with one small pocket in southern Somalia; and the hag occupies the center of the ex-British northern region.
The Darod, who alone number well over a million, form a bridge between the former British Protectorate and north-eastern Somalia, and also extend in force into eastern Ethiopia and northern Kenya. They are at once the largest and most widely distributed Somali group with the most direct stake in the pan-Somali campaign for union with the missing territories, a fact which has not passed unobserved by hostile governments seeking to refute Somali nationalist claims in Ethiopia and Kenya.
The Hawiye, who live in a wide area in and around the capital city Mogadishu, also occur again in the south of the Republic and extend into Kenya. The people of these four groups are traditionally and still overwhelmingly today pastoral nomads, herding sheep, goats, camels, and in some areas cattle, over vast expanses of territory. Produce from this pastoral economy provides the largest single component in Somali exports.
[su_button url=”https://saxafimedia.com/politics-1969-somali-coup/6/” style=”soft” size=”12″ wide=”yes” center=”yes” text_shadow=”0px 0px 0px #FFFFFF” rel=”lightbox”]CONTINUE READING ON THE NEXT PAGE >[/su_button]
[…] Barre, now about 80, took power in a bloodless coup in 1969. He began his rule of Somalia, an impoverished country in the Horn of Africa, with promises to end […]