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The 'Somali Bantu' (also called ''Jarir'', ''Jareer'', ''Wagosha'' or ''Mushunguli'') are an ethnic minority group in Somalia which is largely inhabited by Somali people. They are the descendants of people from various Bantu ethnic groups in what is today Tanzania, Malawi and Mozambique who were brought to Somalia as slaves in the 19th century.
Those Bantu are not to be confused with the members of Swahili society in coastal towns – like the Bravanese or the Bajuni of Kismaayo – who speak the Bantu language Swahili.
It is estimated that the Bantu of Somalia number around 600,000 (out of a total population of 7.5 millions).

Contents

History

Contemporary situation

Refugees

See also

External links

History

It is estimated that 25,000–50,000 black African slaves were sold from the slave market of Zanzibar to the Somali coast from 1800 to 1890. Most of them were from the Yao, Makua, Chewa (Nyanja), Zigula, Ngidono and Zaramo ethnic groups.
In the 1840s, the first fugitive slaves from the Shebelle valley began to settle in the – largely uninhabited and forested – Jubba valley. By the early 1900s, an estimated 35,000 former Bantu slaves settled in the Jubba valley.
At the beginning of the 20th century, slavery in Somalia was abolished by the Italian colonial administration; some Bantu groups remained in slavery until the 1930s. Especially Bantus were conscripted to forced labour on Italian-owned plantations because only few Somalis wanted to do wage labour. They continued to be despised and discriminated by parts of the Somali society.

Contemporary situation

The Somali Bantu call themselves simply ''Bantu''. Like the Somali, most of them speak the Somali language, only a minority has retained their own identity and language. The majority are muslims, but many have also retained animist traditions. Contrary to the Somali, who are mainly nomadic herders, the Bantu are mainly sedentary farmers. They may have darker skin than the lighter skinned Somalis, and rounder facial features.
During the Somali Civil War, many Bantu were evicted from their lands by various armed factions of Somali clans. Since they had only few firearms, they were especially prone to the violence and looting by armed people and militias.

Refugees

Tens of thousands of Somali Bantu fled war and famines in Somalia and went to refugee camps in neighbouring Kenya, like Kakuma and Dadaab. Most of them declared that they don't want to return to Somalia. Around 12,000 Somali Bantu are being resettled to the USA with the help of the UNHCR.
In 2000 the United States classified the Bantu as a priority and began preparations for resettlement to select cities throughout the United States, among those it is known that Salt Lake City, Utah received about 1,000 of the refugees. Other cities in the Southwest, such as Denver, Colorado, and Tucson, Arizona, received a few thousand as well. In New England, Manchester, New Hampshire and Burlington, Vermont have received influxes of Bantus numbering in the hundreds. Plans to resettle the Bantu in smaller towns, such as Holyoke, Mass., and Cayce, S.C., were scrapped after local protest. The resettlement patterns are in contrast to regular Somalis, who are concentrated in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, Columbus, Ohio, Washington, DC, Atlanta, San Diego, Boston, Seattle, and with a few in Maine.

See also

★ Arab slave trade

External links

★ UNHCR Publication ''Refugees'' about the Somali Bantu

★ The Somali Bantu: Their History and Culture
About Somali Bantu refugees in the U.S.:

★ Refugees USA

★ Somali Bantus Arrive In Salt Lake City