Donald Trump really has it in for Somalia. There is a Somali community in Buffalo and the former President of Somalia used to live on nearby Grand Island. So why don't we have a look at it?
Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, was a great medieval city and the destination of much trade by sea. What is now Mogadishu used to be an ancient city called Sarapion. The famous traveler Ibn Battuta visited here, and it was the site of the first known contact between Africa and China. It was visited by Chinese Admiral Zheng He.
During medieval times, Somali traders traveled all over the Indian Ocean by ship. We saw the Phoenicians in our visit to "Beirut", and we can consider the Somalis as the "Phoenicians of East Africa". There was regular trade with India and China and many other distant lands. The people in Mediterranean Europe thought that Somalia itself was the source of all kinds of valuable spices and other products. In fact, Somalis were importing these products, to be resold at a tidy profit, from all over Asia.
Seafaring is not all that was pioneered by Somalis, it is believed by many that Somalia was where camels were first domesticated.
We saw in our visit to neighboring Ethiopia how it is a land of many legends. Somalia has a great legend also. The ancient Egyptians used to send ships to trade with a land called Punt. The land became very special to them and a lot of people in Egypt came to believe that Punt was their ancestral homeland. Today, it is not known for sure where Punt was actually located. Some believe that it could have been Ethiopia, a few believe it to have been on the Arab side of the Red Sea, others believe that it was further south on the coast of Africa.
But a part of Somalia has been named Puntland for it, even though it cannot be certain that this is where it was.
The following scenes are of Somalia's capital city of Mogadishu. The first four images are from Google Street View.
During medieval times, Somali traders traveled all over the Indian Ocean by ship. We saw the Phoenicians in our visit to "Beirut", and we can consider the Somalis as the "Phoenicians of East Africa". There was regular trade with India and China and many other distant lands. The people in Mediterranean Europe thought that Somalia itself was the source of all kinds of valuable spices and other products. In fact, Somalis were importing these products, to be resold at a tidy profit, from all over Asia.
Seafaring is not all that was pioneered by Somalis, it is believed by many that Somalia was where camels were first domesticated.
We saw in our visit to neighboring Ethiopia how it is a land of many legends. Somalia has a great legend also. The ancient Egyptians used to send ships to trade with a land called Punt. The land became very special to them and a lot of people in Egypt came to believe that Punt was their ancestral homeland. Today, it is not known for sure where Punt was actually located. Some believe that it could have been Ethiopia, a few believe it to have been on the Arab side of the Red Sea, others believe that it was further south on the coast of Africa.
But a part of Somalia has been named Puntland for it, even though it cannot be certain that this is where it was.
The following scenes are of Somalia's capital city of Mogadishu. The first four images are from Google Street View.
https://www.google.com/maps/@2.0360198,45.3334264,3a,75y,100h,100t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOwH57ACh6ChBeMPtS_7F-dziveqqVvMnOCaqVf!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOwH57ACh6ChBeMPtS_7F-dziveqqVvMnOCaqVf%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-10-ya100-ro-0-fo100!7i4608!8i2304
This is further north, along the coast of the Indian Ocean, in Mogadishu. The first image is from Google Street View.
https://www.google.com/maps/@2.0423628,45.3050991,3a,75y,340h,100t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNOTPV2-7uaGGM1SExlohquH_qe8xx78YJ4jQr1!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNOTPV2-7uaGGM1SExlohquH_qe8xx78YJ4jQr1%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-10-ya73-ro-0-fo100!7i8192!8i4096
This is the town of Eyl in Somalia. This town is another ancient port on the Indian Ocean, far to the north of Mogadishu. In the very early Twentieth Century, Eyl was a stronghold of what was known as the Dervish State. The Dervish became renowned as warriors across the world as they did battle with the British, Italians and, Ethiopians. The stone castle was a Dervish fortress. The first image of the fortress is from Google Street View.
https://www.google.com/maps/@7.978601,49.8169946,3a,75y,115.19h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPdiyhHTWfdhuif937SPkq88eiMuEugN1cud1fg!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPdiyhHTWfdhuif937SPkq88eiMuEugN1cud1fg%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya1.140799-ro-0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352
Do Buffalo, New York area readers know that the former president of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, graduated from the University of Buffalo, used to teach at Erie County Community College, and worked at the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority and the New York State Department of Transportation, in Buffalo? He resigned as prime minister of Somalia, went back to Buffalo, but then returned to Somalia upon being elected as president. The then-future president used to live on Grand Island, NY.
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