5 Unique Facts About Somalia You Probably Didn’t Know - Somali Community Link (2024)

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5 Unique Facts About Somalia You Probably Didn’t Know - Somali Community Link? ›

History and Politics. Unlike many African nations, Somalia is composed of a single, hom*ogeneous ethnic group. Although Somalis may differ in nuances of local lifestyle, they share a uniform language, religion, and culture, and trace their heritage to a common ancestor.

History and Politics. Unlike many African nations, Somalia is composed of a single, hom*ogeneous ethnic group. Although Somalis may differ in nuances of local lifestyle, they share a uniform language, religion, and culture, and trace their heritage to a common ancestor.

Fast Facts

Somalia's size is 246,000 square miles, which makes it a little bit smaller than the state of Texas. Most of the land in Somalia is used to graze cattle, and few crops are grown. There are about nine million people that live in Somalia, and over one million of them live in the capital city, Mogadishu.

Nevertheless, there are certain values that are characteristic to Somalis, these being generosity, hospitality, kinship , respect for the elderly and honour. Broadly, Somalis have also demonstrated a high level of adaptability and entrepreneurialism in the face of adversity.

Somalia is a federal republic consisting of six federal states, Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Khaatumo, South West and Hirshaabelle and one interim administration.

With a land area of 637,657 square kilometers, Somalia's terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Its coastline is more than 3,333 kilometers in length, the longest of mainland Africa. It has been described as being roughly shaped "like a tilted number seven".

Somalia Has Longest Coastline In Mainland Africa

Somalia has a long coastline on the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. The coast of the country stretches 3,025 km, the longest of all countries in mainland Africa.

Somalia has untapped reserves of numerous natural resources, including uranium, iron ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt and natural gas. Australian and Chinese oil companies have been granted licenses for finding petroleum and other natural resources in the country.

The varied cultural life of the Somali includes both traditional activities and, especially in the towns, many modern interests. Cultural activities consist primarily of poetry, folk dancing, the performance of plays, and singing.

How old is Somalia today? ›

Created in 1960 from a former British protectorate and an Italian colony, Somalia collapsed into anarchy following the overthrow of the military regime of President Siad Barre in 1991.

Somali is a part of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Somali is spoken by an estimated 16 million people around the world. It's the official language of Somalia, with several regional dialects, and is also spoken in nearby countries, like Kenya and Ethiopia.

The Somali republic, formed in 1960 from the former British Somaliland (the North) and the former Italian Somalia (the South), is situated in the Somali peninsula. It is the Somali republic, in disarray in the early 21st century, that is popularly known as Somalia.

Somalis are relatively rare, so you might have difficulty locating one to adopt.

The overriding characteristic of the Somali diet is that it's diet of halal foods (halal is Arabic for “allowable” as opposed to haram, which means prohibited). Somalis are Sunni Muslems and under Islamic Law (or Shar'iah), they are prohibited from eating pork, drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes.

A number of foods and products are not consumed by the Somali population because they are either untraditional or they are “haram.” Haram are foods that are forbidden by the Islamic religion, including pork, blood and blood products, and animals not slaughtered in the proper manner.

“Ninety-eight percent of Somalis eat meat, rice and pasta,” one local grocer explained. Eating fish, apparently, isn't very popular. Vegetables appear to largely be side dishes, and often are woven into a meat dish, such as combining potatoes, carrots and peas with meat and making a stew.

Some notable Somali specialties include kimis/sabaayad, canjeero/lahoh, xalwo (halwa), sambuusa (samosa), bariis iskukaris, and muqmad/odkac. Pork consumption is forbidden to Muslims in Somalia, in accordance with Sharia, the Islamic law.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing. By far the most important sector of the economy is agriculture, with livestock raising surpassing crop growing fourfold in value and earning about three-fifths of Somalia's foreign exchange. Agriculture in Somalia can be divided into three subsectors.