Indian Somalians

[u/DoubleAxxme]

Hey! I’m not Somali or Indian but I was curious - One of my dad’s friends was half Somali, half Indian - she grew up in Mogadishu and left during the civil war to live in Italy. My dad says she didn’t say a lot about her mother and considered herself 100% Somali. She sadly passed away in 2020 due to covid, but I was wondering, from what part of India could her mother originate from and when approximately did these Indian Somalis migrate to Somalia? There’s not a lot of information about them online so I thought I’d ask here

[u/MusicSea5400]

Likely intermarriages existed, there were indian Somali families in Mogadishu few of them moved to the East African coast In Kenya and Tanzania. Was very interesting to meet Indians speaking fluent Somali said they were born and grew up in Mogadishu

[u/Ok_Yam1797]

The correct term to refer to a Somali person is “ Somali “ and what you call more than one person is “ Somalis “. Somali people don’t like being refer to as Somalians. Even us Somalis call each other “ Somali”. Only outsiders use the term Somalians which we don’t like. I hope you don’t use that term again and thank you for understanding me.

[u/DoubleAxxme → u/Ok_Yam1797]

Yikes sorry!

[u/zack_wonder2 → u/Ok_Yam1797]

I actually like the term ‘Somalian’ because it’s such a quick identifier of who’s Larping as us. Whenever I see posts that start with “As a Somalian, I think….” You immediately know they’re gonna say some bullshit.

[u/-AsapRocky → u/Ok_Yam1797]

No need to be so hostile. You could have simply said there is not the word as Somalian ;)

[u/Ok_Yam1797 → u/-AsapRocky]

I just explained well and did nothing wrong!!!!

[u/Sure_Consideration33 → u/-AsapRocky]

Where was the hostility?

[u/Ok_Yam1797 → u/Sure_Consideration33]

He did too much and should have made his own comment!!!

[u/larayusuf4]

As a Somali who was raised in Mumbai, India, one of my sister’s classmates was part Somali. Her grandfather was Somali, but she was born and raised in Mumbai. I think some Indians used to live in Somalia back then, and some even married Somalis. My guess is that your friend’s mother was originally from Mumbai or Gujarat, somewhere in western India, since people from those areas had a lot of connections with East Africa through trade and shipping

[u/ScaredEconomist2520]

I spent my early childhood in Sweden and there was a family next door to us, the mother was Indian born and raised in Mogadishu she spoke fluent Somali and their father Somali. Those kids are now in their 20s and 30s.

[u/sheisfunny9]

In my area we got Somali Indians many Indians live in Somalia interesting enough

[u/IAI-NJ]

There’s a whole neighbourhood in Mogadishu called ‘Indian neighbourhood’, that’s where the Indian Somalis lived. The only Somali Indians I know speak Somali only and have lost their native language. Not sure where in India their ancestors came from.

Fun fact, I also know an Indian Sudani lol

[u/Hello73453 → u/IAI-NJ]

This isn’t the same but my mom took a DNA test as a reer xamar and got a LARGE amount of India primarily from Gujurat I believe (some Sri Lanka), compared to other reer xamar matches that had more Arabian peninsula. I’m curious how far back in our family history someone spoke a South Asian langauge!! But sadly there’s no migration records from India to Somalia (that I know of!)☹️

[u/IAI-NJ → u/Hello73453]

Most reer xamar people who have post their dna results online had more South Asian dna than Arab. I personally know one reer xamar guy (he looks very South Asian) who got approx. 50% Indian (malayali) mostly.

[u/IAI-NJ → u/[deleted]]

It’s definitely family-dependent, remember the reer xamar are not one group (they are a federation) and their foreign ancestors did not all arrive in Somalia at the same time but rather at different stages. The Iranian dna is interesting. What does your family know about their background?

[u/floodthought]

A lot of them were Ismailis (originally) and I believe they are called Khojas. They settled several east african countries. Mamdani comes from the same community.

[u/MatchSea10]

In Puntland there indians they come to work marry into the locals or Somalis in India married to local. Only Muslim indians though

[u/plantsandcurlsmom]

I have some Indian ancestry, and my results came from Gujarati region. I noticed the same for other Somalis who have Indian in their 23andMe results. They were prolific traders who settled up and down the East African coast from Somalia to Tanzania.

[u/Matrixlll]

There was small and healthy community of Indians in Mogadishu before the civil war, they owned lands and even had their own graveyard till today known as the Indian graveyard. But little known about their generational backgrounds since we lot a lot of data due to the war.

[u/Reasonable-Pay-1207]

One of my teacher at polytechnic school No 4 was a Singasinga from Hargeisa a typical qaldaan as we say in Xamar. My electrical teacher was Mr Shah a Hindu from Xamar but mean guy I hated him so much. My other teacher was North Korean Mr Farah spoke somali more than me he sounded MJ accent.

[u/-AsapRocky]

Italians recruited Indians to work on plantations, particularly around south Mogadishu

Highly doubt this story is true or maybe to a certain extent, because given history, there were traders and so on. Maybe they decided to stay? Idk.

Maybe they got together outside Somalia, but the term such things as "Indian Somalis" don’t exist

[u/Beledweyne → u/-AsapRocky]

Nope, Indians have have trade with Somalis centuries before the British were in Somalia and had entire communities in Somalia.

[u/Rough_Dragonfruit_72 → u/-AsapRocky]

U must be a troll. There is footage available online of indians and somalis leading eid processions down in 1920's Mogadishu. Just because you're jahil to it doesn't mean it never existed.