Background Info

Somali Culture

As Somali educators Ahmed Keynan and Farhiya Del explain: “Somali culture is a human construct, given meaning by Somali society. It is unstable because it is constantly shifting through language and discourse. The Somali culture consists of Somali language, customary law, religious beliefs, literature, material objects, symbols, values, ideology or world view, organizations, indigenous knowledge, arts, cuisines, morals, norms, attitudes, traditional clothing, roles in gender, systems of expectations, hospitality, body expressions, traditional medicines, oral traditions, tribocracy politics, generosity, marriage, nomadism, and patrilineal kinship,” – some of which is covered in this lesson. 

AIM Academy Principal Abdirashid Abdi adds that: “Somali culture is historically rooted in a nomadic pastoralist lifestyle, characterized by constant or seasonal mobility rather than permanent settlement. As a result, identity and belonging are not primarily anchored to a fixed geographic location in the way that ‘sense of place’ is often understood in sedentary societies.”

“Instead, Somali cultural identity is more accurately grounded in a ‘sense of being’ defined by relationships, lineage (clan and sub-clan structures), shared language, oral traditions, and adherence to customary norms (xeer). These elements travel with individuals and communities, allowing continuity of identity regardless of physical location.”

He adds: “From this perspective, while ‘place’ still holds functional importance (e.g., grazing lands, water sources), it is not the central organizing principle of identity. Rather, ‘belonging’ is constructed through social connections, cultural memory, and collective ways of life, the term ‘sense of being’ may be a more appropriate framework for understanding Somali cultural experience.”

“This ‘sense of being’ might also be directly connected to the recent experiences of the Somali Diaspora since the civil war. This very acceptance of packing your belongings and moving to lands as far from Somalia as Minnesota.”