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Somalia PASTORALISM AND COMMERCE IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
The Somalis raise cattle, sheep, and goats, but the camel
plays the central role as an indicator of wealth and success.
Camels can survive in an environment where water and grazing
areas are scarce and widely scattered. They provide meat, milk,
and transportation for Somali pastoralists, and serve as their
principal medium of exchange. Camels are provided as compensation
for homicides and are a standard component of the dowry package.
For centuries, nomads have relied on their livestock for
subsistence and luxuries. They have sold cows, goats, and older
camels to international traders and butchers in the coastal
cities, and in the urban markets have bought tea, coffee beans,
and salt. In the nineteenth century, northern Somalis were quick
to take advantage of the market for goats with middlemen
representing the British, who needed meat for their enclave in
Aden, a coaling station for ships traveling through the Suez
Canal. By the turn of the century, about 1,000 cattle and 80,000
sheep and goats were being exported annually from Berbera to
Aden.
Starting in the fifteenth century, the ports of Saylac and
Berbera were well integrated into the international Arab economy,
with weapons, slaves, hides, skins, gums, ghee (a type of
butter), ostrich feathers, and ivory being traded. On the
Banaadir coast, especially in Mogadishu but also in Merca and
Baraawe, a lively trade with China, India, and Arabia existed as
early as the fourteenth century. Finally, starting with the
Somalis who for centuries have joined the crews of oceangoing
ships, the exportation of labor has long been a crucial element
in Somalia's ability to sustain itself.
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