Daya kingdom
The Daya kingdom was an Orma kingdom established in northeastern Kenya by the Warra Daya, also known as Wardey. At its zenith, Daya expanded from northeastern Kenya to Jubbaland.[1]
Terminology
The literature on the Galla, Orma, Oromo, Warra Daya, Wardey (Wardai, Waridei, and Wardeh) shows that the terminology is extremely confusing. Therefore, first, a few comments concerning the terminology. In the oldest literature, the Cushitic-speaking people who nowadays are identified as the Orma and Oromo-speaking people were called Warra Daya. This name was used by the Somali for the Oromo or Southern Galla living in Jubaland. In the colonial literature, these people are called the Galla. The Oromo never called themselves Galla, as they considered the name offensive.[2] In the middle of the twentieth century, following the principle that the name a people use for themselves is to be preferred for official and scientific use, the name Galla was slowly replaced by Oromo.[3] There exists no agreed-upon etymology for this name, and both Orma and Oromo are used, although the spelling Oromo is preferred since the second half of the twentieth century. For the group of people discussed here, the name Orma is used as this is their self-chosen name. The name Orma forms enough contrast to other tribes in the area, but if we want to distinguish them from other Orma and Oromo and want to prevent confusion, we should specify them as the Tana Orma.[4]
The Somali still call the Tana Orma Wardey or Warra-Daya. However, the Tana Orma restrict the name Wardey to back-migrants who had lived as serfs under the Somali and who were descendants of Orma captives.[5]
History
First Darood conflict
The Orma established a powerful kingdom, the Daya sultanate, with Borana assistance. At its zenith, the Daya kingdom extended from Northeastern Kenya to Jubbaland.[6] In the 19th century, the Ogaden tried to annex the Orma kingdom and take the Jubba for themselves; however, they were beaten back to the modern Ethiopian borders. In 1842, they returned and pretended as if they came to support the Orma.[7] The usual method of Darod penetration into a new area was to adopt a client relationship with the people. In practice, this meant that they became herdsboys who were allowed to keep some animals of their own. Then these clients slowly consolidated their numbers until they had achieved parity with or even superiority over the original inhabitants. Around 1865, when a smallpox epidemic weakened the Warra Daya, they were attacked by Darod from the north and, to a lesser extent, by the Kamba from the west and Masai from the south. The Darod clients joined the conflict, and this explained the severity of the conflict and the heavy defeats of the Warra Daya. In 1867, the Somali invited the Warra Daya elders for a great peace offering, which was accepted by the Warra Daya. However, the feast turned out to be an ambush, and thousands of Warra Daya were slaughtered. The offering was followed by extensive Somali raids. Most of the remaining Warra Daya were forced to cross the Tana River and sought refuge along the southern and eastern bank of the Tana River. Large numbers of, especially, the Orma men were killed, and an estimated 8,000 women and children were captured.[8]
Somali-Oromo agreement and the Wardey
Already in the 19th century, there were regularly discussions about whether the British should ignore slavery in the Jubba area or should take action against it. Theoretically, the British were opposed to any form of slavery, but in practice, they condoned it, also because they would not be capable of enforcing any agreement with the Somali if the abolishment of slavery were a precondition.[9] When Kenya became a British protectorate, this discussion resurfaced as it was seen as shameful to have slavery in the British empire. In Tana River District and the North Eastern Province, this discussion focused around the position of the clientized Orma amongst the Somali community. It was clear that the Orma clients had not become clients out of their free will, were in fact serfs, and could not leave the Somali. Since these Orma clients were, as long as they adhered to paying tribute and ‘symbolic’ submission, often allowed to live in their own villages and keep livestock. An aspect of the 'symbolic' submission was that Orma girls should always have their first sexual intercourse with a Somali. The children of these women were often considered Somali, and it enriched the Ogaden with a mixed population.[10] With some pressure from the British, the Somali agreed to the Somali-Oromo agreement, which stated that the Orma could return to their brothers on the right bank of the Tana, provided they left half of their livestock with the Somali. This agreement also implied clearly that the Somali should remain on the left bank of the Tana.[11] A good number of the enslaved Orma returned, but since the British had limited military power, they were not in a position to guarantee a return of all the Orma who wanted to cross the river.[12] Initially, these back-migrants were called Wardey, also written as Waridei, Wardeh, and Wardei, etc. In 1939, the Somali refuted the Somali-Oromo agreement, and no clientized Orma crossed the Tana until after Independence.
Economy
Although originally the Orma were pastoralists, they have now become increasingly sedentarized and economically diversified. The majority, however, is still pastoralist. The Orma pattern of seasonal livestock movement is based on alternating use of riverine floodplain pastures in the dry season and more arid pastures with scattered wells and ponds in the wet season.[13]
Culture
Both sexes are circumcised, and the Warra Daya strictly adhere to marrying outside their moiety, a universally practised custom by all Oromo-speaking people.[14]
References
This article "Daya kingdom" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Daya kingdom. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
- ↑ Historical dictionary of Somalia. Mukhtar haji. Search this book on
- ↑ In an ethnographic journal, it was vaguely ('may be') argued that the name Galla is an Oromo word, adopted by neighbours, for there is a word galla, "wandering" or "to go home" in their language (International African Institute Ethnographic Survey of Africa, Volume 5, Issue 2 (1969): The Galla of Ethiopia; The Kingdoms of Kafa and Janjero: North Eastern Africa Part II: 11). Schlee (1992) called most etymological explanations for the name Galla ‘silly’. In his opinion, this applies also to explanations such as ‘free men’ and ‘the sons of men’.
- ↑ Schlee (1997.
- ↑ Schlee (1992: 4) argues this strongly. In practice, many authors who wrote about this group of people had already done this. For instance, Turnton, 1970 and Kelly, 1992.
- ↑ Schlee, 1992: 4).
- ↑ Turnton,1970: 60. Search this book on
- ↑ Turnton, 1970: 73. Search this book on
- ↑ Schlee, 1992: 7-8. Lewis has analysed why the Orma were defeated so badly and mentioned that the Somali had better weapons, sometimes they used horses and, above all, had higher numbers. Moreover, their area was large and the main body of the Orma lived elsewhere, hence it was difficult for the Tana Orma to request assistance (Lewis,1965: 32).The Orma also repeatedly requested assistance from the Europeans, which they did not get. In practice, their presence contributed to the decline of the Orma. Search this book on
- ↑ Turnton, 1970: 146-147, 160 and 221.
- ↑ Schlee, 1989: 43.
- ↑ The British always feared that the Somali would cross the Tana. Turnton describes this extensively (Turnton,1970: 501-502).
- ↑ Unknown, 1932 and 1932. Darroch, et al.
- ↑ Kelly, 1992: 21
- ↑ Kelly, 1992.
