Pushing Marginalization: British Colonial Policy, Somali Identity, and the Gosha 'Other' in Jubaland Province, 1895 to 1925

Throughout the 19th century, large numbers of enslaved people were brought from southeastern Africa to work on Somali plantations along the Benadir Coast and Shebelle River. As these southeast Africans were manumitted or escaped bondage, many fled to the west and settled in the heavily forested and fertile Gosha district along the Juba River. Unattached, lacking security, and surrounded by Somalis-speaking groups, these refugees established agricultural communities and were forced to construct new identities. Initially these riverine peoples could easily access clan structures and political institutions of surrounding Somali sub-clans, which in pre-colonial Jubaland were relatively fluid, open, and—in time—would have allowed these groups to become assimilated into Somali society. British colonial rule however changed this flexibility. Somali identity, once porous and accessible, became increasingly more rigid and exclusive, especially towards the riverine ex-slave communities—collectively called the Gosha by the British—who were subsequently marginalized and othered by these new "Somali." This project explores how British colonial rule contributed to this process and argues that in Jubaland province a "Somali" identity coalesced largely in opposition to the Gosha.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Department dc:contributor.department

History

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Blaha, David Ryan

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Shadle, Brett L.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Heaton, Matthew
• Bunch-Lyons, Beverly A.

• Somali-Bantu
• Gosha
• Slavery
• Othering
• Marginalization
• Identity
• Race
• Colonial Policy
• Colonialism
• Kismayu
• Juba River
• Somalia
• Somaliland
• British East Africa
• Jubaland
• Sir Charles Eliot
• Hastings Horne
• Darod
• Herti
• Ogaden
• Goshaland

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Dc Identifier Other

etd-05172011-112522

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/76774