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The Banadir (also
spelled 'Benadir') are people with their roots in
ancient Arabia persia,and south and central asia.
Their name is derived from a Persian word which
means "harbor" or "port," reflecting their origins
as sea-faring traders and fishermen who crossed
the Indian Ocean to the easternmost part of Africa
and established centers of commerce which linked
that continent with Asia. The first Banadir
communities were established in what is today
southern Somalia abot one thousand years ago;
their reputation as the settlements of a
prosperous and peace-loving people is set down in
the written accounts foreign travelers to Africa
dating back to the 13th century. "The Banadir
Coast" as proper name for coastal notheast Africa
was used well into the 20th century, and as an
informal designation for southern Somalia remains
in use today. Being the first to live in this
region--nomadic "Samale" (Somali)peoples from the
African interior did not press south and east to
the Indian Ocean until centuries later--the
Banadir very much view themselves as natives and
even founders of Somalia. The Banadir port city of
Hamar eventually became Mogadishu, Somalia's
capital; until displaced by war in the 1990s the
Banadir continued to live in ancient stones homes
their forebears built in Mogadishu's old quarter.
Although there has been some intermarriage and
influence from African peoples over the centuries,
the Banadir today very much remain a light-skinned
minority whose economic lifelihood, unlike most of
Somalia's people, is based on commerce and not
agriculture
View of Banadir
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