ABSTRACT
With a population numbering perhaps four and a half million, the Somali-speaking people can scarcely be regarded as a large nation. They form one of the largest single ethnic blocks in Africa, and though sparsely distributed on the ground, live in continuous occupation of a great expanse of territory covering almost 400,000 square miles in the north-east comer, or 'Horn', of the continent facing Arabia. Ethnically and culturally the Somali belong to the Hamitic ethnic group. Their closest kinsmen are the surrounding Hamitic (or as they are often called 'Cushitic') peoples of the Ethiopian lowlands, and Eritrea – the traditionally bellicose 'Afar (or Danakil), the Oromo (Galla), Saho, and Beja. In the better watered reaches of the western part of the Northern Regions of the Somali Republic and in Harar Province of Ethiopia, where sorghum millet is grown over an extensive area, this pastoral regime has undergone a number of modifications.
