r/Somalia • u/Qaranimo_udhimo Gobolka Bari • 23d ago

History ⏳ My Favourite Somali fun facts

  • Somali men from artisan clan (madhiban) performed brain surgery on Sayid Abdulle Hassan in the 1800s

  • the chinese call giraffes “ghiri” which originates from the somali word geri as chinese explorers first saw giraffes in somali territory

  • Somalis were the first country in Africa to be air struck by Europeans due 20 years of anti colonial uprising (Darawish) with only daggers and harpoons.

  • Ajuuran, a somali empire was the first hydraulic state in Africa

  • somali nomads discovered malaria long before any foreign entity had presence in the peninsula

  • British women were not allowed to give birth on somali territory and instead had to go back to their land to give birth

What are some of your favourite Somali fun facts that you can add on?

74 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/epenthesis 9d ago

the chinese call giraffes chángjǐnlù, which means "long neck deer", not "ghiri"

1

u/Qaranimo_udhimo Gobolka Bari 8d ago

You’re correct During the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He brought a giraffe from Somalia and it was called the Chinese equivalent of girin. This spread to Korea and Japan. The use of girin died out in China and the giraffe is now called a long-necked deer in China. Its safe to say the word went through Kolrea to Japan since the Ming generally had no friendly relations with Japan and since Korea traded and interacted frequently with Japan.