Borama (, ) is the largest city of the northwestern Awdal region of

Somaliland Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is an List of states with limited recognition, unrecognised country in the Horn of Africa. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, E ...

. The commercial seat of the province, it is situated near the border with

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. During the Middle Ages, Borama was ruled by the Adal Sultanate. It later formed a part of the

British Somaliland British Somaliland, officially the Somaliland Protectorate (), was a protectorate of the United Kingdom in modern Somaliland. It was bordered by Italian Somalia, French Somali Coast and Ethiopian Empire, Abyssinia (Italian Ethiopia from 1936 ...

protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over ...

in the first half of the 20th century. According to a 2023 estimate the city had a population of 300,000, with the broader district having a population of 398,609 according to a UN 2014 population estimate. making it one of the largest cities inside Somaliland. It has been a leading example in community organizing, having been the first area in Somaliland to adopt a self-help scheme in the wake of the civil war.

Etymology

The name Borama comes from the word ''booraan'' (pl. ''booraamo''), which is a deep hole or geological depression (e.g. basin, valley). The city was named after the valleys in the surrounding areas, with Borama meaning place of valleys.

History

As with several nearby towns such as Amud, numerous archaeological finds have been discovered in the Borama area that point to an eventful past. The latter include ancient remains of

tomb A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

s and

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

s, in addition to sherds of Oriental wares, particularly Chinese

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

. The artefacts and structures date from various historical periods, ranging from the 12th through to the 18th centuries. Most, however, are from the 15th and 16th centuries, a time of great commercial activity in the region that is associated with the medieval Adal Sultanate.Bernard Samuel Myers, ed., ''Encyclopedia of World Art'', Volume 13, (McGraw-Hill: 1959), p.xcii. Excavations in the late 1800s and early 1900s at over fourteen sites in the vicinity of Borama unearthed, among other things, coins identified as having been derived from Kait Bey, the eighteenth Burji Mamluk

Sultan Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. Most of these finds were sent to the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

for preservation shortly after their discovery.Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain), ''The Geographical Journal'', Volume 87, (Royal Geographical Society: 1936), p.301. In the first half of the 20th century, Borama formed a part of the

. It was later given district status in 1925. In 1933, Sheikh Abdurahman Sheikh Nuur, a

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

ic teacher and son of Borama's '' qadi'' (judge), devised a new orthography for transcribing the

Afro-Asiatic The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of th ...

Cushitic

Somali language Somali is an Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic languages, Cushitic branch, primarily spoken by the Somalis, Somali people, native to Greater Somalia. It is an official language in Somalia, Somaliland, and Ethio ...

. A quite accurate phonetic

writing system A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing appeared during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each independen ...

, this Borama script was principally used by Nuur, his circle of associates in the city and some of the merchants in control of trade in Zeila and Borama. Students of Sheikh Nuur were also trained in the use of this script. .David D. Laitin, ''Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience'', (University Of Chicago Press: 1977), pp.86-87.Abdi Ismail Samatar (2001)
Borama History and the Gadabuursi script
''Bildhaan Studies'' Macalaster College, Vol. 1, pp. 115-116 The alphabet is also generally known as the ''Gadabuursi script''. In the post-

independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

period, Borama was administered as part of the official Awdal administrative region of Somalia. During the

Ogaden War The Ogaden War, also known as the Ethio-Somali War (, ), was a military conflict between Somali Democratic Republic, Somalia and derg, Ethiopia fought from July 1977 to March 1978 over control of the sovereignty of the Ogaden region. Somalia ...

in the late 1970s, Borama was one of several northern cities aerially bombarded by Ethiopian forces.

Geography

Location and habitat

Borama is situated in a mountainous and hilly area. It has green

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable con ...

s and fields and represents a key focal point for wildlife. The town's unusual fertility and greenery in the largely arid countryside have attracted many faunas, such as gazelles,

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s, and

camel A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...

Climate

The prevailing climate in Borama is known as a

hot semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of sem ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''BSh''). The hottest month of the year is June, with an average temperature of , whilst the coolest month is January, whose average temperature is . The difference in rainfall between the driest month and the wettest month is . The average temperatures vary during the year by .

Demographics

The Awdal Region in which the city is situated is mainly inhabited by the

Gadabuursi The Gadabuursi (Somali language, Somali: ''Gadabuursi'', Arabic language, Arabic: جادابورسي), also known as ''Samaroon'' (Arabic language, Arabic: ''قبيلة سَمَرُون)'', is a northern Somali clan, a sub-division of the Dir ...

subclan of the Dir who are especially well represented and considered the predominant clan of the region.UN (1999) Somaliland: Update to SML26165.E of 14 February 1997 on the situation in Zeila, including who is controlling it, whether there is fighting in the area, and whether refugees are returning. "Gadabuursi clan dominates Awdal region. As a result, regional politics in Awdal is almost synonymous with Gadabuursi internal clan affairs." p. 5. Federico Battera (2005) states about the Awdal Region:

"Awdal is mainly inhabited by the Gadabuursi confederation of clans."

A UN report published by Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (1999), states concerning Awdal:

"The Gadabuursi clan dominates Awdal region. As a result, regional politics in Awdal is almost synonymous with Gadabuursi internal clan affairs."

Roland Marchal (1997) states that numerically, the

are the predominant inhabitants of the Awdal Region:

"The Gadabuursi's numerical predominance in Awdal virtually ensures that Gadabuursi interests drive the politics of the region."

Marleen Renders and Ulf Terlinden (2010) both state that the

almost exclusively inhabit the Awdal Region:

"Awdal in western Somaliland is situated between Djibouti, Ethiopia, and the Issaq-populated mainland of Somaliland. It is primarily inhabited by the three sub-clans of the Gadabursi clan, whose traditional institutions survived the colonial period, Somali statehood and the war in good shape, remaining functionally intact and highly relevant to public security."

There is also a sizeable minority of the Issa subclan of the Dir who mainly inhabit the Zeila district.

Education

Currently, there are 52 primary and secondary schools in Borama. These schools can be divided into three main categories:

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

primary and secondary schools, private primary and secondary schools and Religious schools. Total number of students in Borama is 15,314.

Transportation

For air transportation, Borama is served by the Borama International Airport. It is the only airport in the Awdal region. The facility was named in honor of Aden Isaq Ahmed, Somalia's first Minister of Education. The airport is not in use; however, there are plans to rejuvenate it.

Notable residents

* Sheikh Abdurahman Sh. Nur - Inventor of the Gadabuursi Somali Script * Yussur A.F. Abrar – former Governor of the Central Bank of Somalia * Hassan Sheikh Mumin - Somali poet, playwright, broadcaster, actor and composer. * Suleiman Ahmed Guleid - President Of Amoud University *Sh. Abdillahi Sh. Ali Jawhar - Son of Sh. Ali Jawhar and religious leader

Notes

References

*{{cite book , author = Borama Local Council. Economic and Project Management Committee , title = The Statistical Abstract of Borama Municipality: Borama, Regional Capital of Awdal , publisher = Borama Local Council , year = 2003 , url = http://siteresources.worldbank.org/SOMALIAEXTN/Resources/Boroma_Statistical_Abstract.pdf
Somali reconstruction and Local Initiative: Amoud University
Published in World Development (2001). Populated places in Awdal Cities of the Adal Sultanate British Somaliland in World War II