Ali Duh Gorayo ( so, Cali Dhuux Gorayo) (died 1962) was a popular poet from Somalia, who hailed from the city of

Buuhoodle Buuhoodle ( so, Buuhoodle, ar, بووهودل), also known as Bohotle, is the second largest city in the Togdheer region of Somaliland and also the capital of the Cayn region under Puntland. It is a prominent border town for movements of goods t ...

, in the Togdheer, Soomaaliya but grew up in the

Nugaal Nugaal is an intermittent river that runs along the Nugaal Valley. It begins several miles to the west of Sool, and ends at Eyl where the outlet flows into the Indian Ocean. It evaporates at the onset of the hagaa, the Somali dry season. Due to ...

region now Sool and Dollo region in Ethiopia. He mostly wrote about camel

husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, startin ...

and the issues affiliated with the profession of camel riders.

Beginnings

He hails from the Bah Cali Gheri clan and he started a poem called ''Guba Chain'' in the 1920s. He was bes known for coining several news Somali words, and was also opposed to emir of dervish king Diiriye Guure,

Mohammed Abdullah Hassan Sayid Mohamed Abdullahi Hassan ( so, Sayid Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan; 1856–1920) was a Somali religious and military leader of the Dervish movement, which led a two-decade long confrontation with various colonial empires including the British, ...

during the Darawiish struggle against the British in the early 1900s and wrote many poets to propagate his opposition. Whereas figures such as Dhuh is sometimes credited as a Dhulbahante figure giving an external perspective on colonization efforts whilst ongoing,

Aadan Carab Aadan Carab was a poet born in Darawiish-controlled territory in 1917. The early forms of poetry of Aadan Carab is primarily concerned with clan duels, and or clans prevailing over others either in jest or pertaining to actual events. His latter p ...

is often credited for an external perspective from the perspective of hindsight or retrospect, such as highlighting a Dhulbahante genocide at the hands of European colonialists during the Darawiish era. Aadan-carab: 1917-2001 : maanmsoyahannadii hore kii u dambeeyey. Axmed F. Cali, p 314

Overview

Ali Dhuh's most famous contribution to Somali poetry is the ''Guba'' poems, a series of poems he initiated after the

Habar Yoonis The Habar Yoonis ( ar, هبر يونس , Full Name: '' Said ibn Al-Qādhī Ismā'īl ibn ash-Shaykh Isḥāq ibn Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin al-Ḥusayn al-Hāshimīy'' ) alternatively spelled as Habr Yunis is a major clan part of the sub-clan ...

conquest of the Ogaden, in which they uprooted the native Ogadens and took in to possession huge swathes of land and thousands of camels. Historian Siegbert Uhlig commenting on the Guba poem writes the following- ''From a historical point of view Ali Dhuh's poem explicitly details the large gains in traditionally Ogaden territory and wells, and the looting of Ogaden camels by the Isaq. He details the scattering of the Ogaden clan, their forced migration southwards seeking refuge in the feverish river valleys, and even turning to hunting and farming- measures that were again considered very shameful usually only undertaken by slaves and low-caste Somalis and utterly demeaning for the once great pastoral Ogaden clan. The Ogaden, Ali recounts, have been forced to accept refuge with the clans that defeated them, especially the Habr Yunis, and cannot take revenge. The Isaq are portrayed as particularly callous and shameful in the way they parade looted Ogaden camels in front of their previous owners. Even in translation it is a very evocative poem.''Proceedings of the XVth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies Hamburg (2003), p. 215.

Notes

References

Somalian poets Year of birth missing 1962 deaths {{Somalia-writer-stub