Issa (clan)

The Issa (also Eesah,[1] Esa, Aysa)

(Somali: Ciise, Reer Sheikh Ciise, Arabic:
‫ )ﻋﻴﺴﻰ‬is a northern Somali clan, a sub-
division of the Dir clan family.[2][3][4]
 Issa

Ciise
‫ﻋﻴﺴﻰ‬

The tomb of Sheikh Issa, the founding father

of the Issa clan.

Regions with significant populations

Djibouti, Ethiopia, United Kingdom, Canada,

The Netherlands, France

Languages

Somali

Religion

Islam (Sunni)
 Related ethnic groups
Gadabuursi, Akisho, Gurgura groups and
other Dir clans

The Issa comprise the majority of the

population of six major cities in Djibouti:
Djibouti City, Ali Sabieh, Arta, Dikhil,
Holhol, Ali Adde and Assamo. In addition,
Dire Dawa, Ayesha, Biki, Harar, Adigale,
Mieso, Erer, Jaldessa and Āfdem in
Ethiopia and Zeila, Xariirad, Asha Addo,
Jidhi, Lawyacado and Lughaya in
Somaliland are predominantly Issa. As a
sub-clan of the Dir, the Issa clan traces
its paternal ancestry to Irir, one of the
sons of Samaale.
History

Issa man and woman in traditional attire (1844)

The Adal Sultanate which was largely on part of the

clan territory and the conquest of Abyssinia which
they contributed to.
The Issa clan has produced numerous
noble Somali men and women over the
centuries, consisted of a King (Ugaas)
and including many Sultans. Traditionally,
the Northern Dir (Issa and Gadabuursi)
men ruled these settlement pockets until
the European colonial powers changed
the political dynamics of Djibouti,
Somaliland and Ethiopia during the late
19th century.

The name of Dire Dawa means were the

"Dir Hit" Meeshii Dir Dhabah in reference
to 14th century battles between the
Sultanate of Ifat and Oromo people. In
the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in
1935/36, Issa fought on the Italian side,
in return benefited from weapons and
military training and lucrative marketing
opportunities for their cattle. In the
second half of the twentieth century,
Somalia supplied additional weapons to
the Issa, which it upgraded as part of the
West Somalia Liberation Front. All this
contributed to the fact that the Issa
repressed the Afar from the area of
today's Shinile zone. The Aysha
massacre was a massacre of ethnic Issa
Somalis by Ethiopian army on 13 August
1960 in Aysha, Ethiopia. The Ethiopian
troops had descended on the area to
reportedly help defuse clan-related
conflict. However, according to eye-
witness testimony, that Somali men were
then taken to a different location and
then executed by Ethiopian soldiers.
Among the latter, those who fled to Dikhil
and Ali Sabieh in Djibouti. The drought
and hunger crisis of 1972-1973/74
intensified the conflicts. The Ethiopian
army intervened against the Issa and in
1971/72 killed hundreds and seized
nearly 200,000 cattle. After the defeat of
the Western Somali Liberation Front, the
Issa Division remained under the name
Issa and Gurgura Liberation Front. They
continued to receive support from
Somalia and joined the EPRDF. In 1987
the autonomous region of Dire Dawa was
created for the Issa (which had
previously belonged to the province of
Xararge) as part of a new administrative
division of Ethiopia. Since the EPRDF
took over in 1991, the Issa areas in
Ethiopia were part of the ethnic definition
of the Somali Region.[5]

In Djibouti, which was colonized by

France under the name of the French
Coast of Somalis, (up until 1967, then to
the French Territory of the Afars and the
Issas), there were also tensions between
Issa and Afar, as the Issa and other
Somalis natives of Djibouti sought to
connect with Somalia independent since
1960. Most Afar preferred the fate of
France. Mahamoud Harbi was a major
leader of the independence movement
but was killed in 29 September 1960 and
his comrades Djama Mahamoud Boreh
and Mohamed Gahanlo disappeared on a
flight from Geneva to Cairo. Officially,
they were killed in a plane crash, but a
possible role of the organization de
l'armée secrète is speculated. In 1977
Djibouti gained its independence, but did
not unite with Somalia. Under Hassan
Gouled Aptidon, Djibouti developed into
the one-party state of the
Rassemblement Populaire pour le
Progrès (RPP) In which the interests of
the Afar minority were little considered.
In 1991-1994, there was therefore a civil
war in Djibouti between the Issa-
dominated government and the Afar
rebels of the FRUD. Finally, other
opposition parties were admitted and
Afar was involved in the government,
while Issa still dominated political life. In
1999 Ismail Omar Guelleh, a nephew of
Hassan Gouled Aptidon, succeeded
Djibouti as his successor.

Issa Ugaas Rooble pictured with his nephew Jardon

in 1885
An old map of Richard Burton's in 1854, featuring
the Somali clan of the Issa.

In the Awdal region of Somaliland there

were battles with the Gadabuursi,
another Dir subclans. The conflict drove
some of the Issa to escape to Ethiopia in
the late 1990s. A refugee camp was
opened at Degago/Ayisha. A second
wave of Issa refugees left the coastal
town of Zeila in 1991 after fighting with
the SNM of the Isaaq and Gadabuursi.[6]
The Issa organization United Somali
Front had previously tried to connect
Zeila to Djibouti. In the same year, the
north-west of Somaliland, including
Awdal under the leadership of the SNM
as Somaliland, a country which has as of
2019 not been recognized by any
country. In the lower house of the
Somaliland Parliament (House of
Representatives), six out of 82 were
members of Issa in 2005. Since the 2005
elections, only one Issa (as a member of
the government division UDUB ) has been
represented. This decline is mainly
explained by the fact that the Issa in
Awdal instead of to Somaliland are
increasingly oriented towards the
neighboring Djibouti.

Distribution
The Issa primarily live in Ethiopia largely
where they reach the Oromia and Afar
regions and make a large chunk of the
Chartered city of Dire Dawa. They also
inhabit Djibouti, where they make up
more than half of the population, thirdly
they inhabit Awdal, Somaliland too.[7] The
Issa are the largest clan by population
within the Djibouti. Also the Issa is the
second largest sub-clan within the
borders of the Somali region of Ethiopia
based on the Ethiopian population
census 2008.

The immediate neighbor to the Issa to

the west are the Afar (or Danakil) with
whom the Issa used to frequently fight. I.
M. Lewis used to refer to it as "a of an
almost constant state of enmity between
the 'Ise and the 'Afar" , To their east the
'Ise are in contact with the Somali
Gadabursi to whom they feel themselves
akin and share same descent and
culture. To the South the Gurgura, Hawiye
and Oromo.[8]:70[9]

Lineage
The Issa traditionally traces its
connexions through Dir, his actual grave
lies between Rugay and Maydh in eastern
Somaliland.[10] Sheikh Issa tomb most
likely pre-date the local arrival of Islam,
which would mean their construction
took place in the 13th century or earlier.

The traditional Ugaas (King) comes from

the smallest Issa clan, Wardiiq and rules
from his settlement Waruf located about
180 Km south of Djibouti, west of the
Harrar road. One of their Ugaas's was
Ugaas Hassan Xirsi Ugaas.

The Issa belong to the T-M184

haplogroup and the TMRCA is estimated
to be 2100–2200 years or 150
BCE.[11][12][13]

Clan tree
There is no clear agreement on the clan
and sub-clan structures and many
lineages are omitted. The following
listing is taken from the World Bank's
Conflict in Somalia: Drivers and Dynamics
from 2005 and the United Kingdom's
Home Office publication, Somalia
Assessment 2001.[14][15]

Based on the Notes on the social

organisation of the 'Ise Somal. The Isse
is divided into the following
branches.[8]:73
Issa
Ēlēye' (Musse & Mamasan)
Hawlagadee(IDLE iyo YOUSSOUF
Hōlle (Mahadle & Saaib)
Hōrrōne (Habar Walaal iyo Geele
walaal)]][16]
Ūrweyne(Cabdelle iyo Siciid)
Wardīq (Wakhtishiil iyo
Rumawaaq)
Gallery

Nomads of the Somali Issa clan Issa warrior sitting An Issa man

Jaldessa the seat of the Issa Ugaas Issas near Harar Issa nomad sitting in a clearing

Notable Issa people

President of Djibouti Ismaïl Omar Guelleh

Mahmoud Harbi: Vice-President of the

Government Council of French
Somaliland.
Hassan Gouled Aptidon: 1916-2006,
first President of Djibouti from 1977 to
1999.
Ismaïl Omar Guelleh: President of
Djibouti as of 1999.
Ismael Guedi Amarreh : Neuroscientist
at National Institutes of Health USA
Lula Ali Ismaïl: Djiboutian-Canadian
film director
Abdo Hamargod: Musician
Daher Ahmed Farah: Djiboutian
politician
Abdourahman Waberi: Novelist
Ahmed-Idriss Moussa:Djiboutian
politician
Nima Djama: Musician
Aicha Bogoreh: First lady of Djibouti
Ahmed Boulaleh Barreh: Djiboutian
politician
Mumin Gala: Djiboutian athlete
Idriss Arnaoud Ali: Djiboutian politician
Xabiiba Cabdilaahi: Musician
Omar Farah Iltireh: Djiboutian politician
Aden Robleh Awaleh: President of the
National Democratic Party.
Hawa Ahmed Youssouf: Djiboutian
politician
Mohamed Ali Fourchette: Musician
Roble Olhaye: Permanent
representative to the United Nations
for the Republic of Djibouti.
Kadra Ahmed Hassan: Permanent
Representative to the United Nations
and the World Trade Organization for
the Republic of Djibouti.
Yacin Bouh: Djiboutian politician.
Hussein Ahmed Salah: Djiboutian
marathon runner.
Ahmed Gurey: the Conqueror of
Abyssinia, the Imam of the Adal
Sultanate.
Moumin Bahdon: Djiboutian politician.
Aïcha Mohamed Robleh: Writer
Jamal Abdi Dirieh: Athlete
Fadumo Ahmed Dhimbiil: Musician
Abdi Waiss Mouhyadin: Athlete
Ahmed Daher: Football
Aden Farah Samatar: Musician
Youssouf Hiss Bachir: Athlete
Mohamed Youssef: Sailor
 Ahmed Goumane-Roble: Politician
Djama Robleh: Athlete
Roda Ali Wais: Athlete
Mohamed Ali Fourchette: Musician
Mouna-Hodan Ahmed: Novelist
Hoche Yaya Aden: Athlete
Moumina Houssein Darar: Djiboutian
Anti-Terrorism police investigator.
Aden Farah: Speaker of House of
Federation - Ethiopia
Choukri Djibah: Politician and Women's
equality activist

See also
Issa (name)
 Dir
Gadabuursi
Surre
Djibouti
Zeila

Notes
1. Buel, James William (1889). The Story of
Man: A History of the Human Race .
Historical Publishing Company.
2. King, Preston (1987). An African Winter .
Puffin. ISBN 978-0-14-052365-2., p.169.
3. https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ac7
672.html
4. Lewis, I. M. (2017-02-03). Peoples of the
Horn of Africa (Somali, Afar and Saho):
North Eastern Africa Part I . Routledge.
ISBN 978-1-315-30817-3.
5. Tobias Hagmann: Challenges of
decentralisation in Ethiopia's Somali
Region Archived 2014-01-16 at the
Wayback Machine, Briefing for Review of
African Political Economy Vol. 32, No.
103, 2005 (PDF)
6. Guido Ambroso: Pastoral society and
transnational refugees: population
movements in Somaliland and eastern
Ethiopia 1988–2000. New Issues in
Refugee Research, Working Paper No.
65 , UNHCR – Evaluation and Policy
Analysis Unit, 2002 (PDF; 492 kB)
 7. Olson, James S. (1996). THE PEOPLE OF
AFRICA: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary .
London: GREENWOOD PRESS. p. 244.
ISBN 978-0-313-27918-8.
8. Lewis, I.M. (1961). "Notes on the Social
Organisation of the ʿĪse Somali".
Rassegna di Studi Etiopici. Istituto per
l'Oriente C. A. Nallino. 17: 69–82.
JSTOR 41299496 .
9. Tesfaye, Aaron (2002). Political Power
and Ethnic Federalism: The Struggle for
Democracy in Ethiopia . Lanham,
Maryland: University Press of America
Inc. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-7618-2238-7.
10. Lewis, "Historical Aspects of Genealogies
in Northern Somali Social Structure",
Journal of African History , 3 (1962), p.
46
11. Underhill JR, Rowold DJ, Regueiro M,
Caeiro B, Cinnioğlu C, Roseman C,
Underhill PA, Cavalli-Sforza LL, Herrera RJ
(2004). "The Levant versus the Horn of
Africa: Evidence for Bidirectional
Corridors of Human Migrations" .
American Journal of Human Genetics. 74
(3): 532–544. doi:10.1086/382286 .
PMC 1182266 . PMID 14973781 .
12. Sanchez, Juan J.; Hallenberg, Charlotte;
Børsting, Claus; Hernandez, Alexis;
Morling, Niels (July 2005). "High
frequencies of Y chromosome lineages
characterized by E3b1, DYS19-11,
DYS392-12 in Somali males" . European
Journal of Human Genetics. 13 (7): 856–
866. doi:10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201390 .
ISSN 1018-4813 . PMID 15756297 .
13. Cabrera, Vicente M.; Abu-Amero, Khaled
K.; Larruga, José M.; González, Ana M.
(2010). "The Arabian peninsula: Gate for
Human Migrations Out of Africa or Cul-
de-Sac? A Mitochondrial DNA
Phylogeographic Perspective". The
Evolution of Human Populations in
Arabia. Vertebrate Paleobiology and
Paleoanthropology. Springer, Dordrecht.
pp. 79–87. doi:10.1007/978-90-481-
2719-1_6 . ISBN 978-90-481-2718-4.
14. Worldbank, Conflict in Somalia: Drivers
and Dynamics , January 2005, Appendix
2, Lineage Charts, p.55 Figure A-1
15. Country Information and Policy Unit,
Home Office, Great Britain, Somalia
Assessment 2001, Annex B: Somali Clan
Structure Archived 2011-07-16 at the
Wayback Machine, p. 43
16. Yasin, Yasin. Regional Dynamics of Inter-
ethnic Conflicts in the Horn of Africa: An
Analysis of the Afar-Somali Conflict in
Ethiopia and Djibouti . University of
Hamburg. p. 60.

References
King, Preston (1987). An African
Winter . Puffin. ISBN 978-0-14-052365-
2.
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