Sakuye

The Sakuye or Saguye are a semi-nomadic people living in Marsabit and Isiolo districts, Eastern Province, Kenya. In 1994, they numbered 13,000. According to Ethnologue, Sakuye is a dialect of the Borana language, though it has some significant differences. [ [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=gax Oromo, Borana-Arsi-Guji] , "Ethnologue".] Their name come from the old name for Marsabit, Saaku. When a group of Rendille moved north from Marsabit, their Borana neighbors referred to them as the "Saakuye". [http://dickinsg.intrasun.tcnj.edu/nations/kenya/sakuye.html "The Sakuye of Kenya"] , The College of New Jersey]

History

The Sakuye adopted Islam in the early twentieth century. Following Kenyan independence, the Sakuye attempted to secede and join their fellow Somali co-ethnics. Most of their livestock was killed by government forces during the Shifta War (1963-7), reducing many Sakuye to poverty. In the 1970s, a group of Sakuye moved to Dabel, a group of hills below the Ethiopian plateau. The traditional camel-oriented rituals, with a nominal Muslim affiliation, became much less important after the destruction of the herds and the Sakuye became Husayniyya, followers of the Sufi order founded by SheikhHussein whose tomb lies in the village named for him, Bale, Ethiopia. [Günther Schlee, PDFlink| [http://www.eth.mpg.de/people/schlee/sudan01/pdf/anhang2.pdf Kinds of Islam and policies of inclusion and exclusion: Some comparative perspectives from the Sudan and beyond] |121 KiB , Zum Abschlussbericht zum Projekt "Ethnizitäten in neuen Kontexten" für die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Projekt Nr. SCHL 186/9-1, Dezember 1999, pp. 2-3] Today the Sakuye population is divided between those in Dabel and those in Isiolo.

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