Somalis

The Somalis (/soʊˈmɑːliz, səˈmɑːliz/, sə-MAH-leez) (Somali: Soomaalida, Wadaad: صومالِدَ‎, Arabic: الصوماليون) are a Cushitic ethnic group and nation native to the Somali Peninsula.

The Somali language is the shared mother tongue of ethnic Somalis, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are predominantly Sunni Muslim. Forming one of the largest ethnic groups on the continent, they cover one of the most expansive landmasses by a single ethnic group in Africa.

According to most scholars, the ancient Land of Punt and its native inhabitants formed part of the ethnogenesis of the Somali people. This ancient historical kingdom is where a great portion of their cultural traditions and ancestry are said to derive from. Somalis and their country have long been identified with the term Barbar (or Al-Barbar)—12th-century geographer al-Idrisi, for example, identified the Somali Peninsula as Barbara, and classical sources from the Greeks and Romans similarly refer to the region as the second Barbaria.

Somalis share many historical and cultural traits with other Cushitic peoples, especially with Lowland East Cushitic people, specifically the Afar and the Saho. Ethnic Somalis are principally concentrated in Somalia (around 17.6 million), Somaliland (5.7 million), Ethiopia (4.6 million), Kenya (2.8 million), and Djibouti (586,000). Somali diasporas are also found in parts of the Middle East, North America, Western Europe, African Great Lakes region, Southern Africa and Oceania.