Isaaq

Population: Several million in Somaliland, Ethiopia's Somali region and a large diaspora in Britain and the Gulf

Location: The Woqooyi Galbeed, Togdheer and Sahil regions — Hargeisa, Burao, Berbera and Borama's surroundings

Language: Somali (Northern dialect)

Language family: Afro-Asiatic → Cushitic → Somali

Traditional governance: Clan elders (guurti) formalised into an upper house of the Somaliland parliament, an unusual constitutional fusion of customary and electoral authority; Somaliland's independence is not internationally recognised.

Most African peoples are federations of named sub-groups (clans, sections, chiefdoms or sub-tribes), each with its own dialect, territory and traditions.

Clothing: Macawis and koofiyad, guntiino and shaash; British-influenced dress in the towns from the protectorate period.

Food: Camel and goat meat and milk, canjeero, rice, sambusa, dates; Berbera's livestock export trade to Arabia is the economy's backbone.

Ceremonies: Poetry contests, the highest Somali art form and one in which several of the language's greatest figures are Isaaq; buraanbur women's verse; weddings with dhaanto; guurti assemblies for peace-making.

Marriage customs: Islamic marriage; bridewealth in camels; the peace conferences of the 1990s were sealed partly by marriage alliances between clans.

Initiation rites: Quranic school; memorisation of genealogy; poetry composition as the mark of an educated adult.

Every dish the Atlas publishes for Somaliland and Somalia, at national rather than community level — 15 in all: the staple a household eats daily, the dish the country names as its own, street food, what is cooked for a wedding or Eid, regional specialities and a drink. Quantities and method are given for every one, so these are recipes rather than descriptions, and each has a photograph from Wikimedia Commons. The Food page carries the whole continent, searchable by country and by ingredient.

“Ilko wada jira wax ma gooyaan.”

“Teeth that are together cut nothing.”

Unity without coordination achieves little.

“The camel that is loaded by everyone carries nothing.”

Divided responsibility.

“We built our peace before we asked for a flag.”

The Somaliland political argument in a sentence.

Creation: Islamic cosmology; descent traced to Sheikh Ishaaq bin Ahmed, whose tomb at Maydh on the Gulf of Aden coast is a major pilgrimage site.

Beliefs: Sunni Shafi'i Islam with Qadiriyya and Salihiyya orders; saint visitation; xeer customary law functioning alongside sharia and statute.

Ancestors: Abtirsiin recitation; the war dead of 1988 function as a collective ancestral claim underpinning Somaliland's case.

Traditional settlements: Hargeisa, Burao and Berbera as substantial towns, the last with Ottoman and colonial-era coral architecture; aqal camps in the pastoral interior.

Building techniques: Coral and lime building at Berbera with wind-catching upper rooms; concrete block in the rebuilt cities; aqal mat-and-pole dwellings inland.

Village layout: Town around market, mosque and livestock quarantine yards; nomadic camps by well and pasture.

1. 1884–1960

   British Somaliland protectorate; Berbera exports livestock to Aden.

2. 1960

   Independence and immediate union with Italian Somaliland to form Somalia.

3. 1981–1988

   The Somali National Movement forms; government bombardment destroys Hargeisa and Burao.

4. 1991

   Somaliland declares independence; elder-led conferences build a constitutional order.

5. Present

   Functioning elections and institutions without international recognition; the Las Anod conflict has strained the settlement.