Afgooye

Afgooye أفجويي
Town
Afgooye Location in Somalia
Coordinates:
Country	Template:Country data southwest of Somalia
Region	Lower Shebelle
District	Afgooye
Population
• Total	79,400
Time zone	EAT (UTC+3)
Area code(s)	+25261

Afgooye (Somali: Afgooye, Arabic: أفجويي‎‎) is a town in the southwestern somalia Lower Shebelle (Shabellaha Hoose) region of Somalia. It is the center of the Afgooye District.

Location

It is situated about 25 kilometres west of Mogadishu, the nation's capital. The Shabelle River passes through the middle of the town.

History

Main articles: Ajuran Sultanate, Geledi Sultanate, and Italian Somaliland

During the Middle Ages, Afgooye and much of the surrounding area in southern Somalia was governed by the Ajuran Empire. The town later came under the administration of the Geledi Sultanate in the 1800s. The Istunka martial arts festival that is held annually in the town during the Somali new year dates from this period.

File:Aerial image of Afgooye.jpg

An old aerial image of the farming town of Afgooye

At the turn of the 20th century, Afgooye was incorporated into Italian Somaliland. The Italians occupied the town in 1908 and in the process abolished the local slave market. There was also a station in Afgooye on the Mogadishu-Villabruzzi Railway, which connected the town to the capital Mogadishu.

In the 1980s, Afgooye was a common destination for investors from the Gulf states. The Emir of Kuwait also reportedly used to visit the town during the holy month of Ramadan.

After the outbreak of the civil war in 1991, parts of the town became a place of refuge for many of southern Somalia's internally displaced people.

On May 25, 2012, Somali government forces backed by AMISOM tanks re-captured Afgooye from Al-Shabaab, which had established a base in the area.

Demographics

Afgooye has a population of around 79,400 inhabitants. The broader Afgooye District has a total population of 135,012 residents.

Afgooye main population consists of the Geledi clan

Geodesy

Afgooye is a geodetic datum used in Somalia. Afgooye datum is based on the Krasovsky ellipsoid and the Greenwich prime meridian.

Notable residents

• Abdullahi Issa, Prime Minister of the Trust Territory of Somalia
• Mohamed Osman Jawari, Speaker of the Federal Parliament of Somalia
• Mustafa Mohamed Moalim, Chief of the Somali Air Force School and Operations

References

• Afgooye, Somalia

• International Institute for Mesopotamian Area Studies, Monographic journals of the Near East, (Undena Publications: 1981), p.78
• Lee V. Cassanelli, The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900, (University of Pennsylvania Press: 1982), p.102.
• Lee V. Cassanelli, The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900, (University of Pennsylvania Press: 1982), p.271.
• I.M. Lewis, A Modern History of Somalia, fourth edition (Oxford: Currey, 2002), p. 87