History of Somaili Bantu
The Somali Bantu (Gosha) are an ethnic minority in Somali residing in southern Somalia in the Juba River district. The Gosha people are not ethnically Somalian.
During the robust slave trade of the early 19th century, the Gosha people (Bantu ethnic groups) were captured in regions of southeast Africa, most notably from regions of current Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi. Between 1800 and 1890, thousands of Bantu were taken to the slave markets of northern Africa and sold.
During the 1840s, fugitive Gosha slaves fled the northern regions of Somalia and settled in the Juba River Valley in southern Somalia. At the turn of the century over 35,000 former slaves had resettled in the Juba District.
Being ethnically, physically and culturally disconnected to the ethnic Somali people, the Gosha people experienced great oppression by both the ethnic Somalians and the Italian colonials.
The Gosha Foundation is incorporated to address this great oppression. Although the Foundation members reside in countries far removed from this violence, Somali-Bantu people from around the world are committed to bringing justice and peace to the Somali-Bantu of Somalia.
In 1991 The Somali government collapsed and a violent and tragic civil war began. During this great upheaval the Gosha people were targeted for severe persecution. Thousands of Somali-Bantu fled Somalia for refugee camps in Kenya and eventually were resettled throughout the world as refugees.
Yet, remaining in Somalia in the Juba District are thousands of Gosha people who face intense, violent persecution to this day. Currently Al-Shabaab, an extremist Islamic militia, occupies the Juba District inflicting great suffering on the Gosha people through land grabbing, torture, extortion and killing.