Tomal

The Tomal, also known as Tumal or Tumaal, is an artisanal caste among Somali people. Their traditional hereditary occupation has been as smiths and leather production, and they have been endogamous. The Tomal have been one of the low status castes or outcasts among the Somalis, along with Madhiban and others. They have historically faced discrimination, restrictions, harassment and prejudice from other social strata of the Somali people. According to the folklore tradition of the Somali people, Tomal and other low castes arose from unholy origins. They were historically smiths who worked various metals, and some also were leather workers (producing and processing animal skin). They may be, states Peter Bridges, pre-Somali Bushmen-like natives who lived in these lands. They are one of a castes within the Sab lineage among the Somali, but they are not the Bantu-related slave strata of the Somali people. According to Richard Francis Burton, the colonial era Somali ethnographer describing his observations in the northern Somali country, the Tomal were also known as Handad probably a corruption of Haddad which in Arabic means "ironworkers". They were considered vile because they had intermarried with the servile group within the Somali society, and their work with metal and fire was presumed to make them following the path of David and close to witchcraft. These people, states Burton, were also found and reviled in Al-Yaman. Later scholarship, such as by Heather Marie Akou – a professor of History specializing in Near East Cultures, states that per mythical narrative Tomals had intermarried with Midgans, and have been the talented descendants of nomads in the Horn of Africa. The Tomal caste has been notable for their everyday dress, where they traditionally carry a hand crafted long spear called waran as walking stick, and a hidden dagger called bilawi in a leather belt.