Afar عفار

Afar are an ethnic group in the Horn of Africa who reside principally in the Danakil Desert in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, as well as in Eritrea and Djibouti. They number 1,276,374 people in Ethiopia (or 1.73% of the total population), of whom 108,488 are urban inhabitants, according to the most recent census (2007).

They are sometimes called Danakil, a name used specifically to refer to northern Afars, while southern Afars can be called Adel (also transliterated as Adal), similar to the former Adal Sultanate.

Culture and Lifestyle:

Although some Afar have migrated to cities and adopted an urban lifestyle, the majority have remained nomadic.
Traditionally, the society is ruled by sultanates made up of several villages headed by a dardar.

Afar are organized into clan families, and into classes -- asaimara ('reds') who are the dominant class politically, and the adoimara ('whites') who are a working class.

Circumcision is practiced for both boys and girls. A boy is judged for his bravery upon bearing the pain of circumcision, and is then allowed to marry the girl of his choice, though preferably someone from his own ethnic group.

The Afar have a strong relationship with their environment and its wildlife, sharing land and resources with animals and doing them no harm. It is this tendency that is largely responsible for the preservation of the critically endangered African wild ass (Equus africanus), which has become extinct in more vulnerable environments.
The Afar culture features unique items of clothing.

These include:

*When married, women traditionally wear a black headscarf called a shash or mushal.

*For men and women, the main article of clothing is the sanafil, a waistcloth. Women's are dyed brown (although today many women adopt multi-coloured sanafil) while men's are undyed.

Religion:

The Afar began to convert to Islam in the 10th century after contact with Arab merchants from the Arabian Peninsula.

Afar lenguage:

East Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. It is believed to have 1.5 million speakers, the Afar. The basic word order in Afar, like in other East Cushitic languages, is subject object verb. Its speakers have a literacy rate of between one and three per cent. Its closest relative is the Saho language.