Bravanese people

Barawa is one of the most diverse places in Somalia. The Somali people of this Banadir coast have mixed with many different ethnicities, such as Portuguese people, Italians and Arabs. Because of its location and distance from Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and nearby islands, Barawa was strategically located for trade, while people also exchanged ideas, skills, other knowledge and culture. The regional population supposedly traces their origins back to Arabs (particularly Hadhramis, Adnanis and Qahtanis). Many Bravanese people who have mixed with Somalis have origins from Europe, Мiddle Еast and Persia, therefore they tend to look physically distinct from the vast majority of other Somalis. Their culture, food and music resemble those of other East African islands and the Swahili people. The Bravanese people are locally known as "3 Tol" Haatim, Biido and Ashraf. According to many sources Bravanese people are made up of Haatim, Biida, and Asharaf.

The Bravanese speak the Bravanese language (Chimwiini or Chimini), Northern Dialect of Swahili. Chi- is a prefix denoting "language", and Miini (Mwiini) is the alternative name of Barawa, the Bravanese people themselves would never call the town as Barawa or Brava, but rather as Miini. Chimini is a standard version of the original Bravanese language which is called Chambalazi, the standard Chimini language contains Italian, and Arabic. Chambalazi contains some of the oldest Swahili words and dialects, it started to evolve through time and intermixing of other ethnicities and languages. The Barawa language is over 1000 years old, and still spoken today by approximately 30,000 Bravanese. This is due to the preservation of the language by the early scholars in Barawa. Sheikh Qassim al Barawi was the first Bravanese Scholar to start writing standard Chimini, which was written in Arabic.

As a result of Government Policy, such as the displacement of Nomadic Somalis into the Barawa Coast in 1974, this caused a culture shock and a threat to the language. Adding to that, political turmoil such as the Somali Civil war caused Bravanese to disperse all over the world, which resulted in the language being highly endangered in a short span of time. Brent Henderson, a researcher from the University of Florida conducted thorough research and documentation of the Barawa Language for three years. In his research, he highlighted the following quote in context: "Whatever the factors responsible for the stabilization of Chimwiini over the past six hundred years, the situation has changed drastically within the past forty years largely due to political manoeuvrings... By 1972 all government officials were required to speak and write Somali [the national language of Somalia] and it was instituted in all public schools, including the school in Brava.

The Hon. Burʽi Mohamed Hamza (Somali: Burci Maxamed Xamza, Arabic: البرعي محمد حمزة, died 25 June 2016) was a Somali-Canadian politician. He served as chairman and elected political leader of the Bravan community. From August 2012 to January 2014, he was a Member of the Federal Parliament of Somalia. He later served as the State Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Somalia from January to October 2014, and subsequently as the State Minister of Finance until December 2014. He was the State Minister of the Office for Environment at the time of his death.