Yibir - Contemporary Situation

Contemporary Situation

Yibir still have a reputation for magic; one of their traditional functions is to bless the newborn and the newly married. In return for these blessings they receive gifts, a continual repayment for the killing of Mohammed Hanif. They subsist in two different ways—by being attached to noble Somali families, or by (cyclically) visiting different households. The payments they receive, called samanyo (described by an English scholar as a "tax"), also function to forestall the fear of a possible cursing of the (Somali) host by the Yibir soothsayer or magician; though the Yibir are the "smallest and most despised" clan of the sab, they are thought to have the strongest magic. Persistently refusing to give a gift on the occasion of a birth invites the curse of the Yibir, which is supposed to result in a violent death for the refusing party or a deformed new-born. Another of the Yibir's supernatural characteristics is that when they die they vanish: no one, according to Somali tradition, "has ever seen the grave of a Yibir", a quality possibly derived from the disappearance of their ancestor, Hanif.

In 1961, the Yibir were estimated to number around 1300 individuals. However, in 2000, Ahmad Jama Hersi, the modern leader of the Yibir, stated he believed 25,000 Yibir to live in Somalia and neighboring countries. In 2000, the clan received legitimacy at the national level when they were to receive a seat in the 225-member parliament of the Transitional National Government.