# Somali Sign Language: how it began in Borama in 1997

> Somali Sign Language (Luqadda Dhegoolaha): how it began in Borama in 1997, its link to Kenyan Sign Language, the deaf schools, and the national deaf association.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/society/somali-sign-language/
Last checked: 2026-11-13
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## How it began

Somali Sign Language started with one deaf teacher. The Enabling Education Network (EENET), a UK charity, published an account of its beginnings written by Doreen E. Woodford. A Somali deaf man who had been educated at a school for the deaf in **Wajir**, Kenya, first proposed a deaf school for Somalis in 1977 ([EENET, The beginning and growth of a new language: Somali Sign Language](https://web.archive.org/web/20160305063235/http://www.eenet.org.uk/resources/docs/somali_sign_language.php)). In 1997 he used his knowledge of English and **Kenyan Sign Language** to open the first school for deaf children in **Borama** in the northwest.

One of the Borama teachers then founded a deaf school in **Djibouti**. Another school was opened in **Hargeysa**, with more difficulty ([EENET](https://web.archive.org/web/20160305063235/http://www.eenet.org.uk/resources/docs/somali_sign_language.php)). In Djibouti the sign language stayed Somali Sign Language but took its own path. Pupils in all these schools used it alongside written Somali and English in the north, and Somali and French in Djibouti; it still shows Kenyan influence.

## What makes it different

The EENET account notes three points ([EENET](https://web.archive.org/web/20160305063235/http://www.eenet.org.uk/resources/docs/somali_sign_language.php)):

- It is built on Somali culture and the Somali language, not on a foreign one. The Anglo-Somali Society's journal made the same point in 2003 ([Anglo-Somali Society journal, 2003, p. 19](https://books.google.com/books?id=sF0wAQAAIAAJ)).
- It was started by a deaf person who already signed. Most early deaf schools in Africa were founded by hearing people.
- The first class to finish at Borama passed with high marks.

The account cites research showing that a national sign language grows faster when deaf signers set up the schools ([EENET](https://web.archive.org/web/20160305063235/http://www.eenet.org.uk/resources/docs/somali_sign_language.php)).

## Schools and associations

The **Somali National Association of the Deaf (SNAD)** and **Deaf Unity** announced in 2013 that they would work together on deaf schools that teach Somali Sign Language, including a planned school in **Bosaaso** ([Deaf Times, 31 August 2013, via Somali Sign Language, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_Sign_Language)). The sign language is used by deaf Somalis in [Somalia and Djibouti](/en/relations/djibouti/) ([Somali Sign Language, Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_Sign_Language)).

## Name in Somali

On Somali Wikipedia the language is called **Soomaali luqadda dhegoolaha**, "the Somali language of the deaf" ([Somali Wikipedia](https://so.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soomaali_luqadda_dhegoolaha)).

## Read more

- [The Somali language](/en/society/the-somali-language/)
- [Awdal and Borama](/en/regions/awdal/)
- [Schools and learning](/en/society/universities-in-somalia/)

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