outsider and his injuries are valued at thirty-three-and-
a-third camels, ten camels must be given to him and
the remained to his jiffo-group (a sub-group of the diya
group).
3. Homicide amongst members of the Hassan Ugaas
is subject to compensation at the rate of thirty-three-
and-a-third camels, payable only to the deceased’s
next of kin. If the culprit is unable to pay all or part, he
will be assisted by his lineage.
The heavy focus of the heer on killing and wounding
reflects the almost constant state of warfare between diya-
paying groups and clans. Central to this was blood wealth
and blood feuding. A crime against a particular person was
a crime against the whole diya-paying group, and
necessitated collective compensation, blood wealth. If such
blood wealth was not paid, the diya -paying group of the
person who had committed the crime faced the collective
retribution of the victim. When modern transportation
reached Somalia, blood wealth was extended to people
who were killed or injured in motor accidents. The Hassan
Ugaas’s heer didn’t refer only to murder; clause 6 was “If
one man of the Hassan Ugaas insults another at a Hassan
Ugaas council he shall pay 150 shillings to the offended
party.”
In early 1955, the flocks of two clans, the Habar Tol Ja’lo
and the Habar Yuunis, were grazing close to each other in
the region of Domberelly. A man from the Yuunis was
wounded after a dispute with a member of the Tol Ja’lo
over camel herding. The Yuunis clan immediately retaliated,
attacking the Tol Ja’lo clan and killing a man. This death
led, following the code of blood wealth, to the Yuunis clan
offering compensation to the Tol Ja’lo clan, which was
accepted. The blood wealth was to be handed over in
person, as usual in the form of camels. At the handing-over
ceremony, one of the Tol Ja’lo killed a member of the
Yuunis, mistaking him for a member of the diya- paying
group of the murderer. This led to all-out warfare, and within
the next forty-eight hours thirteen Yuunis and twenty-six Tol
Ja’lo had been killed. Warfare continued for another year
before elders from both clans, brought together by the
English colonial administration, managed to broker a deal