donning traditional white cloth a man wielding a wooden trumpet or buun leads the people in procession. They are marked in certain lines behind the trumpeter and poets lead chants and people break into song. Like other Rahanweyn the Geledi speak the maay dialect but their close proximity to maaxa or standard Somali speakers has marked them. Istunka Afgooye The Istunka Afgooye or isgaraac is an annual stick fight performed in the city by its inhabitants stretching back hundreds of years. It first began in the Ajuran period but was later formalized with teams and rules by Geledi Sultan Ahmed Yusuf. The festival coincides with the harvest being a joyous time in the city The event itself consists of a mock fight between the people residing on each side of the river bed in the town of Afgooye. Symbolizing the defence of one's community and honor, it coincides with the start of the main harvest season. Istunka was originally performed in full combat gear, with battle-axes, swords and daggers. However, for safety reasons, performers later replaced those weapons with large sticks or batons. Poetry The Geledi retained their rich oral tradition and evocative poetry that differed from the more well known northern style. In southern Somalia the poet and reciter would be one and the same. British ethnologist Virginia Luling noted during her visit to the town that poetry was to be conceived and recited simultaneously with no prior preparation. The poets or Laashin relied on their wit and memory to construct beautiful poems and entertain the audience. It is important to note as the Geledi are Rahanweyn they speak Af Maay and not Af Maaha which is sometimes classified as a separate language from Af Maaha or the ubiquitously known 'Standard Somali'. Geledi Laashins during Luling's 1989 stay in Afgooye sang about the ever present issue of land theft by the Somali government. The Sultan in these poems was asked to help the community and reminded of his legendary Gobroon forefathers of the centuries prior. The poem The law then was not this law was performed by the leading Laashins of Afgooye, Hiraabey, Muuse Cusmaan and Abukar Cali Goitow alongside a few others, addressed to the current leader Sultan Subuge. Here the richest selection of the poem performed by Goitow References Somali clans