Dada Masiti

Mana Sitti Habib Jamaladdin ( 1810s – 15 July 1919 ), commonly known as Dada Masiti ("Sister Masiti"), was a Swahili poet, mystic and Islamic scholar from Somalia. She composed her poetry in the Bravanese dialect spoken in Barawa.

Biography Dada Masiti was born Mana Sitti Habib Jamaladdin in the 1810s in Tunda (Also spelled as Chundwa or Tchundwa), a coastal town in Pate Island, Lamu. Dada Masiti left Tunda for Brava at a very early age and as such is often wrongly presumed to have been born in Brava. Her family on both sides hailed from the Mahadali Ashraf clan. Her mother's maternal grandfather also belonged to the Ali Naziri Ashraf, which commanded more influence in the area and was the larger of the two subclans. The Ashraf had first established residence in Barawa around the start of the 1600s, and ultimately traced their lineage to the Prophet Muhammad. Like the claims of other Somali clans in this regard, this alleged genealogy is historically untenable.

What is known about Dada Masiti's early years is exclusively derived from different oral traditions. Many of her contemporaries committed to memory her poetry, particularly women. Her verse still figures prominently in the poetic annals of Barawa.