as a somali {and on behalf of somalis} I see myself as an african and black, but at the same time, we do consider ourself different from the bantu africans, {central southern and western africa} it doesnt necessarily mean in a negative way, it just means we are different in many ways, some people might be surprised but let alone our direct neighbours the Arabs or religion wise, but we as somalis have life style far more similar to that of south east Asia then our fellow sub saharan brothers, as in traditional clothings, language food as well as behaviour, if you look at somalis in europe {where I live} we are more likely to settle in asian Area's then in african..that tell you something, not that we are racist but that we feel more at home in an asian neighbour hood then an african about the skin, we somalis have black somalis that are as black as western africa if not more black, but they are a significant minority .. maybe one of the reasons we dont like to be grouped with western africans is because we are people that have had contact with the world before colonial times and therefor feel superior in terms of history or culture wise, unlike the rest of sub saharan countries we {the horn }have never been formally colonized enslaved or have had western languages or way of life forced upon us, Ethiopia never got colonized and somalis fought the longest anti colonial war in africa and succesfully pushed the british and the italians out of somali lands several times, unfotunately there were 3 european powers in somalilands, ...we take pride in our history and way of life...... even though western africa is superior today in terms of economy, ..it makes us proud to see a fellow african country doing good.............to answer the question ....I view the people from the horn as africans, from horn of africa