Minnesota is home to the largest settlement of Somalis in the United
States. And young Somalis here are beginning to find their voices in
their new home. They will speak and act against youth violence among
their own. They will fight media and mainstream perceptions of their
culture. And they will build a new Somalia.

Minneapolis, Mn – In the span of a year six young Somali men died
from gun shot wounds in gang-related violence. Less than a year later,
another controversy spun the Somali community: federal authorities and
media reports link one of the largest Somali mosques in Minnesota to
the alleged disappearance of young Somali men. The community continues
to react in shock and disbelief as their most sacred leaders and house
of worship are denigrated.

The Somali community realizes that some of the problems that they are grappling with go beyond perception of the larger Minnesotan community, and media reports.

Enter the Beat, an organization started by a group of young Somalis who are interested in addressing head on the critical issues impacting their community. The Beat is a project under Horn Relief hoping to give Somalis interested in the peace and development of their country a venue to get involved. Horn Relief, a development and humanitarian organization in East Africa is an oasis in a country entrenched in an eighteen-year conflict, which not only includes a devastating civil war, but also a brutal foreign occupation by Ethiopian military troops. The Beat Project hopes to take part in the revival of coastal communities in Somalia and promotes an independence from the harsh charcoal trade in the country that continues to destroy pastoral communities. Environmentalist, advocate, and Executive Director of Horn Relief, Fatima Jibrell, saw potential in local youth who wanted to bring her work to Minnesota.

Ayan Abdi a young engineer who walked away from a comfortable job with the State of California, is one of the founding members of The Beat. Abdi was seeking something deeper when she left California and found her niche in Minnesota through organizing. After helping establish the project, Abdi hopped on a plane and is currently in Nairobi, Kenya volunteering for Horn Relief. Her co-organizers and friends continue working in Minnesota.

Members of the group strongly believe in the notion of having Somali solutions to Somali problems. They also see intrinsic power in young people, and continue to educate Somalis on their country’s geography and resources. According to a statement by the group, “The Beat focuses on shifting the minds and energy of the youth back to their homeland whereby they can sew the seeds of education, environmentalism, and economic prosperity and ultimately reclaim themselves to be the Somalia that they want to see.”

For many young Somalis, their memories of Somalia reflect the civil war experience – the burden of the ongoing catastrophe is the only element of Somalia in their collective memory.  Horn Relief hopes to involve Somali youth in their work.

While The Beat organizes at an international level, several other youth-lead groups address intensely local issues.

In the aftermath of the shootings that occurred last year, several organizations were created by Somali youth to better serve their peers and their community as a whole. The most prominent of these groups is Students Against Violence (SAV), which is organized by current University of Minnesota students and alumni. The group is known for a protest they organized at Peavy Park in October last year where they spoke against gang violence, and for a need for young Somalis to engage in positive recreational activities. They voiced their rage, and expressed their frustration at the loss of youth who had so much potential. One of the young men killed was Augsburg University student Ahmednur Ali who worked as a mentor to other young Somali men at the Brian Coyle Center.

Young Somalis were most deeply awakened by the violent events. SAV is currently meeting with policymakers and community organizers to make impacted neighborhoods safer. 

SAV member Hanan Osman says that their group needs engagement, “Instead of turning the other cheek, we want people to know what is going on in the Cedar-Riverside area. We hope to raise awareness on safety issues… and we are here to get things done.”

The Youth Council at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Civic Center is another youth-lead effort also developed from a painful context. They saw a broader community unable to understand its new neighbors, and a sub-population struggling to maintain its identity. The group attempts to empower youth, but also hopes to educate other Minnesotans about Islam and Somalis.

The Islamic civic center works through education to teach the general community about this large and growing population.

Kaamil Haider, member of the youth council, hopes to make the center more than a place of worship. He says the group views the mosque as a religious institution, as well as an epicenter for social justice, identity building, and organizing.

When pressed on the identity question, he shared, “there’s a dilemma between Somalis who grew up here and those who were raised in Somalia. The majority of the last population has not opened their bags.”

Haider contends younger Somalis can be more invested in the community because they are part of the American fabric. With one foot in Somali culture, and another in the American one, they are transnational and are consequently more familiar with the mainstream culture, he says.

They have an incredible ability to understand both cultures and maneuver around barriers. Haider agrees that it is not easy for immigrant youth to automatically fit into the mainstream culture as some Somali youth continue to experience an identity crisis. Trapped between dual identities that are sometimes at loggerheads, these youth do not know where they fit. In addition to experiencing the tragedies associated with growing up poor and black in America, they are also immigrants with a painful legacy and present – carrying incomprehensible memories difficult to cope with, and language and cultural challenges.

The Islamic civic center understands this unique reality, which city, state, and civil society groups have yet to adequately address. The center has workshops for young people and creates an environment conducive to discussions.

Youth organizing is not limited to the aforementioned groups. Other organizations, like the Somali Youth Network Council, the United Somali Movement, and a slew of other groups recently created to address a wide range of needs, including community reconciliation, political advocacy, and education. These organizers are politically and socially savvy and they maintain broad social capital. Together, they hope to tackle issues in Minnesota’s Little Mogadishu and in Somalia.   Youth organizers represent the outrage and energy that grew from a painful year marred by murders among Somali youth, a social and humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia, and “the missing” debacle. These young Somalis concentrate on addressing critical issues while also empowering their peers, restoring hope in the elders, and creating a more harmonious community for all.

In black and white photographs, award-winning documentary photographer Abdi Roble chronicles the lives of Somalis from the refugee camps in Kenya, to their new homes in different parts of the world. A picture, as the saying goes, tells a thousand words.

The Somali Diaspora: A Journey Away by Abdi Roble and Doug Rutledge does exactly this, and perhaps much more. Roble and Rutledge, of the Somali Diaspora Project, combine their talents to share the realities, histories, and dreams of Somalis from a wide range of experiences. From the refugee camp to resettlement – they capture the presence and impact of a people whose country remains torn by 18 years of unremitting violence. Their complete work attempts to fill a void by historians and mass media.

Minneapolis community organizer Hashi Abdi is credited for giving the book its structure, which divides the phases Somali immigrant life into three experiences. The first is dependence, reflecting the refugee camp experience. This period is followed by preparation, as lived in many American cities. The final phase is participation – a phase best illustrated by Somalis in Minnesota. This community challenged the notion that active participation entails assimilation, and while the Diaspora elsewhere continues to prepare, they maintain that Somalis in Minnesota are fully engaged.

At the height of the Somali Civil War documentarian Ali Said’s home was looted and destroyed taking with it the history of Somalis through the lens of the country’s only photographer. Said’s loss gave purpose to the book and the project.

And so begins Rutledge and Roble’s extensive documentation of one of the largest Diaspora communities in America.

Their exploration of Somali movement begins at a place familiar to almost all refugees – the camps in Kenya. We are taken to Dabaab, a place the author describes as “that dry, hungry place.”

In Dabaab we meet the family of Abdisalaam and follow them to Anaheim, CA. Photographs of Ijabo, Abdisalaam wife and mother of three toddlers, are hauntingly haggard. She is decidedly malnourished because while at the camp she fed her share of cornmeal to the family’s goats, so that the goats would produce milks for her children to drink.

When Abdisalaam, Ijabo and their children finally resettle in Anaheim Roble captures their anxiety, culture shock and their joy as they begin to make a new home.

Rutledge describes the hardships those in the camp experience, and Roble’s images encapsulate these accounts.

In Columbus, Roble photographs Somali vocalist Maryam Mursal as she performs at a wedding. Mursal, who is known for literally walking her way from the civil war, is a powerful figure in the Somali community. The fusion of Somali and American culture is captured with an image of a wedding where the bride is clad in a white gown while women behind her are wearing the Somali dirac, flowing gowns.

Like many immigrants before them Somali refugees face cultural and societal challenges in their sometimes unwelcoming new home. With his camera Roble delves into the friction that grew between Somali and African Americans in Columbus forcing some Somalis to flee one apartment complex.

Thanks to a sponsorship from the McKnight Foundation and Arts Midwest Roble and Rutledge, on a four-month trip, finally take the last phase of the Somali Diaspora project to Minnesota. In their words, “Minneapolis was like dessert somehow, the sweet after a challenging holiday meal.”

The scope of Roble and Rutledge’s work in Minnesota is vast. From community and business leaders to healthcare and education professionals Minnesota is home to diverse professions.

Nimco Ahmed, a young woman has engaged her community in local and national politics; Hussein Samatar is a business leader in the Somali and larger African community; Omar Abdulle, a comedian uses humor to “mitigate the frustration of a community trying to adjust to a foreign culture”; and Hassan Mohamed Jamici who teaches at William Mitchell College of Law is a scholar in the community.

Other professionals featured include a dentist, a female bus driver, doctor, student and several activists.

The social and political accomplishments of this community is celebrated in the piece, including the election victory of Keith Ellison and the establishment of charter schools reflecting East African cultures.

If you have driven around the Cedar-Riverside area in Minneapolis you will recognize Roble’s photographs of the Brian Coyle Center: images of Somali women clad in the hijab, Somali men in kanzus.

Perhaps you have visited Karmel Mall in Minneapolis, a Somali shopping center, which houses boutiques, restaurants, money-transfer bureaus, barber shops among other small businesses.

Roble’s compilation truly attempts to do justice to the diverse community it covers, representing both marginal and majority sub-populations within the Somali community. Roble and Rutledge’s powerful collaboration exists as a meaningful historical account for a community struggling to collect itself from a devastating civil war. But above all, the piece expresses tremendous hope in, and for, the Somali Diaspora in Minnesota and elsewhere.

The work of award-winning phtographer, Abdi Roble, will be displayed at the Weisman Art Museum from June 20 – September 13, 2009.

The Somali Diaspora: A Journey Away
By Abdi Roble and Doug Rutledge
176pages. University of Minnesota Press
$35