The open grounds on the campus of the University of St. Thomas along Summit Avenue in St. Paul were transformed into a scene of cultural extravaganza on Saturday August 12. The event dubbed Igbofest 2006 was one in which Igbo people from Nigeria resident in the USA and Canada entertained a large audience of guests with their rich heritage of African cultural activities.

The President of the Umunne Cultural Association of Minnesota, Mr. Nduka Omeoga, said his organization that staged this event was able for the first time in thirteen years of Igbofest to give out scholarships for higher education to deserving students. He said this was a demonstration of their prime objective of enabling the Igbo students build successful careers and professions so that they may become useful members of the societies in which they live.  During the week-long festivities that started on August 6, a career day for students was organized this year to bring students in touch with their assigned mentors to help them perform well in school and stay focused in their careers of choice.

The Umunne Cultural Association of Minnesota is an organization of Igbo-speaking people of Nigeria living in the great state of Minnesota in the United States of America reflecting their affinity with one another with the primary goal of promoting and preserving the rich Igbo culture.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with a population of 120 million and Igbos who hail from South Eastern Nigeria account for nearly one third of the total population. The other major tribes are Yorubas, Fulanis and Hausas. The Igbo people believe in building a spirit of enhancing educational endeavors and civil well being of all their members so that they may serve effectively the communities in which they live.

 President Omeoga of the Umunne Cultural Association of Minnesota said he was thrilled by the successful symposium on Culture and Democracy in a Revolving Globalized Village which attracted large audiences of intellectuals, students, lawyers and preachers who were able to bring across the importance of culture preservation in communities. The young generation was able to appreciate the importance of carrying forward the peoples’ culture as a way of preserving their self-identity.

The traditional Nigerian kola-nut breaking ceremony offered as a sign of welcoming guests was performed as a way of saying to all guests “you are welcome to our household and event; please feel at home, we love you.”

Nigerian cuisine including Fu-fu, rice, beans, mai-mai and other Nigerian exotic dishes were being served by various vendors who made the event look like a holiday place for an outdoor African family meal in the open grounds of the St Thomas University campus. Children had their usual balloon-laden playgrounds with plenty of delicacies for their appetite and enjoyment.

Summing up the achievements of 13 years of Igbofest celebrations in Minnesota, the President of the Umunne Association proudly said: “we are pleased to be able to bring to the rest of the world Nigeria’s deep-rooted cultural heritage. People do not have to travel to Nigeria to see what we are capable of offering, it is all here for our eyes and minds to digest”

Speaking about prospects of the future, the Umunne President said: “I see a lot of expansion ahead of the IgboFest event attracting various African cultural groups cementing them together thus making our event bigger, better and more entertaining.”

Performances from cultural groups from Canada with their Dege-dege Dance, the Ogadinma dance from New Jersey, the Umunne Youth Dance and the Igbo Women League Dance sent the crowds of invited guests screaming with joy and throwing dollar bills to the colorful-clad dancers.

Nigerians turned up in their hundreds for the event and they were very distinct by their colorful traditional dresses with their women competing on exotic head-gears that made the occasion look like one very large wedding ceremony.  

Visit the Photo Gallery for more Igbofest images.

The fight against the HIV/Aids scourge and the stigma that follows, more aid to slum dwellers and the war against corruption were Senator Barack Obama’s main messages as he made his triumphant entry to Africa for a 15-day visit.
Special focus, however, was going to be his long awaited emotional reunion with his family in the little known Nyang’oma village, Siaya district, which has continued to attract both local and global attention.

In South Africa, Obama was incensed by the perception and belief by the President Thabo Mbeki that ‘poverty rather than HIV causes Aids’.
Mbeki’s hostility towards Western pharmaceutical companies and suspicious Anti-retroviral drugs and the general attitude of South Africa’s government towards the disease gave Obama reason to spread strongly the anti-HIV/Aids programme as he took the lead and promised while there to go for an HIV/Aids test while on his Africa tour.

He began his South Africa tour with a journey to Robben Island prison where South African leader Nelson Mandela was held for most of his 27 years of incarceration.

The senator visited a hospital in SA overflowing with Aids patient as he stressed on the need for attitude change towards the disease in the continent coupled with more US aid.

In Kenya, Obama’s six-day visit targeted the poor population of slum dwellers, victims of HIV/Aids and particularly in Siaya, Kisumu district which is adversely affected by the disease and accounts for one of the largest number of HIV/Aids orphans in the country.

Obama lived to his promise he made to Nobel Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town in his South Africa tour, to take an HIV/Aids test to change the minds of many who could be spreading the disease unknowingly and did exactly that in Kenya, leaving a strong message and a changed perception about the disease even as he awaits permission to meet Mbeki face to face, as his Africa tour continues.

Obama defiantly took President Mwai Kibaki head on, on issues of graft particularly terming current anti-graft efforts by the Narc government as ‘below average and insincere’ even as Kibaki tried his best to give the son of an economist whom he worked with in the Ministry of Planning in 1970s (Hussein Obama senior) a warm welcome into the corridors of State House.
Obama took the anti-graft war to President Mwai Kibaki’s door step on his day one in the country as he courageously prevailed upon him to change government policies on democracy and governance if he was to win the trust of foreign investors and the fight against corruption.

 “For the government to attract foreign investors, issues of democracy and transparency in government must be addressed. I told this to the President when he raised issues of foreign investors,” he told an international press conference at the Grand Regency hotel on Friday shortly after meeting Kibaki who was the first in his itinerary.

On the same Friday, he also held talks with President Kibaki, Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju and Leader of the Official Opposition Uhuru Kenyatta. As his visit elicited excitement across Kenya and the continent and further attracted global interest, Obama’s emotional family  re-union at his father’s home in Nyang’oma village, and his strong message on the fight against HIV/Aids as he offered himself for a public HIV/Aids test at a mobile  Voluntary Test Centre (VCT) clinic outside the Nyanza Provincial hospital test alongside his wife Michelle, where both of them tested Negative, was a major challenge to victims of HIV/Aids stigma and even those who shy away from voluntary tests across the continent.

A down to earth person who mingled freely with Kenyans, who jostled at every opportunity to catch a glimpse of him as he defied the presence of his heavy security detail, demonstrated in his short public life that he is a man of an uncommon grace, intelligence and compassion.

A carnival mood engulfed Siaya town and its environs as Obama visited his district for a family re-union where he was served with a steaming Pilau dish (Swahili staple food) inside his grandmother’s house before addressing villagers.
It was a rousing welcome for the US politician in an emotional journey to the land of his father.

Villagers thronged various trading center at which the senator convoys that also included her wife Michelle passed.

Siaya town was in the morning a beehive of activity as people thronged the KCB Siaya to withdraw more cash for their transport as fares shot up.

Around midday the town was deserted as all the people had left to the senators village, while those who could not make it were forced to wave for him at various market centers he was passing.

The senator started his journey from Ondere village in Central Ugenya location where he is financing a multi-million aids orphan care project through Care Kenya.

The visit enabled him to pass through the worst poverty stricken areas of the province and areas with high HIV/AIDS infections such as Ambira, Ngunya, Ndere, Siaya town, Dond Koki, Nur Ngiya, Pap Nyadiel upto his grandmothers’ home in Nyang’oma Kogelo village in Aleggo. The convoy to his grandmother’s home included the US ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger.

During his visit, the senator called for concentrated efforts to fight the HIV/Aids pandemic which he termed dangerous.

At Ondero village, the senator came to face with reality of the disease when he met the 2,306 children orphaned through Aids that he is supporting. Obama had personally committed some Sh1.2 million for the four years project through his initiative.

The project started in 2002, is geared towards economically empowering the older women who take care of the orphaned children.

Funded through the World renowned non-governmental organization Care Kenya, the women aged over 50 years are assisted with micro-credit finance revolving fund which enables them to purchase several income generating inputs such as sewing machines.

The senator mingled and danced with the children who narrated moving songs, poems and skits as the senator held his cheeks.
Child after child thanked the senator for the move but asked for more to be able to continue with their lives.

The songs and others forced the Obama to explain that he would prevail upon the US Government to increase its funding of Aids related activities.
The senator challenged all stakeholders to support the elderly who had been left with the task of caring for the young orphaned children.

“When I look at these young children, I think of my father and the great people of Kenya. That time there was no Aids”, he told the gathering which had converged under a baobab tree.

Though he did not commit himself to extending the funding of the programme, the senator said that he would explore ways of seeing that the project sustains itself.
 It was at his ancestral home that the great son of the village received a hero’s welcome led by key opposition chief in Kenya, Raila Odinga.

He lamented that most of the orphaned children, had no opportunity since they were under the care of elder mothers whose economic condition did not allow them to do much for the children.

The senator promised to ensure that both the primary and the secondary schools named after his father were improved.

Obama directed the world’s attention on the poverty in Africa when he toured Kibera, the largest slums in the continent.

His actions and pronouncements unearthed behind a Senator, a man who cares deeply about the poor, the marginalized and those who are despised by the society.

As he addressed issues of poverty in Kenya and South Africa which he first visited, Obama brought out a strong message that poverty was not about failure of personal morality but largely failure of the society to create an enabling and empowering environment in which all can grow and flourish.

At Kibera, he toured alongside his wife, Mchanganyiko women self help group at the heart of the Slum before proceeding to Carolina for Kibera, an HIV/Aids project.
And he declared that it was not his first visit to Kibera and neither would it be the last.

Obama declared as he addressed thousands of excited residents, close co-operation between the US government and the government of Kenya to bring more opportunities to the slums.

Obama and his wife took time after a tour of the slums to listen to the youth and women on their efforts through several community based organizations and personal initiatives to fight HIV/Aids.

On Monday, the senator visited Standard Group head office in Nairobi as a show of solidarity in relation to the recent attack on the group’s Standard and KTN offices by government agents.

The senator was still in Africa as this edition of Mshale went to press. His next stop was Djibouti and Chad. He was also expected to tour Rwanda and Congo where gun battles erupted in the capital after a preliminary vote tally in that nation’s first election in nearly a half century produced  a winner.

Bank of America, the nation’s largest retail banking company, announced on August 23 that it’s cutting its ties to the nation’s top two money transmitters, Minneapolis-based MoneyGram International and Western Union. This comes as Somali Financial Services Association of North America (SFSA), a union of a dozen or so small money transmitters are making an eleventh-hour attempt to prevent local banks from closing their accounts.

On Monday, local banks including Minneapolis-based TCF, U.S bank and Iowa-based Wells Fargo, announced they will close accounts used by Somali money wiring companies due to stiff regulations by the federal government. The move could unravel the multi-million dollar money wiring business in Minnesota and might put millions of people in Africa and elsewhere whose relatives live in the state in financial crisis.

The money wiring companies, locally known as “Hawalas”, utilize traditional methods to transfer money around the world. Thousands of immigrants in the U.S use this system.

Money wiring companies say that U.S Bank and Wells Fargo have closed their accounts for months or even years in some cases. But TCF, which seems to have endured the ever-increasing rigid rules put forward by the federal government over terrorism and money laundering concerns, sent a notice to at least half a dozen Hawalas informing them that their accounts will be closed by September 14.

Representatives from the Hawalas met with representatives from the offices of senators Mark Dayton (D-MN) and Norm Coleman (R-MN) Monday in hopes that the two senators can come to their aid. They are also planning to meet with the state attorney general’s office soon, but it’s not clear what state officials and senators can do immediately.

One of the Hawala operators who attended those meetings and didn’t wanted to be identified because of the ongoing efforts, said that a major concern for the federal authorities is that they are unable to track money wired from the U.S. to the United Arab Emirates, the global financial headquarters of almost all Hawalas where the money is first sent to before distributing it throughout the world.

Financial institutions, including Bank of America, are citing new – and costly- federal regulations that require surgical tracking of accounts owned by money wiring companies. Costs associated with doing such precise work, banks argue, are just not worth it.

A TCF bank notice sent to SFSA member reasoned the closure of the account with “substantial federal regulations” and “costs and risks” that the bank would simply not be able to handle. It did, however, apologize for the inconvenience.

But Garad Nor, who chairs SFSA, says what they are doing is not only a business, but “a matter of life and death.”

“We serve as a local bank in Somalia. We transmit monthly remittances to destitute and, at times, very ill people whose generous relatives live here in Minnesota,” he said. “If we fail to do that by September 14 (the date TCF said it would close accounts) we can expect human catastrophe in East Africa.”

SFSA sends an estimated $25 million a month to East Africa, according to Nor.

Nor says that his group is exploring “legal ways” to send cash to their customers around the world if the banks insist in severing their relationship with his group.

Industry experts say if the stalemate isn’t broken one way or another, it’s likely to encourage black market dealers to capture the moment and start their own off-the-record, below-the-radar money wiring operations.

“Once legal doors are shut, people will always find illegal ways to send their remittances to their families,” says Faisal Mohamud, an industry expert who consults with money wiring companies.

That scenario, experts concur, poses a greater security risk to the U.S.

Since all SFSA members are licensed and bonded, Mohamud argues that the federal government should pressure private banks to work with them to avert illegal activities.

About 40 percent of Somalia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stems from remittances sent by Diaspora communities, according to Mohamud.

Nor, the SFSA chair, says that his group’s short-term goal is to try to maintain accounts with local banks until a long-term solution is reached.

That long-term solution includes modifying federal regulations in a way that is transparent, yet conducive to the operations of money transmitters.

“We complied with state and federal regulations. We created jobs. It’s time for the feds to work with us.” said Nor.

At the University of Minnesota, young scholars in the program named for the fallen astronaut are reaching for the stars.

Naima Bashir, a senior at the University of Minnesota, has a keen interest in learning about parents’ involvement in their children’s education in her Somali community. This summer, she was able to conduct a research on the topic when she was one of 21 top students to participate in the U of M McNair Scholars Summer Research Program.

The McNair Scholars Program, now in its 14th year at the University of Minnesota, is named after Ronald McNair, the African American astronaut who died in the 1986 Challenger space shuttle explosion. It aims to encourage and assist minority, disabled or low-income undergraduates to enroll in graduate programs or professional schools. Besides conducting hands-on research, participants have been attending motivational workshops, graduate record exam prep classes and research writing workshops.

Bashir, a 2003 Hopkins High School graduate who majors in family social science and child psychology, conducted a research under the guidance of family social science professor Catherine Solheim on the research titled ""Parent-School Partnerships: A Study of Somali Immigrants in Minnesota."

Bashir, one of nine children of Muhubo Muse and Abdullahi Bashir of Hopkins, knows full well the importance of parental influence on a Somali child’s education.

"I’ve had a lot of support from my parents," Bashir said. "They stress that education is a big thing and that it provides opportunities you otherwise would not have. They push us a lot."

Urged on by her parents and her own desire to excel, Bashir has overcome obstacles to succeed. Her family arrived from Kenya just seven years ago and Bashir attended junior high and high school in a mostly white suburban school.

"There weren’t any Somali students and very few African Americans," she recalled. "Socially I felt alone and felt like an outsider."

The social isolation didn’t stop Bashir from doing well in high school and being accepted into the University of Minnesota. At the U, Bashir immediately found a social network when she joined the Black Student Union and the Somali Student Association. "That helped a lot. I met new friends right away," Bashir said.

Academically, Bashir found her major but she needed a mentor for guidance. She searched the various mentoring programs the U offers and found professor Solheim.

"I need a mentor and someone to motivate me," Bashir said. "I was very lucky to find professor Solheim."

Under Solheim’s guidance, Bashir started conducting her research and the McNair Program allowed her to dive into the project full time this summer. In addition to providing research funding, the McNair Program also gave Bashir encouragement and support.

"McNair is designed for someone like me," said Bashir, who plans to continue her research on barriers facing Somali youth through the U of M Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program.

 "I feel welcome and I feel like we are a family. It motivates you and makes you feel you can do anything you put your mind to."

Bashir, who will be the first child in her family to receive a degree from a four-year university,  is certain she will pursue her goal of earning a master’s degree in
educational policy and administration.

"Applying for graduate school is a big thing and I didn’t think I could do it," Bashir sad. "The McNair Program is very helpful. It makes me feel positive that I will get into graduate school."

Since 1991, the McNair Program has sponsored more than 300 students. Of those, 60 percent have gone on to graduate school.

Congratulations are in order for Abdi Aynte, the editor of the Somali website Hiiraan.com and contributing writer at Mshale for his new fellowship at The Center for Independent Media’s New Journalist Program. As part of his beat, Abdi will be covering the African community, the Muslim community, race, immigration, local politics as it’s related to Africans and Muslims and terrorism.

Abdi is glad to accept story tips at [email protected]. His reports and stories can be found at www.minnesotamonitor.com. He will continue to contribute to undertake special assignments for Mshale and you can read his story on the effect of closing of the accounts for African money wiring companies by local banks in this edition.

Meanwhile, Edwin Okong’o, Mshale’s West Coast correspondent was named a 2006 Summer Human Rights Fellow at Human Rights Center University of California, Berkeley. As part of the fellowship, he worked with the nongovernmental organization Dick Tiger ’72 Olympian Hero International (named after a Kenyan Olympic boxing medalist) that advocates for the rights of people with disabilities in Kenya. Although Kenya enacted the Persons with Disability Act in 2003, the lives of people with disabilities reportedly have seen little improvement.

He also reported on a number of other issues while in Kenya this past summer and you can read his story about the near-extinction of an environment-friendly timber harvesting skill that was the sole source of income for many men in the Gusii region of Kenya. This will be one of several stories that Mshale will publish.