The Wake

Take a walk through the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis. Amid the shops and sidewalks, around the Brian Coyle Community Center, you’ll find large congregations of Somalis and Somali Americans, whose move into the neighborhood en masse, due to almost two decades’ worth of trials and tribulations, is still creating excitement today. Yet despite being another group within Minneapolis’ vast racial spectrum, the Somali community deals with some of the most negative press around, due to the issues that plague their homeland, issues which still affect them half a world away.

Somalia has been mired in civil war since 1991, when militant factions and clans overthrew decades’ worth of dictatorial government under the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party; it was granted its independence in the 1960s after decades of semi-colonial control by Europe. Since 1991, infighting between rival factions and widespread panic and fear has left the country in a precarious position among African nations. The U.S. and U.N. have tried multiple times to send food, aid and even troops to the East African nation over the past 18 years, with little results and even less good news received. The biggest news to come from the region before 2004 was the infamous Black Hawk Down incident, where 18 U.S. soldiers were killed during a joint U.S. and U.N. attack on militias in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, in October 1993, which left a lasting impression on the minds of American society.

The Somali community in Minnesota, here since the first refugees and immigrants came in 1993, is the largest population of Somalis and Somali Americans anywhere in the U.S., with population estimates ranging from 60,000 to 80,000. Since that time, there’s been news aplenty about Somali issues, whether it’s Somali cab drivers refusing to serve people who carry alcohol, or the current hot-button issue of Somali youth violence.

“It’s really exposing people to only one side of the story,” says Fadumo Ali, a finance and accounting sophomore at the University of Minnesota. “I feel like people are only seeing the negative aspects of Somali people. There is a lot of positive aspects of Somali culture.”

Those positive aspects can seem hard to find in a 24-hour news cycle. Common perceptions abound that the news only reports on crises, tragedies and breaking scandals. Somali-related news is no exception. The recent spate of news within the Somali community in Minnesota was the September 2008 shooting death of Ahmednur Ali, a 20-year-old Augsburg College student who volunteered at the Brian Coyle Community Center and, unfortunately, was the fifth young Somali man killed in the community over a 12-month span. This unfortunate story illustrating the issues of Somali youth violence in Minneapolis was soon replaced by the stories of Somali piracy off the Gulf of Aden and the news of as many as 20 young Somali men leaving Minnesota to fight in their homeland as part of the Al-Shabab organization, considered by the U.S. to be terrorists with ties to Al-Qaeda.

It is no small wonder to see what happens from here. Stories of Somali piracy, of Somali terrorism connections, and of Somali investigations spread throughout the local media circuit through the summer, with the Star Tribune reporting in July that at least four of the 20 or so young men had died in Somalia during the infighting. Yet the recent tone in news concerning Somalia shows a positive shift as most, if not all, media outlets in the Twin Cities reported on Somalia’s president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, and his recent 3-day tour in Minnesota, meeting with Somali families, elders, and even giving a highly publicized, packed speech at the U of M’s Northrup Auditorium. Ahmed, widely seen as the man who could unite the country in peace, was himself driven out of Somalia just a few years earlier, when as head of the Islamic Courts Union he lost power when Ethiopia invaded Somalia in late 2006 to try and restore order to an Islamic militant-held Mogadishu. Since his inauguration in February, Ahmed’s attempts at a moderate Islamic government have been met with large praise and support, making him the most viable president of Somalia to give it a bit of stability and peace since the beginning of the current conflict.

Other mixed news flows out of the Somali community recently, as The Minnesota Daily reports an increase of youth violence in the past month is causing Cedar-Riverside residents to call for more action in educating newly immigrated-citizens on the use of 911 and reporting crimes as well as educating Minneapolis police on the cultures and practices of the community at large. While the increase in youth crime is worrying, the calls for more understanding by both citizens and police signifies a good, improving climate and a way to shift misguided perceptions about the Somali community, among other communities of color in the area.

Yet the biggest problem is the sporadic attention Somalia receives. Although there is more news coverage now over Somalia’s troubles, the call to pay attention was first brought about by the piracy and terrorism coverage Somalia has received. According to Ali, a group of Japanese students recently came to the U of M in order to learn more about Somalia since the only information they had about the Somali culture was the recent news coverage on Al-Shabab and piracy. “I was really shocked,” Ali says.
Such misunderstandings have been at the forefront of the editorial pages of The Daily recently, as many have commented and debated about a recent opinion column questioning what the author perceived to be certain sexist tendencies by “East African males,” who may or may not practice Islam. This furor only echoes the negative perception Muslims face nationally, as even Ali admits her identity as a Muslim woman wearing a hijab or a burka is challenged more than her identity as a Somali American.

The answers to how the Somali community can garner better attention are beyond the scope of this article. Certainly, more dialogue between the Somali community and outside communities needs to be established. Ali hopes the more positive aspects of Somali culture can be seen, that both the Somali community and the communities in Minnesota can come together to discuss these issues. It will help to see more articles about Somali officials visiting the state, as well as Somali success stories like the New York Times article on Mohamed Aden, a Somali leader who has managed to bring stability and functioning government to about 5,000 square miles of land around Adado in the middle of Somalia. In time, this coverage may help in addressing the critical structural problems inside the Somali government. For now, identifying the problems and opening a dialogue may be the start of an answer.

Tags: Al-Shabab, Brian Coyle Community Center, Piracy, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, Somali Americans, Somali Community, Somalia