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Begin New Search Political Geography Somalia Journal Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies

31. The Partition of Knowledge in Somali Studies: Reflections on Somalia's Fragmented Intellectual Heritage

Author:
Lee Cassanelli
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
This article is a preliminary and exploratory examination of three distinct traditions of intellectual production in Somalia: the Western secular tradition, the Islamic religious tradition, and the indigenous Somali poetic tradition. Historians who seek to reconstruct Somalia's past have found valuable knowledge in the products of each of these traditions, and analysts of contemporary Somalia have argued that Somalis must draw on the wisdom and experience of all three if they hope to escape from their current national crisis. Unfortunately, most scholars of Somali Studies (myself included) draw their assumptions, pursue evidence, and conduct their research from within only one, or at most two, of these intellectual traditions. As a consequence, our understanding of Somalia has been limited by the fragmentation of knowledge as it is produced, transmitted, and received by successive generations of Somali Studies students and scholars.
Political Geography:
Somalia

32. Battling on Two Fronts: Introducing Maryan Omar Ali

Author:
Ahmed I. Samatar
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
It is a bit muggy but still a gorgeous and clear morning in Toronto, Canada, in early August 2008. A brief and comfortable train ride from the center of the city, one of North America's most cosmopolitan urban concentrations, delivers me to the stop where Ms. Maryan Omar Ali, Aryette, was waiting for me to visit with her. After a few minutes of looking for each other among a throng of people in the arrival area—I have not seen Maryan for more than 17 years—we greeted warmly and then left the station together for the very short bus ride to the large building where her residence is located. Maryan, despite the passage of so many years and some testing health-related experiences, looked buoyant, tranquil, and eager to show me around and then engage in a thorough conversation about her background, passion for Somali literary aesthetics and production, and developments in her life in recent years. We arrived at her compact and neat apartment. Her mother, Sahra Omer Goud, whose strong and kind voice I have heard over the telephone on numerous times, was at the door with a genuine welcoming smile. Once I entered, I could smell the appetizing aroma of the legendary Zeila cooking—perhaps the most sophisticated culinary tradition in all of the Somali-inhabited territories in the Horn of Africa. As is customary, we took off our shoes and walked into the living room. Before we sat, I requested to go to the bathroom to put on a comfortable macawis that I had brought with me for the occasion. We washed our hands and began to devour a tasty lunch of spiced and grilled wild-caught salmon, delicious rice cooked with cloves, cumin, and cardamom and flavored with a dash of raisins, followed by lots of fresh salad and fruits. Soon, Maryan and I were sitting opposite each other with the tiny but powerful recording machine between us. We were surrounded by numerous artistic artifacts, almost all Somali, and stacks of carefully labeled disks—a testimony to her well-established reputation, among those in-the-know, as a premier cartographer and archivist of types of Somali literary production. We agreed to divide the interview into three main parts: her background; her collection and knowledge of popular songs; and her courageous fight against an onslaught of breast cancer—an illness heretofore not publicly discussed by Somalis with the misfortune of contracting it.
Political Geography:
Africa, Canada, Somalia, and Toronto

33. The North-South Divide in Everyday Life: Londoners Sending Money "Home"

Author:
Anna Lindley
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
These views neatly capture the ambiguous feelings that soon become apparent when asking Somali Londoners about sending money “home.” A relative minority of the Somali regions' so-called “missing million” have settled in the Global North, but they provide the bulk of remittance funds. A key node in global trade and finance, London has also witnessed “globalisation from below”: by the beginning of the 21st century over one third of the workforce was born abroad. While the dynamics and impact of immigration and asylum in London are relatively well-recorded and well-researched, the fact that London is also a key source of remittances for poorer countries has only come to the attention of researchers and policymakers in recent years. The World Bank in 2008 suggested that migrants in the U.K. sent official remittances amounting to some $4.5 billion in 2006.
Political Geography:
United Kingdom, London, and Somalia

34. Faithless Power as Fratricide: Is there an Alternative in Somalia?

Author:
Abdi Ismael Samatar
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Simply put, this line and the spirit of the whole song echo Somalis' traditional acumen to generate timely ideas and the competence to listen and heed productive compromises. These attributes that nurtured their collective best interests have been on the wane for three decades and are now in peril or even to perish for eternity. As a result, much despair is visible in the Somali landscape. Yet it is worth remembering that there is no inevitability about the extension of the present despondency into the future as long as civic-minded Somalis are resolute and remain wedded to their compatriots' well-being and cardinal values.
Political Geography:
Somalia

35. Staying off the Bottom of the Melting Pot: Somali Refugees Respond to a Changing U.S. Immigration Climate

Author:
Ihotu Ali
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
As a nation of immigrants, the United States has also been a nation of nativists...We have welcomed immigrants in periods of expansion and optimism, reviled them in periods of stagnation and cynicism...In short, American nativism has had less to do with 'them' than us...Fear and loathing of foreigners reach such levels when the nation's problems become so intractable that some people seek scapegoats. Typically, these periods feature a political or economic crisis, combined with a loss of faith in American institutions and a sense that the national community is gravely fractured. Nativists' targets have reflected America's basic divisions: class, race, religion, and, to a lesser extent, language and culture.
Political Geography:
United States, America, and Somalia

36. Integration Experiences and Youth Perspectives: An Exploratory Study of School-Going Somali Youth in Melbourne, Australia and Minneapolis, Minnesota

Author:
Yusuf Sheikh Omar
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
This brief study explores Somali youth experiences and perceptions of integration experiences in the school context, comparing the differences and similarities of those who live in Melbourne and Minneapolis. Additionally, the study touches on parents' experiences with their children's attitudes in the new environment. Based on interviews with Somali youth from the cities of Melbourne, Australia, and Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States, they are generally aspirants to, and positive about, the current and future educational opportunities they have in Australia and the United States. Those from Minneapolis tend to articulate these opportunities more clearly. Youth and parents agree that Somali girls perform better at school compared to boys. Students' preferences for post-secondary programs are varied but the most popular reason is to help Somali people who are in difficult situations because of the protracted civil war. Both student groups from Melbourne and Minneapolis mentioned several educational challenges. Girls believe that parents pushing their daughters to marry early is the biggest obstacle that may prevent them from continuing further studies and future professional work. Whether they are in or out of school, most Somali students who participated in this study are friends primarily with other Somali youth because of cultural and religious affinities, with the added benefit of pleasing their parents. Finally, with the exception of two girls, Somali youth in this study feel they have been fairly treated by their teachers.
Political Geography:
United States, Australia, Somalia, Melbourne, Minneapolis, and Minnesota

37. Intellectualism amid Ethnocentrism: Mukthar and the 4.5 Factor

Author:
Mohamed A. Eno and Omar A. Eno
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
The prolonged, two-year reconciliation conference held in Kenya and the resulting interim administration, implemented under the dominant tutelage of Ethiopia, are generally considered to have failed to live up to the expectations of the Somali people. The state structure was built on the foundation of a clan power segregation system known as 4.5 (four-point-five). This means the separation of the Somali people into four clans that are equal and, as such, pure Somali, against an amalgamation of various clans and communities that are unequal to the first group and, hence, considered “impure” or less Somali. The lumping together of all the latter communities is regarded as equivalent only to a half of the share of a clan.
Political Geography:
Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia

38. Editor's Note

Author:
Ahmed Samatar
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
We begin this 2008 volume with a number of announcements. First, we apologize to our readers for not delivering on our 2006 promise that this regular issue would include an interview with President Ismail Omer Gaileh of the Republic of Djibouti. We conducted the interview in the fall of 2005 but, by late 2007, events in the region (particularly Somalia and Ethiopia) had changed so dramatically that both the questions and the responses needed major updating. Consequently, we have decided to keep the extant interview in storage until we secure another opportunity, in the near future, to engage President Gaileh.
Political Geography:
Ethiopia and Somalia

39. A Virtuosic Touch: Hodeide, a Life with the Oud and More

Author:
Ahmed Samatar
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
He is as distinguished as any Somali of national accomplishment. Still tall with a straight back, the gait strong, the mind in full alert, the greatest living Somali master of the oud (kaman), Ahmed Ismail Hussein, Hodeide, is now nearly eighty. Like almost a million of his compatriots, he is in exile from the continuing violent misery that is the Somali Republic. It is December 27, 2007. We just ended a delicious and long lunch at one of London's best Indian restaurants, a stone's throw from the British Museum.
Political Geography:
India, London, and Somalia

40. Somali Youth in Diaspora: A Comparative Study of Gender Perceptions of Further Studies and Future Career (Case Study: Somali Youth in Melbourne, Australia)

Author:
Yusuf Sheikh Omar
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
This study explores the educational and employment goals of a sample of Somali adolescents in high schools in Melbourne, Australia, comparing male and female perspectives. It also identifies the barriers Somali students face in defining and achieving their goals, and develops a set of recommendations aimed at assisting Somali students to achieve these goals.
Political Geography:
Australia, Somalia, and Melbourne