I was like 60 years old and I went to school one day and that day there's nobody coming
back to pick me up.
I've been looking for a family for nine years and I don't even see anybody in my house and
I've seen a lot of people who are skilling and all that, I was so scared.
I asked for the neighborhood to help me with some of my friends and they told me, don't
worry about it, we're going to find out what your family is and after that I'll stay with
my friend's house for three years.
I walked to Kenya like more than 1500 miles walking and she didn't see a lion, a tiger,
everything.
It was attacking people and it was 250 people walking, no food, no water and all that and
usually they all died.
I was like 15 people, I survived and couldn't move, 16 people.
I've experienced a lot of bad stuff.
I'm originally from Somalia.
I was born in a small town called Uriore, two hours northwest of Mogadishu, the capital.
I got here when I was about 14 years old.
My dad was a farmer, I mostly grew up here so I didn't, as a young kid I didn't do nothing
other than play soccer.
Around 1999 we moved from Uriole to the capital, Mogadishu and then from the capital we experienced
a very, I could call it a journey but it's very tough, it was a tough journey to the
camps in Kenya.
A lion had attacked us while on the road on the journey and it took a father and a child.
We would never know what happened to them, we couldn't find their bodies.
As a young kid I remember our cows dying because of gunshots.
I remember seeing blood, I remember seeing so many things that a 13 year old should not
experience.
All of that was overcammed when I arrived here.
My clan is from Sharif, I'm a Sharif meaning a respected individual or respected clan.
We were never in war with any other clan.
So in particular my family were the center of peace and the center of resolving disputes,
engaging people together.
My wife and I were arranged, it was a arranged marriage where my family had talked to both
families and decided without me and including her that we were fit and that we were good
to be a married couple.
Actually I didn't find out until I was like 18 when I had a girlfriend and was thinking
of getting married.
I found out that there was this girl who my family had arranged already and when I started
chatting with her, talking to her, she was kind of like, you're from America, I mean
I don't want you boy.
So anyways and then after a while we kind of got together and we talked over, we talked
about a year before we even decided to have the engagement.
I said I do all the phone.
My thing I'm wearing is kind of like a cultural, I'm showing that I'm married for one thing
but I like to rock, it's kind of, I bought it in Chicago, it's hard to find it here,
so I bought it in Chicago, I couldn't find it anywhere else but I know it should be,
in American culture it should be on the left but in our culture, the Somali culture they
usually do it on the side.
The community knows that she's married but there's nothing that she wears or that shows
that she's married.
Women and men should always, in our culture and in Islam religion are always separate.
It's one of our traditional, like women to stay home and prepare and take care of the
kids, take care of the family, take care of the house and then, you know, I'm not saying
that they have to stay home all day or all night, they can come out but it's not a thing
that they come out and stand at the mall or hang out at the mall like guys are.
We all live in this country, we all come together as Americans but at the end of the day we
all go out through different cultures and different backgrounds so it's a good thing
to sometimes show them where I'm from, who I am, what we do, what we eat, how our daily
lives are.
Back home in Somalia, I'm familiar that there was, you wouldn't call it dating but a night
out.
I mean, you would go out with a friend or perhaps a fiance or someone you would be engaged
with or have already been acknowledged in marrying, then you would go out and you would
have to have someone with you all the time basically.
You can't be alone, you can just go out on a date.
So there's either a sister or brother or a friend from the girls side who would come
with and just be going out.
The separation between men and women is not so much culture, it's more of religion, you
know, we cannot be in the same area, it's not allowed, you know.
But we still love each other and everything, don't get it wrong.
That's how we always live, you know, so nothing new.
And bars and all that other stuff is off limits, Muslims are not allowed to drink or be in
any, in that type of facility whatsoever.
So this is like what you do, this is what we do.
When people have their, like, you come here on a Sunday, it's packed.
This is the Center Point Mall, this is a clothing store, one of the clothing stores.
This is a family store, we own it, me and my mom and my sister co-own it, we all invested
in it, so it just started this March.
These are called Hamis, they wear them on a special day, Fridays.
There's no press tags on them, they usually sell, they know, they all memorized it so
they know what they're selling.
And everybody knows what they're buying, so these are called Hijab, these are, I think
these are $10.
Hijab is mainly for purity, so it's optional, it's not mandatory, what kind of hijab you
wear.
The mandatory is, as a female, you should cover yourself, and what should be covered
is not included in the face and the hands and the legs.
So depending on what kind of hijab you wear, it's acceptable in the eyes of God, I mean,
people should not be judged because of what they wear, so men would have to cover their
bodies, there's a, you know, up to your knee you'd have to cover.
They can't wear what women wear, they can't wear a silk, they can't wear gold.
Some do, but it shouldn't be.
Elderly men wear different clothing and kind of like, show different hats, kind of with
a cane.
Sometimes they have the cane because they want to show how elderly they are and how
culturally they should be recognized.
When there is disputes of land, when there's disputes of issues, family issues, marriage
issues, they're the ones that are discussed with, they're the ones that decide and sit
based on clans.
Besides the mosque, this is where most of the Somalis gather, shop, chit chat, talk about
what's going on, catch up with what's happening in Somalia, that mostly it happens here.
So when they go and pray to the mosque and come back, they would come back here and just
meet and talk to each other and catch up with relatives, friends and talk about that.
I think when I compare, I say American culture, I don't see, you know, where people gather
as many as these people gather around and, you know, talk about and have a nice conversation.
Even if you go to the mall, you can see people shopping, buying stuff, but you might not
find them, like, three or four standing and having a good conversation.
As far as I'm concerned, this is home, you know, this is where all my memories come from,
this is where all the cultural experience and education and everything comes from,
you know.
We come here downtown to Somali Mall to get our Somali food, to get some cultural experience,
tea right here that I can't put down, I have about three or four a day, you know, it's
really good.
But coming here and seeing your people all together and eating together and experiencing
everything together is nice, you know.
We try to socialize here, we have fun, we just have fun, and we have a lot of fun,
and he said it in a way, you know, we just have fun and communicate and socialize here
on Saturdays and Sundays, that's the only time I have off.
Being here, when I come here, I feel the same as I'm in Somali, you know, I see a lot of
else from Somalia, you know, speaking my own language, people here, and yeah, pretty much
I feel like I'm in home.
How do you like Wilma?
Wilma?
It's not big cities, it's not like violence, no violence, it's kind of, it's kind of good.
My days off, usually I come here, you know, I can't make a tea or coffee in my home, but
I just come here, even if I'm not buying anything here, I'm just coming here.
Most of them, I don't know their names, you know.
Bringing our American friends here is not a big deal to me, you know, I'd like to have
them experience what my culture is like, as much as I go out to eat with them all the
time, so I know what they're about, I go to school with them, I go to their houses, and
they do the same, you know, we're all friends, and so we teach each other about each other's
cultures.
This place brings everybody together at the weekends, like, whether you were working or
you were going to school, you might not find all the people here, but most of them who
are outgoing, you can find them here, this place, it's the best place to have in town.
As much as I enjoy doing everything that they do and all the activities and the food and
everything, it makes me feel good that they enjoy what I'm about also, it goes both ways.
It goes both ways, yeah.
There won't be those, so many businesses, there won't be so many things if they won't
need somebody, so everybody is dependent on everybody, it's like a circle, some of these
are here because of the job.
Every person should pray Fridays, every Friday there's a Friday prayer, it's very short,
but there's a talk after the prayer that they should listen to, it's important to listen
to that.
So Friday is very important, it's kind of like the big gathering for all.
Is that loud enough?
Okay.
You can even watch her.
What's she saying?
I know that I want you.
Once again, it comes more to religion than culture, it depends how religious the person
is.
All of Somali culture, mostly all of them will listen to music, but only a few that
are more than other religion more won't listen to music, you know.
I'm not saying I'm a bad Muslim, but I listen to music, you know, Somali music, American
music, whatever.
I don't know if you heard of him or not, Justin Timberlake?
Okay.
Just wondering.
I love Justin Timberlake.
Music is a touchy stuff, actually, religion is prohibited, it's something that if you
do that you're sinning, you know, basically, it's not compared to having a lawful sex
bed.
Music was used as a message, mostly, and in most cases Somali musicians used to have
a lot of protest songs that they actually used to disguise as love songs to try on whatever
regime or governments that were in place at the time, in order to rebel or to deliver
a message to people.
I'm trying to represent a better view of the Somali community, I'm trying to tell the
world that the Somali community, a large is good people, they're educated, they know
what they're doing, they're humanitarian, they will never see you down, they will never
see you down, no matter who you are, if you're black, white, or anybody, they will not see
you in a bad corner, they will try to pick you up and help you financially, make you
stable, so that you could one day remember the favor they have done for you.
As we go along, years pass, we learn new things, we learn each other, we have community, we
grow, we take care of each other, that's how we build communities, we should set up community
education centers where we have people just, you know, talking and just discussions, we
should have discussions, that's very important, we should have music, discussions and food,
those are the three main things we should have in a community where we all get together
and just celebrate, you know.
Alright, that's actually one of the things I want to do pretty soon, in the next couple
of summers I'd like to go back and visit, I've heard that it's getting better under
this new government and everything, seeing the family, you know, people you haven't seen
in like 10, over 10 years or so and just being home, like what it's like, you know, in the
lifestyle, that's something I want to experience again.
I'm not planning on going back soon, my family is not planning on going back soon, so actually
I was thinking of, we're thinking of buying a house here, so it's, I don't mind my son
being born in the United States, what I would not like would be to my son in growing up
in a very different culture and missing out on his own culture, so probably once he grows
up he would have both sides, he would go back and visit home and come back and he would
be between the two countries, between the two cities.
A lot of memories here, I've been here for nine years, about nine years here, I moved
away for a year or two and I came back again, ever since I considered this to be my home
and I spent a lot of time bettering the net, being involved, trying to set everything straight,
picking up garbage, trying to be making my home, my little home.
I can't wait until when he grows up and starts talking and both languages, Somali and English
starts going to be.
We have a rule at home, our parents are very enforced that very well, they say only Somali
at home, you know, but you know, it all depends how much you want to be in contact, how much
you want to hold on to your culture, nobody's going to make you do anything you don't want
to do, you know, so as far as I'm concerned I involve myself, I speak Somali, I read
Somali, I hang out with my Somali friends, you know, because I don't ever want to forget
who I am and where I came from.
You hear the word Muslim, they're like related to the bad things, you know, if a white kid,
you know, I say American kid, throw rack at me and hit me, I'm not saying all the Americans
are bad because of that one kid, so if one bad person did something terrible, that doesn't
have to mean that everybody's terrible.
After 9-11, a lot of things changed, if you're a Muslim or if you're from a Muslim country,
then people look at you differently, but it's that human nature, I feel like that's human
nature, but you shouldn't accuse anybody of something that they're not even aware of.
Find out for yourself, instead of depriving yourself from a cultural experience, you know,
go out there, see what it's like, then get to decide whether you like it or not, don't
just be over there and base your judgment on rumors and all that, you know, every nationality
has got some bad people, you know, not everybody's bad, but there's good people here that you
should get to know.
Yeah, I would like to tell the Wilmore community, non Somalian, most of the time when we get
outside and they see, you know, like 10 Somalian males standing there and talking, you know,
most of the time they scare their things, you know, oh, these guys, you know, maybe they're
making big sounds, you know, trouble should come anytime, you know, we just tell them,
do not scare them.
We're not doing, you know, any drugs, anything illegal, we don't have any weapon, we're
not fighting, we're not against you, you know, we just hang out here, just like, you know,
everybody doing.
One thing I would tell people that live in Wilmer, about Wilmer people or anyone that
lives around the world, is that not all people in Wilmer are scared to talk, not all people
in Wilmer are scared to mention who they are and be a voice for the voiceless in other words.
We do have good people.
We're ready to help you, we're ready to share anything that come out with Wilmer community
because we are part of the Wilmer community, so yes, yes, yes, I love Wilmer and I love
people who live in Wilmer too, Somalian, Somalian, you know, everybody lives here, I've lived
with all family, as long as we live in the same city, you know, we're family, that's
what I believe.
Wilmer has been growing, the Muslim community has been growing a lot, so they had, they
had initially looked so many different places, I know people started talking about it and
it's not, it's been around, Somalian community has been around for a while here, so it's
not new, whoever pretends it's new to them, it's not new, I mean, they've been here 20
years at least or 30 years, so, and Wilmer has been welcoming for so many diverse communities
and it's been known for that.
You gotta remember that we were all in their shoes at one time, like when I came here back
in the day, I was a newcomer just like them, didn't know anything, it all takes time to
learn things and some guidance, that's what we do as more Americanized Somalis, we're
here to help, whenever we see something that's not traditional here in this country, then
we help them and everything, but yeah, it takes time to get used to and everything.
I used to have this good friend of mine, Hannah, and she would always, she had a dog, and I'd
always go visit, and the dog should always lock it away, but at first she didn't lock
it away, because the dog just attacked me, and I'm not used to pets, honestly, I don't
know, it's just a culture thing not to be close to dogs, not just any pet but just dogs,
and so she would lock her dog away ever since the day that I told her, hey, you know, I'm
not used to dogs, so therefore, whenever I come visit out of respect, just put your dog
away, you should always do that, so that was one thing that she didn't understand at first,
but then once I explained to her and showed her, then she realized and stopped it.
I've seen some people when I once did a presentation about Somali culture, some guy would sometimes
in the middle of the crowds stand up and say, hey, this is my country, go back to your country.
I would say, no, this is my country too, you know, you got here just a little bit earlier
than I did, so, you know, I'm not going anywhere.
