East Africans talk activism at MSU

MANKATO — For a time, Somalis in Minnesota had something of a suitcase mentality as many wondered if their time here was temporary, said Hashi Shafi of Minneapolis.

For that reason, and because it was something of a foreign concept, many people didn’t participate in American democracy.

“To unpack our suitcases takes time,” said Shafi, director of a civic education nonprofit in Minneapolis.

But unpack they have, as evidenced by the Somalis who are organizing their communities politically.

Shafi and two other East Africa natives visited Minnesota State University Monday for a panel discussion on political activism among Somali and Ethiopian immigrants. Lori Lahlum, chair of the history department, said it was “part of a centuries-old conversation about immigrants and political participation.”

That political integration has helped connect Somalis to their adopted homes, which isn’t the case everywhere.

Shafi said Somalis in Europe tend to be less active in public life. Perhaps as a result, they tend to describe themselves as Somalis from Somalia, whereas he and others use the term “Somali-American.”

There are an estimated 100,000 Somalis and 30,000 Ethiopians in Minnesota.

Lahlum, who has extensively studied Norwegian political participation in the Dakotas, said that virtually everything the panel discussed has happened here more than a century before.

What’s important?

The panelists described their involvement in terms of using political influence to help solve the community’s most pressing issues, including employment, immigration, housing and education, especially English classes.

“What am I getting back from voting for a candidate?” said Nasser Mussa, who directs an adult education center in Minneapolis. In other words, a vote is more a means to an end rather than sufficient by itself.

He sees political organizing as essential; no one is going to solve his community’s problems unless they get out and make “a lot of noise,” he said.

From Mussa’s point of view, Somali-Americans’ biggest problem is unemployment. Imagine, he said, that you speak no English and have no skills to put on a resume.

“I see people struggling with employment every single day,” he said.

Though people in their 30s and 40s are organizing, Shafi sees apathy in the next generation. It might be the case that these teens and 20-somethings will catch up with their elders, given time.

Abdi Sabrie of Mankato asked the panelists when Somalis would start to advocate for wider minority issues, such as the achievement gap, and take foreign-policy stances.

Mussa said he doesn’t think the achievement gap will be closed until classroom lessons are more closely tied to what’s going on in their communities.

Somali political activism suffered a setback during precinct caucuses Feb. 4 in Minneapolis, where a fight broke out over who would lead the meeting.

Less violently, DFL organizers were challenged in 2012 as they tried to persuade Somalis to vote against a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman.

Many East Africans are very conservative, Mussa said. To get them to think about the issue differently, he would ask if they believed marriage should be between one man and one woman. They would generally say yes. But then he noted that the Koran says marriage can be between one man and up to four women.

“They laugh a little bit and are open to dialogue,” he said.

After they spoke on the topic, the panelists noted they had taken this position on gay marriage because they were working for Democrats, not because they were representing their community.

Norwegian parallels seen

Lahlum, the MSU history chair, said 19th-century politicians and political parties recruited Norwegians to stump for candidates. This was a time when ballots were printed in several languages, and foreign-born Norwegians tended to identify with the old country more than the new.

But even if they griped about how things were different in Norway, their letters home show how much they valued their newfound political rights.

It’s the same among the Somalis, who have been coming to America in large numbers since civil war broke out there in 1991.

“For most Somalis, voting in general is a new phenomenon,” said Mustafa Jamale, an aide to U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison. “They hold that very dear.”

Turn-of-the-century America made accommodations for non-citizen Norwegians, about 7,000 of whom could vote in South Dakota state elections, Lahlum said.

But they had advantages that Somalis don’t, she said, including that they shared skin color and religion with their fellow Americans. If they wanted to totally blend in and ignore their heritage, no one could really prove different.

mankatofreepress.com