by Holly Peterson | | Lavender Magazine
Nasir Abdi-Omar, a queer Somali-American who lives in Minneapolis, has experienced this catch-22 first-hand. “I’ve had to deal with ignorance on both sides,” he explains, “Being a queer Somali person in the Twin Cities sometimes can be alienating…I’m too western for Somalis and too eastern for white, gay America.”
Continue reading “Meet the Queer Somalis in America”
by Donna Torrence | Blackfilm.com
“I don’t want to be a victim. I want to be a voice,” says Ifrah Ahmed, who has become the voice and face of the fight to end female genital mutilation around the globe. A Girl From Mogadishu, a powerful drama about Ahmed’s life and journey, made its US premiere on July 15th on Showtime and will continue to air during the summer.
Continue reading “A Girl From Mogadishu – Review by Donna Torrence”
By G.A. Benton | The Columbus Dispatch
In my experience, people who immigrate to this country often exhibit a deep faith in the lofty ideals on which America was founded.
This explains the striking decorations inside Afra Grill, a modern, highly accommodating and pristinely sparkling Northland-area restaurant that Abcos Ahmed, an emigre from Somalia, opened in June.
Continue reading “Afra Grill: Somali spot worthy of All-American honors”
By SARAH MCCAMMON | NPR
The state of Minnesota is home to the largest Somali population in the United States, tens of thousands of people, many of whom were refugees from civil war. Today, we’re talking with two of them who are making history. Abdirizak Abdi and Akram Osman are the first Somali public school principals in Minnesota. That’s according to the Sahan Journal, which reports about immigrants in the state. They both just started on the job, which means first figuring out how to do it in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Continue reading “2 Somali-Americans Become Public School Principals In Minnesota For The 1st Time”
Home to the largest Somali community in the country, Minnesota Somali-Americans have played a pivotal role in taking a stand against systemic racism in the weeks following the death of George Floyd.
This report by CBS sheds light on their collective action.
Source CBS
By Randy Furst | Star Tribune
The family of a Somali American man who was shot to death during a multicity SWAT operation in Eagan a year ago has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging that the shooting was unjustified and that the man was targeted because he was a racial minority.
Continue reading “Isak Abdirahman Aden | Family of Somali-American killed by police files lawsuit”
By HASSAN MEAD AS TOLD TO TAYLOR DUTCH| Runner’s World
When I heard stories about America, growing up as a farmer’s kid living in Somalia, it was always nothing but good things. So when I learned our family was moving there, I thought I was moving to a paradise where no one suffers and everyone lives their best lives.
Continue reading “Hassan Mead | Somalian-born runner Speaks Up About the Racism He’s Dealt With Since Coming to the U.S. 21 Years Ago”
By Victoria Zhuang | Boston Globe
As a young man fleeing violence and civil war in his native Somalia, Abdi Nor Iftin dreamed of a magnificent future in America. In 2014, after years of stateless limbo in Kenya, he won the Diversity Visa lottery, a program that offers a limited number of visas to applicants from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. His 2018 memoir “Call Me American” describes his experiences resettling in the United States.
Continue reading “Abdi Nor Iftin: A Somali immigrant hopes his book for young adults will inspire others to tell their story”
By Chidinma Irene Nwoye | Quartz Africa
Six years ago, then 27-year-old Nimo Ibrahim started her new job deboning chickens at Pilgrim’s Pride in Cold Spring, Minnesota. For the young Somali refugee and single mother of three, the job was a lifeline as she had no other skills.
Continue reading “How a Somali community took on a Minnesota meatpacking plant to contain a Covid-19 outbreak”
By Hani Garabyare | The Root
Last July, President Trump made headlines by lashing out at a group of progressive congresswomen—among them Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the first Somali elected to Congress—and told them to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.” Days later, crowds at a Trump rally were crying out Ilhan Omar’s name and chanting “send her back.”
Continue reading “Hani Garabyare: President Trump Told Me to Go Back to Somalia. So, I Did”
BY MICHAEL RUBIN | The Hill
The death of George Floyd during a botched arrest propelled Minneapolis into the headlines as the city became the centerpiece in a debate about persistent, if not systematic, racism in the United States as well as the nature of policing today. In politics, however, Minneapolis has become ground zero in a different conflict originating more than 8,000 miles away.
Continue reading “Horn of Africa politics come to Minneapolis”
By University of Kansas
President Donald Trump may have nearly ended the flow of refugees and other African immigrants to the United States, but a new study shows that at least those from Nigeria are well-educated, hardworking and contribute more to society than they cost the American social security system. The paper contrasts Nigerian newcomers with those from Somalia, whose work ethic is similarly strong, but whose lack of education hurts their employment prospects here.
Continue reading “Study shows African immigrants in U.S. do well, despite differences among them”
By Christine Hauser | The New York Times
Representative Ilhan Omar, a Somali-American Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, said late Monday that her father had died from complications of Covid-19.
“It is with tremendous sadness and pain to say goodbye to my father, Nur Omar Mohamed,” she said on Twitter. “No words can describe what he meant to me and all who knew and loved him.”
Continue reading “Ilhan Omar’s Father Dies From Complications of Covid-19”
Thousands left political chaos, violence and danger in Somalia. Now, many are surprised and alarmed at the dangers and distress they’re seeing in their new home.
By Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura | The New York Times
Continue reading “In Minneapolis, Somali-Americans Find Unwelcome Echoes of Strife at Home”
By Rupa Shenoy | PRI
Malika Dahir, a Somali American and mother of three in Minneapolis desperately needed an outlet to talk about George Floyd’s killing and everything that has happened since so she organized a prayer gathering online to process it together.
Listen to the story.
Continue reading “Somali-Americans share in the grief and pain over George Floyd’s killing”
By SHEILA REGAN | SAHAN JOURNAL
Hassan Nor, a Somali elder and self-taught artist known for his intricate drawings layered with stories, characters, and aspects of cultural life from pre-civil war Somalia, died May 19 after contracting the coronavirus. He was 83.
Hassan resettled in the United States in 2002, but the art he created earlier did not survive the journey.
Continue reading “Hassan Nor, Somali elder and artist whose work depicted pre-war Somalia, dies of COVID-19”
By Claire Voon | Artsy
Somali-American Mariane Ibrahim is always thinking ahead. As a young dealer, she is enjoying a precocious, meteoric rise on the international art scene. She’s built her reputation with a roster of trailblazing contemporary artists, predominantly from the African diaspora.
Continue reading “The Meteoric Rise of Somali Gallerist, Mariane Ibrahim, Champion of African Diasporic Art”
By Patrick Condon | Star Tribune
Rep. Ilhan Omar, whose unlikely rise from refugee to one of the first two Muslim women elected to the U.S. House, has written a memoir that comes out next week. From childhood onward, according to her new memoir, Rep. Ilhan Omar often seemed to find herself in the middle of nasty fights.
Continue reading “Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar describes a bruising life in new memoir”
By JOEY PETERS | SAHAN JOURNAL
Two second-generation immigrants won upset endorsements late Thursday from Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party delegates to represent their districts in the state legislature. Omar Fateh gained DFL support over state Sen. Jeff Hayden, who was running for a third term to represent his south Minneapolis district. And in the state House of Representatives, Esther Agbaje won the DFL endorsement over state Rep. Raymond Dehn, who was running for a fifth term in a district that represents parts of downtown and north Minneapolis.
Continue reading “Two second generation African immigrants oust DFL veterans to win party endorsement for Minnesota legislature”
By Sophie Kasakove | THE GUARDIAN
The Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar has unveiled a bill that would cancel rent and mortgage payments for millions of Americans struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic. Under the legislation, landlords and mortgage holders would be able to have losses covered by the federal government. The program would extend for a month beyond the end of the national emergency, which was declared on 13 March, and would be made retroactive to cover April payments.
Continue reading “Somali-American congress woman, Ilhan Omar, unveils bill to cancel rent and mortgage payments amid pandemic”
By Chidinma Irene Nwoye | Quartz Africa
When it comes to the polls, black African and Caribbean immigrants in the United States are becoming a force to reckon with owing to a fast-growing population. Between 2010 and 2018, the number of African and Caribbean immigrants in the U.S. rose by 30% to 4.3 million people from 3.3 million, according to a recent report from the bipartisan research group, New American Economy. Their growth has consequently led to more eligible Black immigrant voters.
Continue reading “The untapped political power of African immigrants in the US is set to take off”
BY ERYN MATHEWSON | THE UNDEFEATED
Aliphine Tuliamuk, Sally Kipyego and Abdihakem “Abdi” Abdirahman, three of the six runners who make up the the U.S. Olympic marathon team All three runners are African-born American citizens and vary in how they identify: American, African American, Kenyan or Somali American, black. But they all agree on the title: marathoner.
Continue reading “USA’s Olympic marathon team has three Africans”
By MAYA RAO | Star Tribune
Khadija Ali has seen the interpreting side of her language business in Minneapolis drastically decline amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The local governments, universities and health care clinics that used to hire her staff aren’t calling as much as they reduce face-to-face interactions.
Continue reading “Minnesota’s African immigrants and refugees rally to overcome quarantine hardships”
By ABDIRAHMAN MOHAMED | SAHAN JOURNAL
Minnesotans like Nadira Mohamed have found themselves drawn into the state’s “all hands on deck” approach to mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Nadira received an email from a professor at the University of Minnesota’s College of Pharmacy asking students and faculty for help in creating masks for medical staff. Just weeks away from graduating with her doctorate in pharmacy, Nadira knew that her mother, Hawa Elmi, was the perfect person to turn to for assistance.
Continue reading “Somali Woman Sews Face Masks for Minnesota Health Care Workers Battling Coronavirus Pandemic”
Abdi Warsame made history in 2013 when he became the first Somali in Minnesota elected to the Minneapolis City Council.
Soon, he will step into another big role. On Wednesday, the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s board unanimously voted to appoint him as the new CEO and executive director of the city’s sprawling public housing system, making him the first Somali to lead a government agency in Minnesota.
Continue reading “ABDI WARSAME APPOINTED CEO OF MINNEAPOLIS PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY.”
Let’s begin with geography. Today’s lesson is Somalia, a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Guardafui Channel and Somali Sea to the east and Kenya to the southwest.
It is located 9,376 miles from San Francisco and 8,572 miles from Little Rock, Arkansas, where The Trucker met Fahin Ahmed on a crisp mid-winter afternoon in early January. Ahmed is an immigrant success story in the making.
Continue reading “Somali immigrant driver shares story of happiness and success in trucking”
The Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in downtown Minneapolis is nicknamed “Little Mogadishu” because of its Somali American population. On Somali Street, a mall rests inside a wide, blue bungalow. There, different vendors in stalls sell traditional clothes, food items, and duvets.
Continue reading “Little Mogadishu on the Mississippi”
Somali North American Business and Professionals Inc. began mostly as a loose project in 2017 on Facebook. It quickly grew to become one of the most popular Facebook groups for Somalis. With more than 15,000 members, it has now officially transitioned from mainly having online interactions to in-person connections.
Continue reading “SOMALI PROFESSIONALS SHOWCASE TALENT AT INAUGURAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE”
Calling Aklilu Burayu a parking ramp attendant doesn’t come close to describing the roles he’s played in the Twin Cities economy.
In the 13 years since coming to Minnesota from Ethiopia, he’s been a painter and sander at a Blaine wood factory, an assembly line worker in Arden Hills and worked a succession of office jobs through a staffing agency. These days when he’s not at the ramp, he picks up shifts at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as a chef.
Continue reading “East Africans Clock in With Hope, Hard Work on Minnesota’s Thankless Jobs”
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