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When Kent couple Paul and Rachel Chandler were released by Somali
pirates after 13 months, much credit went to the UK's Somali community.
The BBC's Hashi Mohamed offers his perspective on how this might affect
the way British Somalis are viewed - and shape their future.
Much has been written about the role of UK-based Somalis in securing the
release of the
Chandlers
but, as a first-generation immigrant, I wonder what this means for a
community that has so far struggled to find a voice.
The story of the release is familiar.
A former mini-cab driver from Leytonstone, east London - mortified at
the embarrassment suffered by his children being called pirates - took
matters into his own hands.
An ashamed community used every means to mount international pressure on
the pirates, even securing funds reported to have contributed to the
ransom money.
Although this story has a happy ending, for many Somalis in Britain the
future remains complicated.
Civil war
The 2001 Census recorded 43,000 Somalis in the UK. The Office for
National Statistics' annual population survey currently estimates
Britain's Somali-born population at 108,000 - though many observers
suggest 250,000 would be a truer picture.
Now mostly concentrated in
London,
Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield and Cardiff, Somalis are documented to
have arrived at
Cardiff's
docks as merchants as far back as the 1880s.
“Somalia's first female health minister, Qamer Aden Ali - a British
citizen whose daughter I went to school with, was killed in Mogadishu by
another Somali holding Danish nationality”
Settlement really only started in the 1950s but the majority came as
refugees in the 1990s, as Somalia's civil war worsened after the
collapse of the state in 1991.
The Netherlands,
Sweden, Norway and Denmark have also welcomed sizeable Somali
populations, while the largest diaspora communities are concentrated in
the US Midwest and
Toronto,
Canada.
As Somali author Nurdin Farah said: "When it rains in Mogadishu, the
umbrellas go up in Minnesota."
However, older exiles often spoke of the day they would return to find
their ancestral home and this is now commonly recited by younger
generations.
When publicising his 2006 book, Only Half of Me, British-Somali
journalist Rageh Omaar noted that many Somalis have "never really
unpacked their bags".
To me, it seems that dreaming of a return home, while failing to fully
integrate, has had unintended consequences.
Family breakdown
Last month, an Equality and Human Rights Commission report on fairness
found that half of all
Britain's
ethnically black African children grow up in poverty. They are also more
likely to have caring responsibilities.
While GCSE attainment has improved, black boys eligible for free school
meals still struggle.
Many of these are Somali children. Often raised in large families and
overcrowded households with no breadwinner, English can be the second -
sometimes third - language.
The Chandlers thanked the Somali community for helping secure their
release The use of the stimulant khat, chewed predominantly by Somalis
and Yemenis, is legal in the UK and spreading among youths.
A Home Office report in 2005 found the drug was associated with weight
loss, depression and hallucinations.
It also underlined social problems attributed to the use of khat -
usually by men and after
midnight - including family breakdown.
Crime gangs have sprung up in deprived areas, as a poverty of ambition
takes hold of Somali youth, and mothers continue to lose their sons to
knife crime - more than half a dozen in a few years.
A 2007 report by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies found that,
since 2003, Somalis had made up the largest proportion of foreign
nationals (30 of 160 at the time) at the UK's biggest young offender
institution, Feltham in west London. Early criminalisation for minor
offences can make finding work nigh impossible.
Terror threat
Then last December, Somalia's first female health minister, Qamer Aden
Ali - a British citizen whose daughter I went to school with, was killed
in Mogadishu by another Somali holding Danish nationality.
The killer had reportedly joined the militant Islamist group al-Shabaab.
Its activities recently prompted MI5 chief, Jonathan Evans, to warn of
the increasing threat from
UK residents, some of
Somali origin, being trained in
Somalia.
“The encouraging signs that the generation coming of age will have a
positive role might only bear fruit if British Somalis address issues of
underachievement, disenchantment and destitution, both individually and
collectively”
This is certainly not the last generation's vision of their offspring
returning to rebuild their homeland.
In stark contrast, the
Chandlers'
story illustrates how desperate many UK-based Somalis are to be regarded
as part of British society.
The cabbie Dahir Abdullahi Kadiye, a refugee, told the BBC Somali
Service he felt "ashamed" at people in his native country holding
innocent people from his adopted nation as hostages.
An increasing number of UK-based Somalis are keen to rebuild their
community's reputation, with many successful young people getting
involved in mentoring programmes. British Somalis sit on several local
councils, while peaceful activists have rallied against the Ethiopian
invasion of Somalia.
The Chandlers' release undoubtedly offers them encouragement,
demonstrating the community's ability to rail against the brutality
engulfing their homeland - especially when it threatens to make life
difficult where they now call home. |
Raga
British-ka ah oo isqurxinta kaga batay
