Africa’s Media Explosion

Charles Muigai is concerned that two years after violence broke out in Kenya following disputed elections, Kenyans have done little to avoid a repeat in the 2012 elections. Muigai said Kenyans are not having in-depth discussions about what happened.

“Post-election violence has been the hardest topic to discuss,” Muigai said. “A lot of Kenyans do not read beyond the headlines.”

Even in the diaspora, Kenyans still distrust each other. Mingling across ethnic groups is rare. Muigai said he wants to change that. He spent $5,000 of his own money to build an Internet radio station in Dallas, Texas, to give Kenyans a medium they can use to discuss various issues.

Somali Woman’s Illness and A Family’s Quest for Healing

Joel Grostephan

New America MediaST.CLOUD, Minn. — Samira Iman was missing for nearly two years. The 31-year-old Somali didn’t run away. She wasn’t kidnapped. She didn’t go to Africa to fight in Somalia’s decades-old civil war. She was living in St. Cloud, Minn., in a group home for the mentally ill. But Samira’s family lost track of her, and mental health officials did not help them locate her.

ST.CLOUD, Minn. — Samira Iman was missing for nearly two years. The 31-year-old Somali didn’t run away. She wasn’t kidnapped. She didn’t go to Africa to fight in Somalia’s decades-old civil war. She was living in St. Cloud, Minn., in a group home for the mentally ill. But Samira’s family lost track of her, and mental health officials did not help them locate her.

One day in the fall of 2007, Samira fainted at the poultry processing plant where she had begun working. She was taken to a hospital, where she was diagnosed with mental illness, according to her family. After she was discharged, she was either sent to a group home or released on to the street, but not to her family. When her younger brother, Yahya Iman, tried to find out where she was, Stearns County Human Services cited government privacy laws and would give no information.

Helping victims of torture, from Minnesota to the world

Jaclyn Evert , TC Daily Planet

From counseling torture victims in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to fixing bikes for political refugees in Minneapolis, the Center for Victims of Torture provides healing services that reach around the world.

CVT provides free mental health treatment to victims of politically motivated torture in centers and partnership programs in the United States, Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe, with a specific focus in Africa. CVT is the first organization in the United States and the third worldwide to focus on providing mental health services to victims of torture.

Conference on African Intellectuals in the West

Based in Minnesota, Africa Today would best be described as an African think tank. Every month, the group organizers topics surrounding Africans in the Diaspora and the content.

Africans Want Access to Corporate Business

by Issa Mansaray for Mshale

Martin Mohamed walks in and out of several stores at Karmel Mall, an eight year old mall in South Minneapolis that hosts about 300 Somali stores.

Mohamed is the chairman of the African Chamber of Commerce (ACC). He knows most of the shop owners and calls everyone he meets by name. A quick tour around the mall shows the growing number of small-businesses. Mohamed senses the financial struggles some of them are going through.

“There is a need for the African businesses to grow,” Mohamed says. “One is to do business with each other, enter the main stream American business, and to become a certified minority business provider.”

Swedish and Somali-American Dialogue this Saturday

Dear Friends,

I’m writing to invite you to an event that links two communities that have more in common with each other than you might think. The Swedish and Somali American Dialogue this Saturday, April 18, 2009 will explore such questions as: What does it mean to be an American?, How can I be both Swedish and American and both Somali and American?

What: Swedish and Somali-American Dialogue
Date: Saturday, April 18, 2009 
Time: Begins at 2p.m. 
Where:American Swedish Institute, 2600 Park Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55407

The event will at the American Swedish Institute with music and food typical of Somalia and Sweden. We will then begin the dialogue with Benny Carlson, Professor of Economic History at the University of Lund, Sweden, and the American Swedish Institute’s 2008 Cornelia Malmberg Fellow, and representatives of the Somali-American and the Swedish-American communities.

This unique event is co-sponsored by the African Development Center and the American Swedish Institute. Space is limited, so to reserve your place, please RSVP: Abdirashid Said at 612-333-4772 or Email to : Abdirashid Said

P.S. Please tune in to Minnesota Public Radio this Wednesday April 15, 2009 at 11 a.m. to hear me talking about economic development in the Somali-Minnesotan community. I’ll join host Gary Eichten for what should be a lively and informative discussion.

Thanks,

African Development Center Executive Director

Hussein Samatar
 
 

Amina Saleh builds bridges

 

By Nathanial Minor, TC DAILY PLANET

She survived Somali’s civil war, spent years in a Kenyan refugee camp and is a single mother in a strange country, but Amina Saleh’s biggest challenge is getting people to talk to each other.

As a community organizer, Saleh works for a Somali population that often finds itself at odds with the greater metro area around it. For example, even Family & Children’s Service (FCS), the non-profit agency Saleh works for, supports GLBT causes—a lifestyle strictly prohibited by Islamic law.

It’s part of Saleh’s job to make sure groups like these acknowledge and respect each other. “She’s really good at bringing people to a table who might not otherwise want to be at the table with each other,” said Jeff Bauer, Saleh’s boss and director of community & systems change at FCS.

Somali hip-hop: “It’s a culture. It’s a people’s life.”

 

 

Photos, from a recent Minneapolis performance by Somali MC K’Naan, by B Fresh

 

BY JUSTIN SCHELL , TC DAILY PLANET

On New Year’s Eve, hundreds of Somali youth packed one of the ballrooms at the Minneapolis Convention Center. There were performers from Minneapolis, Rochester, Seattle, and even as far away as London—places that have all developed substantial Somali populations both before and since the Somali Civil War, which began in the early 1990s and continues today. Some women had their heads covered, others had their heads uncovered and were dressed to suit any downtown nightclub. Snippets of both Somali and English conversation could be heard over the sounds of T.I. and Lil Wayne. Though it was a peaceful event, there was a substantial security presence—a sign of the fear and suspicion that unfortunately often surrounds Somali youth.

Immigrant workers struggle to support families back home

By Jaclyn Evert   TC DAILY PLANET

Semenyo Ahli gathers stray carts in the Wal-Mart parking lot on University Avenue in St. Paul. He came to the United States four years ago for economic opportunity and to attend college to become a registered nurse. Despite being qualified to work as a nursing assistant, Ahli has been unsuccessful in finding a second job in addition to Wal-Mart. However, no matter how tight the money gets, Ahli still sends money back home to Togo every month. “I have brothers and sister back home,” he said. “And my dad is not working, so they use the money for food.”

“I got a job here because of my friends,” he said. “They helped me to get a job here. I did apply to Target when I first started looking for a job, but I didn’t get it.” The $8.20 an hour he earns from pushing carts has to cover not only his living and education expenses, but also to support his family back in Togo, Africa. His family largely depends on remittances to survive, but sending $300 monthly is becoming a financial burden. Recently, his hours at Wal-Mart were cut from thirty-six to twenty hours a week. Like Semenyo Ahli, several of his fellow employees have reported with frustration that their hours also have been cut recently.

Store managers at Wal-Mart on University Avenue declined to answer any questions.

Two Activists Assassinated in Kenya

By Kenya National Commission for Human Rights and other Kenyan Civil Society Organisations,

This evening, two leading human rights defenders, Mr. Oscar Kamau King’ara and Mr. John Paul Oulu (also known as GPO), both of Oscar Foundation, were executed in cold blood by a group of men in two vehicles. The two were driving to meet Mr. Kamanda Mucheke of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights at his office. Eyewitnesses have said that the assassins were policemen. In fact, the minibus driver was in police uniform.