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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Somalis in diaspora: challenges and opportunities
| Panel |
41. The Art of Wor(l)d Markets: Development, Diaspora, and Narratives of Africa in Europe
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| Paper ID | 480 |
| Author(s) |
Simola, Raisa
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | For a long time, Somali unity has been held as unique in Africa - a country whose population was homogeneous in respect of language, culture and religion. On the other, Somalia has a new global reputation - the world’s stereotype of abject, total and violent failure. This image is the consequence of the implosions of early 1991, mass starvation, failed international intervention, and a continuing absence of even the rudiments of viable institutions. Because of these events, many Somalis have left their country and started living in diaspora.
In my paper, I will concentrate on the textual voices of diasporic Somalis in Europe in the next three texts: Yesterday, Tomorrow (2000) by Nuruddin Farah, Ett öga rött (2003) (One Eye Red) by Jonas Hassen Khemiri and Lasku: pakolaisnuorten elämää Suomessa (1996) (A Bill: Life of the Refugee Young in Finland) by Ann-Christine Marttinen. While Farah’s book includes Somali voices from Sweden and the narrator of Khemiri’s Bildungsroman is a teenaged Somali-Swedish living in Sweden, Marttinen’s book includes Somali voices from Finland; thus, the Nordic countries make the most northern geographical framework of the Somalis under discussion. The Somalis in Finland form a minority of greater importance than their number would indicate: they constitute at the same time the largest group of Africans and of Muslims in the country. While Somalis living in Finland, however, have not yet produced literary texts that would have been hailed by critics or that had caused much debate in the country, in Sweden, that kind of book is the novel Ett öga rött by Khemiri. Concentrating on these three texts, my aim is to analyse the challenges and opportunities of the diasporic Somalis in general and those of youth and women in particular.
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