Community Stories: Seattle's Somali Community
3/27/2009: Somali Americans are one of the fastest growing populations in Seattle. That growth has led to economic, political and religious successes as well as challenges. In this episode of Community Stories, a community leader, an educator, a business owner and an advocate discuss how their community is balancing their traditional culture and the demands of a new society. In essence how they are making Seattle and America their home.
Several Rainier Valley community leaders recently spoke with Seattle Channel recently about the challenges and successes facing Seattle’s Somali growing community which is primarily based in Southeast Seattle.
Link to video:
http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/vi ... ID=3170806Aynab Abdirahman and Mohamed Sheikh Hassan were featured in the 16-minute program discussing several critical issues, including the fact that what has traditionally been a male-dominated society is now comprised mostly of single women raising children on their own since many men were left behind or died in East Africa’s civil war.Somali Americans are one of the fastest growing populations in Seattle. That growth has led to economic, political and religious successes as well as challenges. In this episode of Community Stories, a community leader, an educator, a business owner and an advocate discuss how their community is balancing their traditional culture and the demands of a new society. In essence how they are making Seattle and America their home.
Many Somalis in Seattle fled the civil war in East Africa in the 1990s, according to Aynab Abdirahman, a political analyst and Somali community advocate. Arriving in Seattle, he continues, they struggled economically at first, but did meet with financial success. Then came September 11, 2001. Mohamed Sheikh Hassan, a leader in Seattle’s Somali community, recalls that in the aftermath of the terrorist attack, Somali businesses in Seattle were unfairly targeted by the federal government including being raided by federal agents. The Somali community, with support from some of Washington’s elected officials, spoke out and protested the government’s actions, says Hassan. Now, he continues, the Somali community aims to keep traditional culture alive within the next generation of Somali Americans. “It’s not an easy task to do it but we really are trying,” says Hassan. “I have no doubt in my mind our children will play a really big role.”
