When the Somali Museum of Minnesota opened for the first time in 2009, few reflected on how far the wider diasporic community has progressed since the early-1990s. Minnesota has long been recognized as the unofficial capital of the Somali Diaspora in North America. Yet, Somalia has yet to establish a consulate or diplomatic cultural mission in the Twin Cities. Why? According to the International Institute of Minnesota, between 35,700 to 150,000 Somalis have come to recognize Minnesota as home with 80% of that population residing in Minneapolis. As civil war continues as a fact of everyday life in Somalia, the diaspora has naturally monopolized the output of its best & brightest minds. Outside the core diasporic community, one cannot resist wondering: how has the diasporic struggle shaped the socio-cultural & intellectual development of Somalia?
The 19th century British explorer, Richard Francis Burton hailed Somalia as a nation of poets stating: “the country teems with poets, every man has his recognized position in literature as accurately defined as he had been revered in a century of magazines; the fine ear of his people causing them to take the greatest pleasure in harmonious sounds & poetic expressions.” As an outsider that married into a Somali family from the same diaspora, I cannot resist wondering: what became of that great nation of poets? What new poetic influences has the diaspora made on the consciousness of a nation once recognized for its poetry? What new ideas, inventions, & literary productions have been made to preserve & ultimately stimulate Somali Diasporic cultural productions?
Are diasporic cultures corresponsive ones reciprocating the misplaced hopes, dreams, & ideals of a people struggling to preserve their existence from a colonial history that denied them the wealth of their cultural heritage? Many argue the origins of the Somali Civil War began with Said Barre’s Invasion of Ethiopia in 1977 culminating into the Ogaden War. The legacy of the war stood as the existential pontification of Somalia’s top-down socio-cultural relationship with tribalism beginning from the periods of British & Italian colonization. According to the University of Minnesota’s own Abi Samatar on one of the reasons Somalia became a failed state: “British & Italian colonial authorities utilized genealogical divisions throughout the wider Somali population as key pillars in organizing public affairs & communal relations creating the political aftereffect of segregating a homogenous people in exclusive member only politico-cultural camps.”
It seems that for much of the Somali Diaspora, the legacy of tribalism is the unwanted elephant in the room few seem willing to address let alone explore even out of an anxious cultural reluctance. Why? The salvation of a nation is achieved through cultural renaissance even if inspired abroad from a diasporic minority living in a state of existential limbo. To draw a related parallel, William Fitchett’s Tale of the Great Mutiny was the inspiration behind Charles Lesley Ames’s personal library collection of 25,000 titles on the Indian subcontinent. The basis of which became the supporting foundation behind the University of Minnesota’s Ames Library South Asia Collection in 1907 named in his honor. His personal interest in a much romanticized yet lesser-known part of the world transformed into a living & breathing foundation for future scholarship on South Asia.
In an ongoing effort to encourage scholarship through original academic productions in diasporic populations abroad, perhaps the University of Minnesota can collaborate with leaders of the Somali Diasporic Community for the creation of the first Somali Transliteration Society & Library on the West Bank of the Twin Cities Campus under direct sponsorship of the university? Imagine! It would be a society dedicated to translating literature generally & scholarly works specifically from a myriad of languages into Somali for purposes of cultivating future scholarship for the diaspora at the behest of the Twin Cities Somali Community. This can in turn serve as a functional template for other diasporic communities & minorities living abroad seeking scholarly fulfilment through cultural enrichment.
The act of academic transliteration can inspire the fomentation of indigenous scholarship utilizing diasporic experiences for purposes of inspiring a broader cultural reclamation putting generations born into the diaspora in unique positions of influence to shape the future of their respective home countries.
When mother tongues are reimagined as the ink of scholarly language, the localization of renaissance eliminates the possibility of intellectual illiteracy in fledgling diasporic communities.
Now is the time for the Somali Diaspora in Minnesota to shine in a renaissance reimagined.