Somalia's global diaspora

We speak with Somalis abroad about their experiences in exile and the situation back home.

Two decades of political turmoil, drought and famine have forced many Somalis to flee their country looking for a better life in Europe, the US and the Middle East. An estimated 1 million Somalis currently live outside of the country. Yet despite the geographical distance, most maintain strong ties with their homeland.

In this episode of The Stream, we speak to Sadia Ali Aden, co-founder of the Adar Foundation, and Somali journalist Idil Osman about the ongoing conflict and how the Somali diaspora continues to give back to their community.

What do you think? How much influence does the Somali diaspora community really have in changing the situation on the ground? Send us your thoughts and comments on Facebook or Twitter using hashtag #AJStream.

These are some of the social media elements featured in this episode of The Stream:

View the story "Somalia’s global diaspora" on Storify

Somalia’s global diaspora

We speak with Somalis abroad about their experiences in exile and the situation back home.

Somalia's diaspora is one of the largest and farthest flung in the world in proportion to its population. Out of a country estimated between 9 and 13 million people, an estimated 1 million of them are considered part of the Somali diaspora.

Source: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.so.undp.org/docs/Cashandcompassion_Dec%202011.pdf">UNDP</a>

<div><div>Permanent and semi-permanent communities also exist in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Yemen. These communities have been strained by the ongoing famine in Somalia, swelling the numbers as shown in the map below. In addition, over 100,000 people from the Horn of Africa were counted crossing the Gulf of Aden to the Arabian Peninsula this year, most of which came from Somalia.<br></div></div>

Remittances from family members living abroad far exceed the amount of foreign aid invested in Somalia. Since the outbreak of civil war in 1991, remittances have totaled over 11 billion dollars, making Somalia the fourth most remittance-dependent country in the world. Over 40% of Somali households are estimated to depend entirely on remittances.

Because Somalia has no functional banking system for international transfers and only recently re-established a Central Bank, members of the Somali diaspora use "hawalas," private transfer money operators that serve as informal banking networks.

Use of hawalas has been burdened by accusations of financing terrorism after two American women were convicted of providing monetary support to Al Shabab. Somali Americans protested the closure of some hawalas late last year in Minneapolis, saying that the actions of a few should not punish the majority.

Other young Somalis have returned from abroad to fight with the Islamist group Al Shabab, which describes itself as wagingjihad against “enemies of Islam.” A number of American citizens have been involved in suicide bombings in Somalia, including Abdisalan Hussein Ali, who bombed an African Union military base in October.

Al Shabab follows the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, while most Somali Muslims are Sufi. Al Shabab initially drew support in Somalia with the promise of restoring stability. The ongoing violence against Somalis, however, as well as the recent refusal to allow foreign aid into Somalia to provide famine relief, has caused a precipitous drop in popularity. The African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has recently driven Al Shabab out of Mogadishu, though their control over the south still holds.

In what many considered a public relations move, Al Shabab opened a Twitter account under the handle @HSMPress (the initials stand for their Arabic name, <i>Harakat al Shabab al Mujahideen</i>) which has collected over 10,000 followers since December 7.

Abu Hafsa, a British citizen, grew up in W.London & embarked on the caravan of Jihad in Somalia to protect the honour of Islam in early 2006
— HSM Press Office (HSMPress) Sat, Jan 21 2012 17:12:39

It’s utterly reprehensible that the Kuffar preach morality while thousands of Muslim men, women and children are languishing in their prison
— HSM Press Office (HSMPress) Thu, Jan 19 2012 13:56:17

Since its opening tweet in Arabic, the common Muslim prayer for beginnings "Bismillah, al-rahman al-rahim," the account has been entirely in English, reporting attacks on the ground in Somalia and taunting the Kenyan and Ethiopian militaries.

By invading Somalia, E. African nations subserviently succumbed to the interests of Western imperialism at their own peril #BlackColonialism
— HSM Press Office (HSMPress) Wed, Jan 18 2012 10:24:21

Like some vile pestilence, a conspicuously barbaric breed of #BlackColonialism is sweeping across the entire African continent
— HSM Press Office (HSMPress) Wed, Jan 18 2012 10:19:58

It has been widely speculated that the account is run by a well-educated member of the diaspora who has returned to Somalia, due to the level of diction and engagement in the tweets. The US government has considered shutting the account down over concerns that it might be used as a recruiting tool.

Hallucination, by all means, is the natural corollary of bearding the lion in his own den; it induces a self-deceptive state of satisfaction
— HSM Press Office (HSMPress) Tue, Jan 17 2012 13:01:14

@ombijah it's incinerate with an ‘e’ not ‘i’ & @Aynte it's ridicule with an ‘i’ not ‘e’ - aren't u supposed to be some sort of a journalist?
— HSM Press Office (HSMPress) Sat, Jan 14 2012 06:06:52

In an e-mail to <a target="_blank" href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technocracy/2011/12/al_shabaab_twitter_a_somali_militant_group_unveils_a_new_social_media_strategy_for_terrorists_.html">Slate Magazine</a>, a spokesman for the account denied that it was intended to serve as a recruiting tool, writing, "HSMPress is genuine and it is not a recruiting tool but rather a method of revealing the reality of the current warfare in Somalia to the world and, in particular, to the Muslims living in the Western world....By publishing material, such as documentaries and press releases, in English, we hope to enlighten the Muslims in the West by illuminating the reality of the so-called war on terror and thus help further elucidate the events as they really are on the ground—not as they are erroneously portrayed in the western media."

Content on this website is for general information purposes only. Your comments are provided by your own free will and you take sole responsibility for any direct or indirect liability. You hereby provide us with an irrevocable, unlimited, and global license for no consideration to use, reuse, delete or publish comments, in accordance with Community Rules & Guidelines and Terms and Conditions.

FOLLOW THE STREAM

Main menu

The Stream

Somalia's global diaspora

Somalia's global diaspora

YOUR VOICES

FOLLOW THE STREAM