Why are Somalis racist against a particular tribe?

[Abu-Salman]

First of all, let's not be too pessimistic on this crucial issue, it's all too easy and hardly productive.

 

If for girls, getting married to a Somali from so-called minority/enemy/Southern/whatever clan, will put their children at disadvantage in Somalia, I think this is pretty relative as long as he fulfills the key requirements (Imaan, Deen knowledge & practise, Akhlaaqs ect).

 

For instance, it may takes him more efforts to access some jobs while he could be bullied by other children ect.

 

However, all this are only minors disadvantages as eventually people distinguish themselve by their own efforts and parents' values are paramount.

 

Yet, we all know this is not limited to a specific group but that Somalis generally discriminate against each other.

 

For instance, in Djibouti where Somalis from all the different clans live, it is an open secret that the most coveted public functions alongside other social advantages such as education bursaries were more or less attributed on a tribal basis, with heavy bias towards the President's clan (just like the former Somali regime when challenged by numerous clanish rebellions).

 

Nevertheless, all the relatives that put in the required effort attained an even more enviable socio-economic status and some are simply keys to Djiboutian policies and ministers through their education or thrive commercially.

 

Clearly, favoritism discourage not only hardwork but also self-reliance.

 

On a more positive note, clan-based nepotism is antithesis to any progress and more and more governments are realizing this fundamental fact in the light of global competition.

 

Maybe, the quotas system we practise as Somalis is more a hindrance than anything else and that competitive examinations should be a requirement in recruitments everywhere as recently decided by the Djiboutian government.

 

Again, from my own experience, the clan of a potential bride has hardly been a problem within my family since the more educated, last generation and, in general, this is hardly an issue for men.

 

In final analysis, if Islamically Jaahil, semi-illiterate Somalis really matters to you or have any impact in your decisions, then you actually have more serious self-esteem & personality issues yourself (unless your world is limited to the familial gossip and you are too intellectually challenged for any higher purpose in life)...

[bilan]

not everyone is racist, actually two members of my family married into that clan, my cousin and uncle, there were poeple who were not happy about it, but they showed up at the wedding and danced, will my family accept if we girls do the same i doubt it,but atleast we are moving to the right direction.

[Nephissa]

Originally posted by Kool_Kat:

But what's even the saddest is when I see some oo qabiilkale sheeganaayo...

Waxa ciil iga sii qabtaa, masaakiinta aroosyada dadka ay sheeganayaan siday buraanburka u boodaan oo isfiilito isugu kiciyaan. Ayagoo hore laga sii xamanaayo.

 

I think nin hadaa tahay it's easier inaa ka guursato qolyahan. Ilmahaaga ad lee qabiilkaaga waaye, wax caayaayo maleh.

[STOIC]

Only In America would you find an Equalizer....This is for all the hatemongers........

 

 

Title: From a Prison to Princeton. By: Cose, Ellis, Newsweek, 00289604, 11/12/2007, Vol. 150, Issue 20

Database: Academic Search CompleteFrom a Prison to Princeton

Section: FACING FACTS

When Abass Hassan Mohamed was born in Somalia in 1982, his father honored the event with a variation on a traditional Somali ritual. Instead of tying the umbilical cord to a goat or wad of money--in hopes that the child would prosper when he grew up--Hassan Mohamed Abdi tied it to a book and buried it near a school. "A book and a pen. I did that for all my children," says Abdi, a bearded man of regal bearing. He was convinced that his progeny, members of a scorned minority tribe, would need a strong education to make their way in the world.

 

Little did he know how far his son would go. Abass is now a junior at Princeton University. And he has become something of a legend in the refugee camp where he was raised, for having blazed a path out of a sanctuary that is also a kind of prison, where young people languish with little hope for a productive life.

 

Abass's odyssey began in Ifo--one of three refugee camps carved out of the Kenyan desert and collectively called Dadaab. He and his parents, grandmother and five siblings fled there from Somalia in 1992--a harrowing journey by foot, truck and bus. The camp is a depressing, dry and dusty place. Their new home was constructed of twigs covered with a plastic sheet. There were no beds, no toilets and no schools. Instead, a fellow refugee convened classes under a tree. "He didn't have chalk. So . . . he would write in the sand and we'd copy," says Abass.

 

His father had long revered education, crediting his modest success and even his marriage to a woman of higher clan status to his own schooling. Abass and his brothers were very much their father's sons. Once camp officials built a bare-bones elementary school, they were always at the head of the class. When Abass and his younger brother took the test for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education, they scored first and second highest of all those in Dadaab. A few years later Abass received the highest score in all of northeastern Kenya and the eighth highest in the nation on his high-school exams.

 

Of the roughly 170,000 refugees who call Dadaab home, a handful make it to Western schools each year, thanks largely to a program operated by World University Service of Canada. Since 1978, WUSC has sent close to 1,000 students from around the world--including Abass's brother Osman--to Canadian universities. Abass found another route out. A visiting professor from Princeton heard about his academic success and sent a Princeton application to Dadaab officials. CARE, which administers the camp and its schools, arranged for Abass's first-ever plane ride so he could take the SAT in Nairobi.

 

Months later, when his acceptance package arrived at CARE's offices, Abass was ecstatic: "I didn't want to cry--that would be unheard of for a Somali man--but I was extremely overjoyed." Two staffers in the Dadaab office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees prepped him, instructing him on American customs and manners. One of them even dipped into her purse to pay his plane fare to America (which he eventually repaid). Hearing he had no money for a visa, Somalis at the United Nations in Geneva sent $100 to help out.

 

In August 2005, Abass landed on U.S. soil. He moved into a tiny dorm room: the most magnificent dwelling he had ever seen. "The room was very beautiful, well furnished with a bed, with a mattress, with a chair, with a table, with electricity. I didn't have to use my kerosene lamp anymore," he says. It took Abass weeks to figure out the radiator on the wall. He also had to learn how to use the shower. His first day in the dining hall, he was astonished at the amount and variety of food: "I thought it was part of Princeton's hospitality welcome . . . Then I realized that was the same thing that was being served almost on a daily basis." He found two jobs and quickly adjusted to the strange new place.

 

Now a junior studying environmental science, Abass is still working two jobs and sending money back home. But he's also settled in. "I miss my family . . . but I feel at home in Princeton," he says. Earlier this year he was approved for political asylum, which means eventually he may be able to marry a girl in the camps he has his eye on, and even bring some family members to the United States. That hope makes their lives so much brighter than the lives of tens of thousands of their neighbors, who see only desert sand stretching into infinity.

 

For kids in Dadaab without Abass's diligence and luck, options are few. Even if they can get into a Kenyan university, they're prohibited as refugees from taking jobs in the country once they graduate. If they are not awarded a precious resettlement slot in a peaceful country, or spirited away by a program like WUSC, they essentially have three choices. They can languish, vanish into the illegal netherworld or return to violence-racked Somalia. An estimated 7 million refugees worldwide are similarly "warehoused"--separated from society, deprived of basic rights, trapped in a stateless limbo. That number gives only a hint of the daunting odds a would-be Abass has to overcome.

 

• Adapted From "Against the Odds," A Radio Production Of Ellis Cose, Inc., Distributed By Public Radio International And Supported By The Ford Foundation.

[Al-Muminah]

Salaama Alaikum,

 

I remember when I was younger, my next door neighbour was from the mentioned clan (are we allowed to say that? Lucky me, I read the thread beforehand) and I always used to call her ''habaryar'' out of sheer respect. She's is still my habaryar, regardless of anything..especially something that she cannot choose, her qabiil, of which she should be proud of. Geez, Somalis need to grow out of this qabiil taboo. It's so completely disgusting and Unislamic, how dare they? Shame on each and every one of them who hate people based on something that Ilahay has given us. Subhanallah.

[Cara.]

My closest friend/relative through marriage/neighbor is X sounds like a guilty conscience

 

For the people saying they don't want their child to go through life with that kind of stigma, just remember that everyone is somebody's child. And I'd rather be the parent of that young man who made it to Princeton from a refugee camp than some lazy brat from the "right" tribe.

 

Stoic, thanks for the article.

[Che -Guevara]

^^Everybody has the choice to associate with whoever they want.No point in parading those who don't share your views.

[Al-Muminah]

Originally posted by Cara:

My closest friend/relative through marriage/neighbor is X sounds like a guilty conscience

Believe what you will, I don't expect much from a misguided tart who uses big words to make herself seem like an intellectual infront of Reer Badiye Somalis on an internet forum. My ''guilty conscience'' is non-existent hon, nor does it need you to bring it to existence either. I know that my Aunt, yes that's what I call her for she will forever be, is from tribe xyz and for you to even try and question it is a joke unto itself.

 

Have fun playing minisweeper in your little cubicle. I'm out.

[Nephissa]

Originally posted by Al-Mu'minah:

quote:Originally posted by Cara:

My closest friend/relative through marriage/neighbor is X sounds like a guilty conscience

Believe what you will, I don't expect much from a misguided tart who uses big words to make herself seem like an intellectual infront of Reer Badiye Somalis on an internet forum. My ''guilty conscience'' is non-existent hon, nor does it need you to bring it to existence either.

I know that my Aunt, yes that's what I call her for she will forever be, is from tribe xyz and for you to even try and question it is a joke unto itself.

 

Have fun playing minisweeper in your little cubicle.

I'm out.

^Oucchhyyyyyy! That's really bad, and FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION.

[Faarax-Brawn]

Lets face it,if it were left upto ALL Somali clans,They would probably have demonized every clan and sub clan other than their own. Count yourself lucky,otherwise,had your clan been a bit smaller in size or had fewer qaalins,your clan would probably have ended up on that endangered list.

 

You would think that these warped thinking should be a thing of the past since most of us now live in so called western developed nations. Its sad to see ppl still living in the past,Mashee Somali la hormari lahday,Yall need to accept diversity.

 

Good luck,

[Khalaf]

Khalaf I did not understand any of what u wrote about my english. if its bad, it is not my mother tongue ok. so cut it out.2

loooooooool@ UMU...walaaleey i didn't mean that i was trying to explain the use of figurative language. No good deed goes unpunished they say. Yes madam....aniga wa bax! Raali ahow aight.

 

wa salaamun

[umu zakaria]

Originally posted by Abu-Salman:

 

In final analysis, if Islamically Jaahil, semi-illiterate Somalis really matters to you or have any impact in your decisions, then you actually have more serious self-esteem & personality issues yourself (unless your world is limited to the familial gossip and you are too intellectually challenged for any higher purpose in life)... [/QB]

Zafir and all the haters learn from this.

[umu zakaria]

Originally posted by Zafir:

 

Nothing that’s written on those pages will change the Somali mentality or perceptions of these tribes in question, so spare us the hot air please. [/QB]

Those who read the wright pages aren't close minded like you dear. You should always be open to change to progress and improve ur little brain.

[Cara.]

LOL @ Nephy. You've been dying to use that one eh?

 

Al-Mu'minah, what I said was just a joke. I could tell you were being sincere if a little unoriginal. Take a chill pill, maybe play a certain game that used to be on family PCs about 8 years ago. I'm not interested in adding a little passion into your life.

 

Che, that's why I said "I'd rather be...". It's a value judgment and naturally others are free to disagree with me.

 

They would be wrong of course.

[Legend of Zu]

Originally posted by Nephthys:

[FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION.

^^^ Is that American?