Saving Minneapolis Somali boys from gang violence.

[money]

Here in Minneapolis, the home of the largest Somali community in America, in just few months, gang violence claimed the life of four young Somali men at their prime age. The last victim, 18 years old student, was supposed to go to college after high school graduation. The two victims before him that were shot to death probably by other Somali youth, one was going to get married and start a new family and the other was being groomed to go back to Kenya to overtake his uncle’s business.

Before the only time you hear of Somali being shot, it involved a Somali cab driver or gas station/corner store clerk but now it is a whole different game.

The Somali community as a whole is shocked about the Somali on Somali violence that followed them here in America where they sought safe haven from the same Somali violence that forced them out of their homeland. The community in general seems to be caught off-guard and is unable to grasp the gravity of this new problem. Some are trying to explain the gang phenomena the only way they know. They think it has something to do with the clans as the talk of the town goes. The outrageous thing of all this erroneous depiction is that it is gradually and incorrectly being accepted and it is absurdly being written off just like the clannish fratricide back home. But that is not the case. The Somali adult population “the grown ups” are either unwilling to find solutions or ignoring the obvious root causes of the surge of gang violence within our youth.

Before we get into this, we need to understand at the outset that majority of Somali kids in Minnesota are good, quiet, respectful and polite. Most kids are striving to get educated and get into college. They are struggling and hardworking. Some of them work low paying jobs to help their families to make ends meet and some even have taken parenting role to raise their younger siblings or became helpers, guiders, interpreters for their parents who have difficulties understanding the language or the American culture.

We need to acknowledge the vital and vanguard role Somali women play in development and prosperity of our community. There many outstanding Somali community workers who dedicated their time and energy to help and educate Somali kids. An honorable appreciation goes to ex-Somali sports players like Shiikha, Madaxeey, Ahmed Dahir, Dalmar, Aamaan and coach Ibrahim Sudani, a recent addition to this valuable group, who constantly organize soccer and basketball tournaments for the youth.

We also need to understand that Somalis were here for quite sometime. Some of us are finding business opportunities and professional success. Somali owned business are thriving and multiplying in Minneapolis. We have few bad and annoying habits such as the khat nuisance and being little bit loud and in your face but above all the reputation Somalis have within the greater mainstream community is that we are model new immigrants: ambitious productive and upstanding citizens.

But there are always few of us who may fall into the trap and that is where this sudden rise of Somali gang culture is rooted in. The young boys caught up in this deadly gang violence are born, bred here in America or brought here as babies from refugee camps in East Africa. Somali Mafia and the notorious Hot boyz are two known gang groupings that stand up from the rest. Both are reported to be nemesis, each claiming to control their own turf in Somali resided areas in South Minneapolis. You would often see them loitering in Somali strip malls like Karmel Square or the 24th or the infamous Cedar/Riverside high-rise and McKnight neighborhoods. Most of them are school drop outs who hang together. Because of the influence Rap has on the youth, they dress and walk like rappers they probably seen on BET TV channel. They frequently loiter and clash with each other around Somali wedding ceremonies, concerts, music parties or social venues like Somali malls, coffee places and restaurants.

Gangs in urban areas are known to be involved in drug distribution, running prostitution rings and engaging in robbery. The only known gang activity Somali boys are involved could be drug use, alcohol consumption, chasing girls and roughing and jumping up on each other, shoplifting and occasional robbery. But this is changing as guns are now becoming easily accessible to them. They are not carrying pen-knives anymore. The only probable drug related homicide that they may have been involved was the botched robbery and killing of a Somali female Khat dealer. The five young men who were involved in the killing, who are understood to have been part of one of these Somali gangs, were all apprehended and sentenced to years in prison.

Shukri Adan who did a research on Somali gangs for the city of Minneapolis identified poverty, mental illness, language or educational barriers, homelessness and lack of recreational opportunities for the youth as some of the factors that play a part to the rise of Somali gangs (Adan, 2007). The known Somali gangs and their membership affiliations are said to be nominal in the context of the larger gang culture in the city. Statistics from the Minnesota Gang Strike Force identifies 52 Somali gang members - less than one percent of all known gang members in Minnesota (Williams, 2007).

One could go further than these identifiable factors, be politically incorrect and blame the Somali parents, south Minneapolis, subsidized housings, section 8, Starbucks sitting fathers, separated families, separate marital status choices made by some, living on social assistance or welfare, Somali customs that separate adults and children in social settings.

Most of these boys who are affiliated with the gangs reside in South Minneapolis, in government subsidized housing projects. It’s conceivable why some parents choose to live in these projects in the first place. These were probably the only housing options for refugees who came here either penniless or with limited financial resources. Somalis are known to cluster and group in one neighborhood. The ones who came first were settled in these public housing places and those who followed them just wanted to be around with people who are familiar with their plight and are of their own. It’s for economic reasons but living in projects and on social assistance is supposed to be a temporary thing.

Another factor to the rise of gang youth families within our community has to do with broken home or dysfunctional families and absentee fathers. The main fault lies with Somali fathers and their obsession with clan politics. I am talking about most of these men who sit around in Starbucks to talk all day about clan politics and who-is-who in the warlords that is outsmarting other warlords in Somalia. They seem to forget and neglected their fatherhood role. They spend most of their spare-time with their fellow Khat chewing friends to yap, debate and shout of each other. The rest of the time, they are either on shifts working or sleeping at home. Some of them don’t even know their kids birthdays let alone school grades.

The solution out of this sad situation of gang violence is simple. The solution obviously begins home and begins early in the child’s life. I would recommend Somali parents to start moving out of the projects. Move to suburban neighborhoods and smaller cities with good schools where gang violence and its negative culture have less impact.

I know a lot of Somali parents who made wise decisions earlier when they settled in small Minnesota cities like Faribault, Mankato, Owatonna, Waseca, Winona, etc and suburbs like Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, Hopkins, Inver Grove Heights, etc. And when you just compare and contrast the Somali kids who grew up in small cities and suburbs with those who live in South Minneapolis, the difference is quite striking. Somali kids in the smaller cities and suburbs are well spoken, well dressed and well mannered. They are doing well in school and know what college they will go and what major they will study. They manage well to juggle and reconcile two totally different cultures. They are well integrated in the mainstream society and don’t feel that different from other American kids. So why this is not happening for Somali kids in South Minneapolis? Is it their parents who choose to stay in projects, or be absent of their children’s lives by chasing money and other trivial pastimes?

Another solution is for not settling for less, for section 8 or subsidized housing but becoming home owners. Get a mortgage and don’t listen to these close-minded religious charlatans who zealously brand everything haram. There are some Muslim scholars and Sharia committees out there who issued some fatwas allowing Muslims in America to get mortgages on the basis of necessity and saving money. There are some Muslim financial organizations that can help you secure no-interest mortgages too.

Finally be part of your children’s education. Talk to the kids and include them in adult conversation but make sure that you don’t teach them the ****** clan thing. I heard about two 16 year old Somali school girls suspended for fighting each other because one “dissed” the others “Qabiil”. Make the kids feel proud of whom they are. Instill in them of that positive Somali spirit and Islamic pride and above all inspire them. Another step to slow down this surge of Somali gang violence is to have mentorship programs for these youngsters. Somali college graduates and professionals need to fill this void and start after school tutoring and homework help clubs.

I think it is not too early to sound the alarms and not too late to intervene before it all gets out of hand. We need to reach out to those grieving families who lost loved ones because of the gang violence, bring them together and heal them of this pain. The mothers and sisters of these lost boys have nothing to do with this.

There are those of us who are inclined to associate everything to “Qabyaalad” and that is why we have now this frenzied rumor that the shootings between Somali gangs as it is being spun, to have clannish undertones. We need to be smarter than this and come together as a community and not be divided along the primitive clan lines to tackle an issue so important and disturbing that could haunt us and destroy the future of our kids in this civilized country we now call home.

Abdulkadir Mohamed

Abaadir0@gmail.com

 

 

Reference

 

Adan, Shukri (2007). Report on Somali Youth Issues. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from City of MInneapolis - Department of Civil Rights Web site: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/civil-rights/docs/somali-report.pdf

Williams, Brandt (2007, 01 18). Somali kids need help to avoid gangs, new report says. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from Minnesota Public Radio Web site: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/01/18/somalikids/

[ToasterThief]

Great article. The same thing is happening in the UK now. Somali kids getting into trouble with the police and lots of killings including some high profile ones, such as the killing of a young black kid who had some real talent in football at the hands of a Somali kid. There are more and more cases in the national media.

 

In my opinion there are two reasons for this. One is that Somali kids are failing in school. Or more accurately too many Somalis are going to failing schools (here in London anyway). In most areas of London where immagrants live, there are some terrible schools. In the school that i went to, only 15% of students achieved the required grades of A-C's in at least five subjects whereas the national average is 47% (terrible itself). So i would say the fathers should pay for their kids to get some after school tuition from a young age. Its worked with my little sisters-they go to Kumon (i'm sure you have it in the US as well) and now they're in the top group in their class for every subject manshallah.

 

The second problem i would say is peer pressure(or the good boy gone bad syndrome). Like a Somali boy i knew who moved from a good school in a nicer area of London to my school, and he started out at the top of the class and worked his way down (or not) just to fit in. I mean who wants to be called a nerd-because no matter how much money or effort a parent spends to their child's education you have zero influence outside the home. Therefore my second solution would be to send yur kids to good Islamic schools. In London there are plenty-some of the best school, with 100% pass rates are Muslim schools. Here kids can make Muslim friends and there's none of that peer presure to perform bad behaviour(inshallah). But there is a catch. It requires that the father go out and get a job to pay for the tuition fees. And it doesn't cost that much- the nearest school to me is an all girls school, that achieves 100% pass rates with annual tuition fees of just under $3000 or $250 a month.

[Jacaylbaro]

US, Canada, UK ,,, soomaalidii way waasheen.

[Seekknowledge]

The parents are to blame.

[Jacaylbaro]

The whole nation is to blame ,,,,,,,,,

[Koora-Tuunshe]

Great article, thanks for sharing it with us.

[Koora-Tuunshe]

And when you just compare and contrast the Somali kids who grew up in small cities and suburbs with those who live in South Minneapolis, the

difference is quite striking.

I definately agree with this point.