The Somali community in the UK: What we know and how we ... - ICAR

In the amalgamation of popular youth culture with
Somali traditions of family relationships and
religious precept which some youngsters achieve,
specific Somali associations can play an important
role. The key here is the extent to which they
reflect the interests of young people who identify
with the different environments of both home
and school. Another contributor to the Somali
community meeting pointed out that mainstream
youth clubs, besides exhibiting racism and
discrimination, “do not understand the cultural
needs of Somali young people”. 105 This ethnic
antagonism and cultural dissonance can apply to
relations with other black youth as well as white.
While some young Somali men are drawn to
African-Caribbean music and street style, there
also exists tension between Somalis and both other
African and African-Caribbean communities. In
2002 a young Somali, Kayser Osman, was racially
insulted and knifed to death outside the Acorn
youth club in Harlesden. His assailant was also
black. The1996 Liverpool City Council survey on
the development needs of Somali young people
found that nearly all the young participants saw the
establishment of their own Somali youth centre
as essential. Rather than promoting a ‘heritage’
culture, this was envisioned as a recreational and
educational centre, where young Somalis could
pursue their interests in a familiar social and
linguistic setting. Young men in Leicester, hanging
out in parks and public places, wanted the same
thing. 106
In Liverpool, no such meeting place yet exists. In
the Merseyside Community Centre, young men
lounge about the steps and sit around in the
front room. They would like a pool table upstairs,
but the older generation feel this might cause a
disturbance. Unemployed, undereducated, unskilled,
there is nothing for them to do. They are bored,
but do not feel easy in what few facilities exist
for youth in the city. Unlike more recent Somali
settlements, shaped by younger refugees who feel
more at home in mainstream society, these boys
inherit the particularly isolated world of seafarers
who have formed a community apart. But yet they
do not identify with their parents, with whom they
are often at odds. In the report to the April 29th
2003 Somali Community Meeting in London, the
youth group concluded that “Somali young people
do not have a role model that they can imitate in
every aspect of their life. This community is very
new to this society and up till now there are no
successful stories that we could tell the young
people”. The older seamen’s settlements are not
so new, but the vicious circle of lack of education,
joblessness, and poverty repeats itself through the
generations.
The confidence of Hibo, Ubah, and countless
other young people encourages the hope that this
present lack of role models will, in time, give way
to a generation of parents who have negotiated the
dissonance between Somali and Western culture,
and feel secure in their own identity as British
Somalis. At present, despite outstanding individuals,
the community as a whole expresses a lack of selfconfidence,
betrayed in an overriding concern with
Somali youth, ‘the future of the community’.
105. Mohamoud Ahmed Nur et al: Youth report presented to the Somali
Community Meeting 29.4.03.
106. Daahir and Duale, 2002: 41-43.
52 The Somali community in the UK