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4 November 2014

Somalian at the Expatriation

An ethnographic study of a Somalian Discourse

community in U.S. This study took
place in MAS mosque in charlotte,
North carolina. Somalia is an African country
that is located
in the eastem horn of the continent. The
mosque is

place where Muslims practice and

learn

about their religion' MAS mosluTrwhich

stands for Muslim American Society
mosque was being
used by different Muslim groups at the
weekends as a school to leam Arabic
language and

le4rn how to understand and memo!2g

Qgrgn, the holy book for Muslims.

to )
/
The participants in

this observation were about thirty of females

and males whose roles ranged between
teachers to
students' My role was a participant observer;
I used to work in this mosque a$olunteer
on
sundays to teach kids there Arabic language
and how to read euran.
The participants' nationalities ranged
between Somalian, Bosnian, palestinian,
Jordanian,

Eritrean' but the majority were Somalian.

The two connections that connected
all of these
ethnicities were the religion and the expatriation.
Each one of them had a different story,
culture,
history' and in some cases language, but
all of them were compiled in one place to learn
about
their religion's fundamentals. Hoping it
may lessen their nostalgia to the home,s
soil, they took
from the mosque a home or refuge for them
to discover and learn about their original
cultures bv
interacting with peers from the same country
or culture.

*",.;,ri.,,'

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The age of the school was five years; it was opened by Mr. Mohammed, a Somalian
teacher of Arabic and Qurar;nqvho left his country after immediately beginning the

')

civil war there.

He came to US in 1979 hoping to have a refuge that might provide the safety and a better
life
that he did not find in his kidnapped home.

During my observation time, Mr. Mohammed was the first person who came to the
school at nine forty five at the morning on Sunday to open the door for the kinds and greeting

their families. Because he was by himself, it was a huge responsibility for him to take care
these kids, so he was very careful about keeping them in one room

untilfh6;y*il6

of

students

atttve, then he took them to their regular classes. Afteqfew minutes the other teachers came.
The
A
whole classes started their day byahank God for his graces in a grouped voice. The student,s
age
Fbr"'r"'3

ranged between eighteen to four years old. The innocence was the united factor between
their
faces.

Then they started studying Arabic language. Some of them were still learning how to

write the letters and the older students were trying to read and combine words together.
Particularly, in my observed class, there were eight students: three girls, five boys, and a teacher.
Thei*#+ertudents and the teacher were Somalian except two studentsrwere palestinian.
'ti;" - ^ "
lr ot .;,
While they were practicing writing the letters, each one of the students was sharing with his
friend what he did in the last week and what he would do in the contemporary week.
The break's time came. The students joyfully brought their snacks and were ready to take
a rest after the hard

work. From time to time,fcould see students distribute and share some'of

their snacks withiheir peers which reminded me by one of the Arabs' famous character

"Generosityi"lhat made me wonder how a consuming society like an American society did not
succeed in changing their original characters.

\\hile I was there' unfamiliar

word was being repeated

continually by some
of the
-i:*;ents and teachers and
it was not an Arabic nor
an Engrish word that
flamed my curiosity
jno* its meaning'
to
Then' it tumed out to
be "dogsi" a somarian
word for a mosque.
From that
coincidence I knew
that there are four languages
in somali: Italian, French,
Arabic and Somarian
based on the difrerent
coroniarisms that the
country passed through.
After half an hour of
rest' the students went
back to their crasses
to start learning how
to
read Quran while
i distributed a survey to
the students to evaruate
their knowredge and
comection with their
original country. The
questions were rerated
to their home town
Somali; I
*'anted to know if
some of them&avqvisited
it before or they wish to
visit it in the future or
Su*l
if
they stiil have memories
of it.
The survey's results
showed that the all participant
students did not visit
their home
country before which
was obviously predictable
because most of them
were bom in u.S
whose
parents left Somali
after the beginning
of the civil war.

After an hour of studying,

it was the time for praying.
The ritole students
and the
teachers went in otganized"queue
to the praying han to pray.
Atthe rast thirty
minutes before 3iCIe)
pm' it was the time
for the kids to play
outside in the mosque,s
yard.rlTheir thoughts
as any
other kids, having{candy
and playing outside
represented the
--^-'rvDrruv
most joy ror
for rnenlirli:it1*
thr
**'
was happening in
their country.
vtn t \l . \\/

".

My concept about Somali

from my birth was arways
about the civil war.
Somari has been
in a civil war for twenty'four
years' It started after
the public

protesting against
the corrupted
government there
and it is still until
these days. I have
never rooked at the
bright side of this
country or basically
I have never thought that
there is any bright side
for this country, but these
kids and the hope in
their eyes proved me
wrong.