Somali Woman Faces Xenophobia In Tanzania

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Shamis

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The Politics of Being Somali in East Africa

Dispatches #4 Arusha – These last few weeks in Arusha have taught me what it means to exist as a body that is read differently from the average Tanzanian. There’s no question that my Blackness gives me a particular kind of African membership, but my body is still viewed peculiarly.

My hair produces the greatest confusion. When it is uncovered people ask me if I’m biracial, insinuating that my curls are only possible if one of my parents is white. When its in a hair wrap, people yell ‘warya’ at me from across the streets startling me and making me feel hyper visible where only moments before I was anonymous. Clothing and in this case head covering is the way in which I become marked. This is the way in which I become understood as either Somali or not Somali, if I am visibly Muslimwith particular features I must be Somali and if not I cannot be. All of this while my curls mark me as not quite African enough.

One day while I mind my aunts’ shop two Tanzanian women enter. They tease me about my lack of conversational Swahili and state emphatically that I need two languages in order to survive. I laugh with them and say my fluency in Somali gives me my second language. They hadn’t placed me as Somali before that moment. I can tell instantly that the mood in the room has changed. One of the women is clear in telling me Somalis bring large problems with them wherever they go. They are troublemakers.

I’m angry, the hot air balloon in my throat is large and fills fast. My heat shows on my face and I turn on my heel and walk away leaving the shop girls to help them finish choosing the clothes they wish to buy. My anger is still reverberating through my body. The callousness of those who would dare call me or my people an imposition is heady.

My aunt tells me that she has to be careful when she hires workers for her businesses. She is often taken advantage of, stolen from and shown less respect because of her Somali identity written like a talisman on her body. She tells me that she is welcome only when she is seen as Swahili, but must keep a distance to keep herself and her businesses safe and profitable.

A few days later another man enters the store. After perusing for a few moments he asks us who owns the store. The shop girl is quick to say tell him the owner is Somali. I’m surprised at her quick disavowal of my aunt who has spent her entire lifetime in Tanzania, who would call herself a Somali-Tanzanian. The man looks at us and with a laugh in his voice says I better not ask for a discount then or the owner might … then raises his hand and slashes from one ear to another. The man and the shop girl laugh together, she almost falls over in her delight.

It’s harmless the laughing even the motion is just a movement of a hand, but it is deeply insidious. It is representative of a larger narrative of the war on terror that has found itself being remade on the lands and shores of East Africa. Somalis over the last 15 years have been cast as the villains in this part of the world. In fact a great deal of energy is spent by political leaders in reminder of the correlation they’ve made between instability, violence, terrorism and Somalis, terms that have become interchangeable. There’s no surprise that Kenya and Ethiopia have wanted to divide up Somalia for years, the recent leaked Saudi Cables are a great example of the ongoing Scramble for Somalia that is taking place. With more than just the Americans and the Europeans interested in containing and controlling an unfettered access to resources.

So while the laughter itself is harmless and I’m hardly going to reach over the desk and strangle the man for running his mouth. I, at the very least, manage a deadly stank eye followed by a dismissive wave to reify the air of arrogance in the room. What it tells us instead is the instability of Somali as an identifier the globe over and the resistance Somalis continue to face. East African countries are no less responsible for the decisions they make concerning Somalia and in fact act as the long arm of the US and European governments. And the scapegoating of Somalis needs some recourse especially knowing that these are countries dependent on Somali labour, exports and instability.

One of many places Somalis in both the diaspora and on the continent share a common experience is the ongoing xenophobia and anti Black racism that formulates our combined politicized Black Muslimhood, refugee status and continued loss of home.

Dispatches is a regular series of posts from Collective members traveling or living in East Africa.
 

waraabe

Your superior
I hate bantu , you wouldn't pay me to go to their aids and ebola filled countries. They always steal, and stink.

Reer somalia, deport them from the south
 

Bielsa

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Ethiopian and Somali businesses are burnt and looteed in South Africa. I met an Eritrean family who left South Africa and migrated to Denmark and they told me their business was looted and set on fire. They even had an arson attack on their house. All because these South Africans were not happy that foreigners came and started up a business and did well for themselves.

They told me numerous similar incidents that happened to Somali businesses. They chased out this one odey with a machete killing him and looted his premises.
 
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Shamis

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South Africa is a sad place for Somalis. A group of South African kids stoned their schoolmate, a Somali boy, to death in the middle of the street.

They don't just target Horn of Africans any more - they're targeting any and all Africans they see, including little kids who were homeless with their parents and refugees. They have a massive feud with Mozambicans, Nigerians and Zimbabweans as well for the pettiest business related 'reasons' like selling cashews on the street. Very recently they went on a rampage and looted every Somali shop, poured gasoline on and set fire to non South African migrants IN PUBLIC, attacked them with machetes and they literally got away with it even though the whole world was watching. Wild dogs would could not drag me to that hell hole - I'd rather face UGUS in a see through dirac.

We can blame white people, Indians and apartheid but its black South African's fault for giving up on civil rights after apartheid ended. They accepted the crumbs and they're upset that 'war torn countries' and even countries with sanctions against them can produce business people who are respected and can own a shop with $200,000's worth of goods in it - so they loot them wantonly the police take a cut because its the same bloody people afterall.
 
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Shamis

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If anything we're gonna lose more lands to these Bantu turds

They don't have the capacity, they're another aid junkie country and they're drunk on AU money from the war on terror, hence the threats while they still can. Its just not feasible with their budget. I can't believe I even had to say that.
 

Bielsa

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Yep. They have huge feuds, especially with Zimbabweans and Mozambicans. And Nigerians too. But mainly the two former groups. They use machetes on people for petty things.

I would visit South Africa but I wouldn't live and start up a profitable business there. It's a count down to your death. Tick tock.
 
They don't have the capacity, they're another aid junkie country and they're drunk on AU money from the war on terror, hence the threats while they still can. Its just not feasible with their budget. I can't believe I even had to say that.

The Kurds in Iraq were powerless for how long? Now they have the backing of the west. The same can happen with these Bantus, especially if we start to forcefully remove them, it'd be another excuse for foreign intervention, which would further destabilse Somalia. I mean Kenyans are trying to take our coastline now, who knows what they or others will try to claim in the future.
 
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Shamis

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Kurds are from Kurdistan, that whole region is their homeland like greater Somalia is our homeland - those border divide them unnecessarily. Bantus having a separate country though? Where? In our land where we've lived for thousands and thousands of years just because partly bantu Kenya is nearby? I can understand if we had a border with Tanzania or Congo but they aren't even Kenyan - and they've been here for like two or three generations - can I claim Southall? lol. Kenya is just posturing while it can because their country is falling apart, they're on the brink of war and they're acting tough to appease their electorate.
 
Screw the girl that post this with her Madow wannabe having ass! Anti-black kulaha. What is she smoking? these idiots have litterally made an identity out of a color. Thats who and what They are just a empty abstract color and nothing more. Epic Dehumanization!!

Thats all the aspire to be a Mere color?:what:

this stupid new generation of f*ck up somalis and all Their dumbass AA imported mentality.

Even In Tanzania Even They spout this pro black afro nonsense.

If people dont get down under knees and suck you off, you are going shout in victimhood? :hova:
 
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Shamis

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They said something about how they wanted to slit her form ear to ear because she was Somali - these are people who were eating albinos - have a heart! She was hoping that being black and African would be enough but they gave her the cold shoulder (and nearly ate her shoulder) because of her hair type and where she was from. They have the pro black issue more than she does - and thats a whole country.
 
They said something about how they wanted to slit her form ear to ear because she was Somali - these are people who were eating albinos - have a heart! She was hoping that being black and African would be enough but they gave her the cold shoulder (and nearly ate her shoulder) because of her hair type and where she was from. They have the pro black issue more than she does - and thats a whole country.

If people threatened her , then she should go report it to the police. Africa is continent if she cant comprehend that then she needs to got to school all over again.

Being black? Thats the problem they try hard to be a color when they are not. no human is ever black.
She is the one crying over not getting bantu love, f*ck her. If i was in tanzania i would tell them to Smell my fart.

What Mental weakness !! her problem is that she is seen as foreigner in a foreign land , that is not odd or unsual just live with it and move on.
No need to make this crap into a Negro-Send-Trick escaapet and start crying for stupid sympathy. Amazing these people went from SJW twitter to tanzania with this i wanna be oppressed crap.
 
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Shamis

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I don't think you want to report little racial type things to the police in Africa, especially if you're from the West - they'd rob her and probably worse.

Yes, she's a foreigner. I doubt she'd cosy up to everyone if she was in Algeria, so why feel comfy around someone who shares nothing but a skin tone with you? I dunno. Sigh. Soomaaliya ha noolaato.
 
Why can't these Somalis in East and Southern Africa invest in Garrisa, Mandhera, Wajere, Scilio, and other Somali populated towns in NE Kenya? I made that statement because they would be with their people, their African customers would have traveled all the way into these towns and buy stuff from them. Folks, I don't feel any sympathy for any Somali who is business-wise investing in other countries, while his country and other Somali inhabited regions are destitute.
 
This reminds me of the Somali, American Professor they call Hussein Tanzania. He was born and raised in Tanzania, returned to Somalia and then settled in the States. Even as a child in the 50's or something, Somalis were discriminated against by Tanzanians.

“One of the memorable moments of my life took place when I was in the 4th grade. During the usual school parade, the African headmaster asked four of us Somali students to step up to the front of the parade. He then proceeded to humiliate us in front of the whole school. He chided us with the following words that have been ingrained in my memory: “Look carefully at these 4 beggars. They are begging us to stay in our paradise, green land of (the then) Tanganyika. This is because they have no land to go to. A friend who fought in the war [WWII] visited Somali areas and confirmed to me that there is nothing but desert sand, sand and sand; and a very hot sun. They should thank us for saving them from the sandy hot desert.”
 
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Shamis

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Tanzania is not that all that green, they have a lot of desert, scrubland and the savanna gets brittle dry in the dry season. Today the lush parts have been sold to foreign countries for biofuel and export crops. With that said, I'm actually more sad that our people ever had to go to such a long way from home and ever be treated like that. The government needs to give everyone free land to farm on to save the environment - they could have done this any time in the past 20 years we would have avoided a lot of heartache.
 
:heh:Name a country outside of Somalia where we do not face verbal and physical xenophobic attacks? There are none but the good thing about the west is that they are more tolerant and if they are not, they know how to mind their business. African are primitive by predisposition and no amount of education will ever help evolve their brains.

With that said I think the woman is being very unreasonable and asking for too much in a country that is not hers. I am shocked that she is shocked that she is not welcomed with open arms in a country that is not her own.
 

Bielsa

Free Wi-Fi > Free Palestine
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I've noticed from all my readings that Nigerians get the most hate from Africans. They are stereotyped as being fraudsters, untrustworthy, aggressive, liars etc

In Germany I met Ghanaians and a Togolese men and they told me to stay away from Nigerians cos they will rip you off.

And Nigerians, because of their sheer numbers, are in every country of the world.

I personally have no problems with Nigerians.
 
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