Somali identity in The Netherlands

Somali identity in The Netherlands
Parental views on a generational Diaspora
Michel van Gastel
ANR 570986
Acknowledgements
Similar to other research work, this publication would have never been completed without the help of a
number of people. The first basic principle of science that I learned along the path of writing this thesis,
is that science would be unthinkable without people. People are a central theme in science. Whatever
the field of research may be, either social sciences or physics, people are the key to successful
research. Mentors, participants, friends and family, none can be missed in the process of completing a
project. I have had them as well: people inspiring me, sharing ideas with me, making corrections or
simply providing support when I needed it the most.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank to Dr. Kutlay Yagmur, my supervisor. He has taught me
the material that would give me my first insights in phenomena like intergroup relations and
Acculturation Theory, concepts I was desperately in need of after completing my Bachelor thesis.
With his inspiring lectures, he gave me the opportunity to reflect on the concepts of ‘culture’ and
‘language’ and let me realize how crucial these are when discussing identity. During the writing
process he provided me with useful feedback and support whenever I needed it. Especially during the
correction process Dr. Yagmur made me feel that my graduation was important to him as well.
Also, I owe many thanks to Dr. Ad Backus for acting as a second reader on short notice. As
supervisor of my Bachelor thesis, he has given me the my very first chance to investigate acculturation
patterns of the Somalian immigrant group in The Netherlands.
I could not have completed my thesis without the help of Dr. Yagmur and Dr. Backus
When a culture and language of certain ethnic group of people are the subjects of your work, it is
impossible to proceed without especially their support and information. My gratitude goes out my
friend and stakeholder Abderrazaq and to the Somali association SOMVAO for providing me with
access to informants for my research project. Due to their openness and support, I have been able to
get to the heart of the Somali community. As an outsider wishing to gain understanding of Somali
culture and language, the informants needed to be open about their pride, their worries, hopes and
dreams. The people of SOMVAO provided me with the best resources they could offer, for which I
want to show my appreciation.
Michel van Gastel
October 2008
2
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………………2
Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………………..3
1. ‘Literature review’ – Exploring Identity and Culture…………………………………………...5
1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………6
1.2 Unfolding the term ‘Identity’………………………………………………………………….6
1.3 Some thoughts on ‘Culture’………………………………………………………………….9
1.4 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………………….13
2. ‘Discovering the horn of Africa’ – Traditional Somali Culture……………………………….14
2.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..15
2.2 Geographical Data………………………………………………………………………….15
2.3 Myths about the origin of ‘Somalia’………………………………………………………..17
2.4 Structure of the Somali Economy…………………………………………………………20
2.5 Social Structure……………………………………………………………………………..21
2.6 Political Decision Making – The Mijertein Case………………………………………….23
2.7 Religion………………………………………………………………………………………24
2.8 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………………….26
3. ‘G
Generation Gap’ – The Somali Group in The Netherlands………………………………...27
3.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….28
3.2 Demographic characteristic……………...………………………………………………...28
3.3 Earlier findings on Acculturational attitudes of the Somalian immigrants…..………...29
3.4 Economic perspectives……………………………………………………………………..31
3.5 Ingroup social tensions……………………………………………………………………..33
3.6 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………………….33
Global Living’ – Intergroup Relations and Acculturation……………………………………34
4. ‘G
4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..35
4.2 Social group formation and intergroup relations…………………………………………35
4.3 Acculturation – a theoretical framework…………………………………………………..37
4.3.1
Defining ‘Acculturation’…………………………………………………………….37
4.3.2
Berry’s Acculturation Model……………………………………………………….39
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4.4 Acculturation framework applied on different types of groups…………………………44
4.5 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………………….45
5. Somali identity in The Netherlands – Research project Methodology……………………..46
5.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..47
5.2 Literature……………………………………………………………………………………..47
5.3 Method……………………………………………………………………………………….50
5.3.1 Design………………………………………………………………………………….51
5.3.2. Participants…………………………………………………………………………...51
5.3.3 Instruments…..………………………………………………………………………..52
5.3.4 Procedures…………………………………………………………………………….53
6. Somali identity in The Netherlands – Research project Results……..……………………..54
6.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….55
6.2 Results – Children’s language proficiency……………………………………………….55
6.3 Results – Parent’s cultural transmission to their children………………………………59
6.4 Results – SOMVAO’s activities……………………………………………………………62
6.5 Discussion & Recommendations….………………………………………………………65
7. Conclusions………………………………………………………………………………………..68
Appendix : Interview Transripts……………………………………………………………….……71
8. References……………………………………………………………………………………….102
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1.
‘Literature review’
Exploring ‘Identity’ & ‘Culture’
5
1.1 Introduction
This first chapter deals with the umbrella terms centralized in this project, ‘identity’ and ‘culture’. These
two concepts need to be defined before discussing Somali immigrant identity in The Netherlands.
When asked what identity is all about, in most cases, ordinary people try to provide a definition of
culture. The reason for this is surprisingly simple: ‘culture’ is the word always mentioned when laymen
try to describe what ‘identity’ is. For many people,the two terms identity and culture, seem to be
instantly connected. So there is this common sense idea that ‘idenitity’ comprises ‘culture’ amongst
other aspects.
1.2 Unfolding the term ‘Identity’
‘Identity’ is a concept we seem to be faced with on a daily basis. It is a term which we assume
everybody understands it. But in fact, it is an incredibly complex concept. It is some kind of container
term for all kinds of assets and processes. In the literature on intergroup relations and identity, one can
distinguish between personal, social, ethnic and religious identity.
A very important construct to take notice of is ‘ethic identity’. It is very different from the everyday
meaning of ‘identity’. One of the main differences is that ‘ethnicity’ implies talking about groups. A
person is Hispanic, Asian or any other background but the most crucial point is that there is always
reference to a certain group. Shibutani and Kwan (1965) define an ‘ethnic group’ as “those who
conceive of themselves as alike by virtue of their common ancestry, real of fictitious, and who are
regarded so by others.” In other words, it is about self-identification and the group others assign you
to. But it is more than static features as ancestry, race, religion, or national origin.
It is even more about shared values, beliefs and influence on our feelings, behavior and acts
(Mc Goldrick, Pearce and Giordiano, 1982) Group formation could be conscious, but sometimes we
are not even aware of it (Kochman, 1970) In general, ethnic groups refer to minority communities in
larger societies. As if mainstream group members do not have any ethnicity, the term mostly refers to
only minority people Wagley and Harris (1958) report that ethnic groups are non-dominant segments
in a more complex configuration that are characterized by traits held in low esteem by the dominant
groups.
Carlos and Padilla (1974) add social distance to the dominant group, taking pride in belonging to a
group and a proximity to traditional group norms and values.
Rotheram and Phinney (1987) provide useful insights into the composition of ‘ethnic identity’:
“Ethnic identity is a very broad concept that includes many components: ethnic awareness (the
understanding of one’s own and other groups), ethnic self-identification (the label used for one’s own
group), ethnic attitudes (feelings about one’s own and other groups) and ethnic behaviours (behaviour
patterns specific to an ethnic group)”
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Ethnicity has proven to be a useful concept, but also hard to define. Most of the past attempts, like
Rotheram’s and Phinney’s, stranded on the common insights that being ethnic consist of practical
cues such as clothing different from the mainstream society, different social customs from the
dominant group and using specific ingredients in the preparation of breakfast, lunch and dinner.
These are only aspects of outer look and material culture. Redefining ‘ethnicity’ was the first task
ahead. The first scholar to take up this challenge was Frederik Barth who mentioned the psychological
dimensions of ‘ethnicity’: it is never enough to say that wearing garments and eating foods is all there
is to being ethnic. It is not only a matter of visibility. In the nineteenth century, the period when nationstates were formed, political elite ethnicity was proposed to separate groups of peoples from one
another. Bockhorn and Bockhorn (1998) mention the German term ‘Volkstum’. Researching the
construct ‘ethnicity’ is more than looking at roots and rituals. This author also gives a citation from
Mario Vargas Llosa:
‘In Wahrheit steckt hinter den Reden und Banneren, mit denen Sie ein Stück Geographie
verherrlichen, das mit dem Makel willkürlicher Grenzsteine und Grenzlinien behaftet ist, worin Sie eine
höhere form der Geschichte und der Gesellschaftlichen Metaphysik verkörpert sehen, nicht anderes
als das schlaue aggornamiento der uralten primitiven Angst davor, sich vom Stamm unabhängig zu
machen, aufzuhören, Masse, Teil, zu sein und sich in einer |ndividuum zu verwandeln; dahinter sage
ich, steckt die Sehnsucht nach jenem Vorfahren, für den die Welt in den Grenzen des Bekannten, den
Waldlichtung, der dunklen Höhle, der Steilen Anhöhe, begann und endete, in jener kleinen Enklave,
wo die Gemeinsamkeit der Sprache, der Magie, der Gebräuche, und vor allem, der allgemenen
Verwirring, der Unwissenheit und Ängste seiner Gruppe ihm Kraft verlieh und das Gefühl gab, gegen
den Donner, den Blitz, das Raubtier un die anderen Stämme des Planeten geschützt zu sein......Die
Nabelschnur, die sie durch der Jahrhunderte verbindet, heiszt Angst fur dem Unbekannten....’
(Vargas Llosa, Wie amn I, 304-306)
This small piece of Vargas Llosa’s story serves a clear purpose: we, as human beings, are afraid of
going astray from our ‘herd’ and therefore we choose to remain in our safe domain called ethnicity. In
other words, being ethnic is what keeps us safe from ‘Raubtiere und anderen Stämme’, gives us a
sense of belonging. These are useful insights to make it understandable why people are, to say the
least, not eager to leave their own community and go out in that “strange” world.
A person’s experience of belonging to a certain ethnic group is not always that evident. It depends on
what position you find yourself in. Is the person part of the dominant or the non-dominant group? How
is the social distance to the mainstream group? It is perfectly imaginable that Caucasian White
minorities feel less labeled than colored people simply because of the resemblance in outer
appearance.
Ethnic awareness caries a sense of group specific attributes, values, beliefs and customs.
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The more people have contact with other ethnic groups, the more this awareness increases.
Even in early ages, children are aware of perceptual factors like skin color and clothing differences. It
is their first sense of being different from others.
Ethnic attitudes are the characteristics of the response to ethnicity, that of yourself and of
others. Those attitudes can be either positive or negative. Even at a very young age, attitudes can be
measured in an accurate manner. By showing of a white and a black doll and asking of simple
questions such as “Which doll is nicest?” implicit attitudes can be delicited. It needs to be commented
that there have been some methodological doubts about this technique but even so, it still remains
noteworthy that in all these research projects, black children have the tendency to choose white dolls
to play with. The common explanation for this is that those children know that white people have more
social-economic status and other advantages in life.
Ethnic patterns are “difference in attitudinal, affective and behavioral patterns across cultures”
(Whiting and Whiting, 1975) There has been a substantial amount of research done on classification of
cultures. A renowned example of this is the work of Hofstede, 1980) who developed his ‘cultural
dimensions’:
Individual - Collectivist
Masculine – Feminine
Does a person see him-/herself as an individual
with specific own views, course of life and career
opportunities, or does he or she is part of a
holistic unit?
Which gender of the two, male or female, has the
most influence in society
Power Distance
How do people, superiors and inferiors, relate to
one another? Is there equality in their
relationship?
Short term vs. Long term orientation
Do people of a society feel they should aim for
short term successes or would they choose long
term benefits?
Uncertainty avoidance
Do people feel comfortable with taking risks or do
they feel more comfortable with obeying formal or
informal rules?
This division is a good starting point for the description of cultures and the investigation of cultural
differences. In previous years, scholars have had some criticism on Hofstede’s model.
The assumption Hofstede makes that two individuals differ in the same way their cultures does seem
to be too straightforward. Singer (1976) gives a solid argument in his reasoning that each individual
possesses a unique personality and that individual patterns of behavior are based on learned
perceptions. But due to the fact that people are different in their experiences in life, it may very well be
8
that two persons have more similarities than the existing differences between their cultures would
suggest. Although this might be true, the Hofstede projects has played an important role in crosscultural research.
What happens when people do decide to be independent, leave their own country of origin and ethnic
group and settle in a new host community? This a hard to tell. Previewing a part of a chapter later on
in this thesis, it can be said there will always take place a process of negotiation of ethnicity and
identity. This can have various outcomes. The main purpose of this work is to examine the outcomes
of leaving your safe environment and settling in The Netherlands.
1.3 Some thoughts on ‘culture’
An incredible amount of work has been written. Through the years, scholars have tried to define it,
capturing the essence of this phenomenon in mere words. That was not a straight forward task.
Matsumoto makes a very useful remark on this aspect:
“When defining culture, as I will shortly attempt, it is almost unavoidable and inevitable that the
discussion be oversimplified for the sake of making a clear presentation. Culture is a complex,
dynamic and fascinating phenomenon. Any attempt, the present one included, to reduce it to a
definable, labeled construct demystifies that which is indeed mystic in the first place. While it is
important to attempt such a definition, it is equally important to acknowledge at the outset that such
attempts do not do justice to the complexity of culture in it’s fullest meaning”
(Matsumoto,1996, p. 11)
This excerpt shows the tension between the real world awareness that it is a very complex and many
layered concept, and the simplification for the very sake of science. There are many useful
categorizations of the definitions of ‘culture’ trying to capture the whole concept. There are a lot of
perspectives to choose from when approaching the matter. For example, the most frequently used are
the definitions based on description of activities and behavior associated with culture.
Berry, Poortinga, Segall and Dasen (1992) tried to sum up these different types of definitions of
‘culture’:
1. Descriptive – highlight the different types of activities or behaviors associated with culture
2. Historical – refer to the heritage and tradition associated with a group of people
3. Normative – description of the rules and norms that are associated with a culture
4. Psychological – emphasis on problem solving and behavioral approaches associated with
culture
5. Structural – outline of the societal and structural elements of a culture
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6. Genetic – looking at the origins of culture
With this classification, it is possible to cover most references to ‘culture’. But there are some notes to
be made here. ‘Culture’, as said, comes in a lot of different definitions and all of these separate
descriptions are regarded in different ways across cultures. An American would think of ‘culture’ in
another way than a Japanese person. While the first could think of abstract terminology like ‘pursuit of
happiness’ and ‘democracy’, the latter could focus more on concrete activities like having tea
ceremonies in a certain fashion and paying respect to the elderly by making a bow.
The main idea is that ‘culture’ can take a lot of forms depending on glasses looked through.
A crucial aspect needs to be kept in mind when switching perspectives. Cultures are most commonly
identified, more or less bound, by parameters such as language, time and a territorial space. (Shadid,
2003) When describing for instance Maori culture, we would talk about their Maori language, about the
position of those people in past, present and future and mention their territory in New Zealand. Those
three points are widely agreed upon to mark cultures with. Philosophical core issues have always
been the possibility of comparing cultures and the superiority of your own culture (‘ethnocentrism’)
Where ethnocentrism used to be the way to go in decades not too long ago, I would like to advocate
the cultural relativist view that all cultures are indeed equal. World views or ways of problem solving
are only to be compared in their own paradigms. It is not possible to lift aspects out of their context
1
and put them on the scale. The views of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein on ‘language games’ could
easily apply. Words and concepts like ‘truth’ all have a different connotations and parameters when
considered in a culture other than your own. Still, there are some central concepts possible to agree
upon like the existence of a God. Whether people call Him God, Jaweh or Allah, it remains more or
less the same entity according to Wittgenstein’s theory and people simply do not have the possible to
judge one another due to the fact that we are captured in a certain paradigm all the time.
Back to terminology of culture. Matsumoto (1996) makes the distinction between ‘material’ and
‘immaterial’ culture. When referring to ‘culture’ many people name material symbols of culture such as
a country flag, national monuments like the US Capitol Hill, Dutch windmills or the Blue Mosque in
Istanbul, Turkey a symbol of Turkish culture. Those symbols all have in common that people can
either touch, see, hear or feel them. But ‘culture’ is so much more.
Scholars like Hagendoorn (1986) for instance point out that there also is an immaterial side to the
concept, ‘norms’ and ‘beliefs’. As Hagendoorn puts it:
“….gedrag en om waarden, normen en opvattingen die mensen zich binnen een gegeven
samenleving hebben verworven door leerprocessen en die hen een oriëntatie op de werkelijkheid
verschaffen,”
(Hagendoorn,1986, p. 125)
1
http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/6s.htm#lang
10
He puts forward that there are norms, values, beliefs and behaviour involved when it comes to
‘culture’. Besides this, it is about learnability of culture, the social transition of this mental system.
Those systems are not simply copy-pasted in the child’s mind. Those beliefs, norms and values are
transferred along the way as we grow up. But it is definitely not a one on one relationship.
Some parts sink in, others do not. Why is this? The answer lies in the experiences individuals go
through. Those experiences are different for all of us, even if we belong to the same cultural group.
Singer (1976) mentions that every individual has it’s own unique personality and individual behavioural
patterns are based on perceptions which are learned to a large extent. But it is because of differences
in people’s experiences that they end up being different within the same culture.
A very workable definition of ‘culture’ for this project is the following, derived from Rohner’s study
(1984):
“The set of attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviours shared by a group of people, but different for each
individual, communicated from one generation to the next”
(Rohner,1984, p. 113)
This is a good starting point to examine cultural experiences from Somalian immigrants in the Dutch
context. The definition puts the focus on three central issues surrounding ‘culture’. The first is the
emphasis on the subjective attributes someone’s culture comprises. It is not only material references
to ‘culture’. The beliefs and values, the psychological dimensions of the construct, are maybe even
more important. Secondly, the focus is on the fact that those attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviour
are not transferred to the subsequent generations in a holistic manner. It was already noted that two
persons from the same cultural background could have a completely different mindset through all
those variable experiences we have as human beings. It is very likely that some parts of ‘culture’ will
be successfully transferred while other pieces will be left out or at least partly included. The third point
is the learnability that was addressed earlier.
The part “….communicated from one generation to the next” makes it clear that people serve as
bearers and transmitters of ‘culture’.
At the same time, there are clear ideas in this definition of culture about what it is not. It is not
biological. In this respect, ‘culture’ is different from ‘race’. A person can be Afro-American but that does
not necessarily has to mean that he acts accordingly to the stereotypes that are surrounding his
‘culture’. In other words, people can act in ways we do no expect from them when looking at the typical
elements from the cultural background they stem from. And ‘culture’ is also not interchangeable with
the construct ‘nationality’. In an increasing number of publications, evidence is being put forward that a
small but substantial part of the population in many countries does not match the dominant cultural
stereotype of those countries. (Triandis,1992). Another important aspect to keep in mind is that
‘culture’ is not the same as ‘personality’. This would seem so, because in our definition it is highlighted
that there is a “difference for each individual” in those attitudes, beliefs etcetera. Indeed, this
11
resembles to some extent what ‘personality’ is but we must not forget about the aspect of stability
which characterizes ‘culture’. It is that stability that enables scholars and laymen to speak about
‘culture’. Ironically enough, in this research project, that stability will be proven to be a less reliable
characteristic than Triandis’ work stated. In the cross-cultural setting we live in today, cultures come
into contact on a daily basis. The static construct has become dynamic, scholars have come to the
insight that in present society national cultures (we might even ask ourselves if there is really
something like national cultures – there may well be pan-national cultures) are constantly influencing
each other. In a theoretical framework like Berry’s (2005) Acculturation Theory outcomes of those
contacts can be researched. Besides frameworks to examine the outcomes of the intercultural
encounters with, the discourse focuses on the making of a distinction between pan-cultural principles
and culture-specific elements. These differences are termed Emics and Etics. The first referring to
aspects of life that are different across cultures, the second comprises all aspects that are the same
for all cultures. In other words: Emics are culture-specific and Etics are pan-cultural. Things like
national flags can be considered Etics, while religion is a clear Emic because not every culture has a
theocratic view. The question for Emics and Etics is one of the larger focus points in cross-cultural
studies.
Another manner of classifying cultures is Samovar and Porter’s (1991) approach of ‘social cultural
categories’ in which they note that cultural values are a set of organized rules for decision-making and
reduction of uncertainty. ‘Culture’ serves the purpose of bringing structure and avoiding uncertainty in
the public arena.
Furthermore, an individual’s perception is under influence of:
1. The underlying system of norms, values and attitudes
2. His ‘way of worldmaking’ (the worldview somebody holds)
3. The social organization in society
These three components greatly determine the way of communication within a community and of
course also affects intercultural contact. If two worldviews do not match, it does create a certain strain
on the relationship between two people or even entire groups. The norms, values and attitudes could
also cause a troublesome communication. The authors do not mention differences between individuals
explicitly, but the possibility is being left open. It could very well be that two people coming from the
same culture differ in norms and values they hold. The discussion presented in this section shows the
complicated nature of intergroup communication.
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1.4 Conclusions
In this introductory chapter the focus has been on exploring the thoughts and remarks on ‘identity’ and
‘culture’ of the most influential scholars. We saw through Vargas Llosa’s words that, as imaginable in
daily life, people tend to have a certain resistance to break away from the daily patterns of the groups
they ‘belong to’. It might be interesting to look into the specific meaning of ‘belong to’, simply because
of the fact that most people seem to be completely confident of who they are and which (sub)groups
they belong to. People never really take time to reflect upon their social memberships. But what
happens when we have to consciously assess aspects of our group membership and relationships?
Would we give the same undisputed answers when we fill in a questionnaire? One of the most
intriguing personal findings after reading the following chapters could certainly be a more profound
understanding of the complexity of identity.
13
‘
2.
‘Discovering the horn of Africa’
Traditional Somali culture
14
2.1 Introduction
When looking at a immigrant culture such as the Somali culture in The Netherlands, it is necessary to
examine the country of origin and it’s traditional culture. This provides us with the opportunity to map
the changes the culture has undergone since the immigrants have settled in their new environment.
Not too many people are familiar with with the typical Somali structure of society, the customs and the
way of life Therefore, in the following sections, Somalia and it’s culture will be explored to gain a
broader understanding of the Somalian people.
2.2 Geographical data
2
Official name: Soomaaliya / As-Soemal ‫لاموصلا‬, (MSA )
Capital: Mogadishu
Estimated population: Over 8 million
Languages spoken: Somali, MSA, Italian
Total surface: 637.305. square miles
Figure 2.1 Somalia’s country flag
Demographic figures:
- Population growth 3,38% per year
- Average age: 17,59 years old
- Life expectation: 48,09 years
- Birth rate: 45,62 births / 1.000 people
- Death rate: 16,97 deaths / 1.000 people
Religion: Islam (Sunni)
2
Modern Standard Arabic
15
This geographical map of Somalia shows
the most important cities of the country with
Mogadishu as best known to the Western
world. Mogadishu is the country’s capital
and it’s home to a wide range of different
languages and cultures. This “melting pot” is
also the stage for most of the violent
confrontations of the Somali civil war.
This chapter will provide more details on the
conflict, an event with an impact on Somali
immigrant culture.
Through the ages, Mogadishu fell in the
hands of many colonizing powers such as
the Arabs who developed the settlement
into a influential centre of commerce
Figure 2.2: Geographical map of Somalia
Arab merchant turned the city into a harbour, a location buzzing with commercial activity
During these times, Mogadishu became more and more prosperous.
Besides commerce, the Arab colonizers
brought an entirely new religion to Somalia:
Islam. Before their arrival, the locals did not
have such a structured religion. The majority of
them put their faith in multiple deities (worship
of nature) The spread of Islam came through
marriages between Arab men and local
women. One of the highlights in the
establishment of Islam was the construction of
the Fakr Ad Din mosque in 1269, a house of
prayer serving as a monument in present
times.
Figure 2.3: Fakr Ad Din mosque in 1882
16
Around 1500 BC Mogadishu was captured by Portuguese forces. The status of harbour became much
more important: the city served as a portal for the African inlands. After the Portuguese period, the
sultan of Zanzibar took over control for not more than one year. Italian explorers took over Mogadishu
and changed the name of the city to ‘Mogadiscio’. It became the capital of Italian Somaliland, an
independent part with it’s own administration founded in 1936. After the Somalia’s independence in
1960, Mogadishu gained status of the country’s capital. Only nine years later, the very first signs of the
civil war glared when a coupe took place: Mohamed Said Barre, a general at that time, declared
himself as dictator of the Somali nation. The actual war was initiated by Barre’s right hand man,
Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The confrontations between Barre’s governmental army troops and Aidid’s
rebel forces still last up to this very day. In 1992, the United Nations started it’s operation on
Mogadishu territory to stop the rebels. This operation failed and as of 1995, the violence increased.
More information on the civil war follows in the final section.
2.3 Myths about the origin of ‘Somalia’
For most of the world’s peoples, their history can be traced back accurately. For the Somali people this
is absolutely not the case. Their descent is rather unclear. None of the Somali scholars know where
the name ‘Somalia’ originates from. This is the reason why there are so many myths about the cultural
heritage of the Somali people.
.
The name ‘Somali was first mentioned in an Ethiopian hymn written after the country’s (at this time, it
was known by the name of ‘Abyssinia’) victory over the state of Ifat. After this celebration, the
speculations on the origin of the name began. One of the explanations is that of Burton, who stated
that ‘Somali’ was derived from the word ‘Samai’ which literally means ‘to poke out’. A more rational
explanation is that ‘Somali’ comes from two separate words: ‘so’ which means ‘to go’ and another part
‘mal’ which means ‘to milk cattle’. This could very well be the case looking at the agricultural nature of
the Somali society. Another scholar, Wright, stated that ‘Somali’ was derived from the word
‘Soumahe’ which means ‘infidels’. A governmental report dating from 1945 also documented on the
origins of the name ‘Somali’. According to this publication there was a governor named Soma bin
Tersoma Nagashi the nation was named after. This explanation is widely accepted among the
Somali’s. Also, there is another heritage issue. The general view of the Somali is that they have a
noble heritage coming from the most important Arab tribe, the Quraish. This is the tribe the most
important person in Islamic history, the Prophet Mohamed PBUH, belonged to. This heritage story was
supported by Hunt (1951) when he constructed a Somali tribal map. Through the explorational
journeys of the Arabs, members of the Quraish ended up living on present day Somali soil. With this,
they became ancestors of the Somali people. By marrying local Somali women, they spread Islam
among the population. Their offspring were Muslims just as their Arab fathers. The fact that there are
quite some people with Somali ancestry in countries like Yemen and Saudi Arabia seems to contribute
17
to the validity of the Soma bin Tersoma Nagashi hypothesis. Since this story seems to be correct, it
may be good to depict Hunt’s full clan genealogy:
Quraish
Agil
Hill
Sab
Somali
Digil
Irrir
Tunni
Rahanwein
Ishaak
Dir
Pre-Hawiya
Hawiya
Gadabursi
Darod
Harti
Mijertein
Mahmoud Osmans
18
Large volume of historical information is available on the tribe of the Quraish. Very significant details
are even mentioned in the Qur’an. In the Book, there is a reference to Abu Lahab, a sworn enemy of
the religion of Islam and the Prophet Mohamed PBUH.
The first thing to notice is the existing dichotomy between the ‘Somali’ and the ‘Sab’.
Both clans together can be called ‘Somali’ (as in the Somali people) but in practice there is a very
clear status difference between the two. The ‘Sab’ are a low status group without any socio-economic
perspective whatsoever. They live in the South of Somalia, near the Shebelle river. Besides these two
clans, there are other groups in present Somali society:
Digil
Pre-Hawiya
Hawiya
Rawanhein
Dir
Ishaak
Darod
All this data seems to account for the Somali heritage. Somali’s are extremely proud of their roots,
going back to the Quraish tribe. In the Islamic religion, these people have an enormous status due the
ancestry of the Prophet Mohamed PBUH. Ironically, there are not many pure Somali’s, by that is
meant: members of the ‘Somali’ clan. This clan only has 1.5 million members across the nation.
A substantial part of the nation belongs to euther the ‘Hawiya’ or the ‘Darod’. Those clans are the most
influential. In daily life, there are a lot of markers of this noble heritage. Many people have a last name
ending in ‘Haagi’, or ‘Hashya’. Both are honorary titles a Muslim gets when he completes the holy
pilgrimage to Mecca. These names mean that there are many descendants of those prominent people.
Even among the ‘Sab’ there are men carrying those titles, but reality remains that they do not have as
much rights as the rest of the Somali people. High positions will always be filled in by ‘pure Somali’s’,
the only posts available for ‘Sabs’ are within the informal economy for example making a living as a
vendor of self manufactured leather accessoiries on the street corner.
The clear-cut social divisons and economic inequalities produce a deeply divided society where social
injustice prevails. This situation has been the cause of the civil war currently tearing up Somalia.
19
2.4 Structure of the Somali Economy
The traditional economy of the country has always been based upon the cattle of the clans.
Somali’s have always been herdsmen. Animals like sheep and camels were their natural resources.
Because these type of animals need grazing land, over time the Somali way of life became a nomadic
one. Groups were always on the move, looking for fertile places to let their cattle feed.
The main means of nutrition were the meat of the herds and the milk the animals gave. Having many
camels and sheep in your herd meant a good and prosperous life. Wealth could be measured by the
number of animals a man had. Possession gave prestige to the owner. Besides milk, coffee was one
of the favourite drinks. Many old practices are highly unfamiliar to Western way of life: for instance the
consumption of blood, drained from the arteries of the cattle during winter time to resist the cold
3
weather. Warm blood was an excellent remedy for the extreme conditions. Sometimes it was even
drained right out of the neck.
Camels were the primary means of transportation for the tents and other possessions. The nomads
themselves rode horses, meanwhile herding the camels. If a person was wealthy, he had the
possibility to rent camels to other clan members, generating even more income.
Camels are valuable resources for Somalian people. They provide the clan with enough milk to last
throughout seasons. In the dry period camels need to drink every fourteen days, where other animals
would need water much more.
During hotter seasons, a lot of meat was consumed to survive because of the lack of water.
The horses were totally dependent on the camels and that is a logical reason for the fact that Somali
men appreciated their camels immensely. In present times, camels have been replaced by cattle such
as cows and occasionally bulls. In the past, the keeping of cattle was purely a North Somalian
4
custom . this has been expanded to other parts of the country as well. Nowadays, cows and camels
are mixed in the cattle stock. An average family can lead a comfortable life with about twenty animals,
but having a normal existence is possible with less animals as well. A weakness of cows is that they
5
can only last four days without water maximum . Considering this, the camel is still the primary source
of income for a Somali person
Sheep and goats are kept by women and children in the villages. They require far less space and the
wool is an export product for Somalia. Due to the conditions, the people don’t have the need to wear
these kind of garments. Rams are bred for their meat and because they are relatively small in
numbers, that meat is considered a genuine treat. A family consisting of a mother and three children
need a herd of fifty pieces of cattle to have sufficient nutrition. When on the move, nomads also use
mules imported from Ethiopia in addition to camels. Mules are much more mobile and can reach
places camels could never go.
3
Powell-Cotton, “Notes on Italian Somaliland”, Brittish Museum, Oxford
Swayn, 1903, pag. 34
5
Ibid & Puccioni, 1936, pag. 61
4
20
Agriculture
In Somalia, there has always been relatively little agricultural activity. For illustration, the availability of
cultivated land in the North is about 11.8 percent (8.000 sq. miles) when compared to the total territory
of 68.000 sq. miles. In the South, these figures seem little different. Only 15 percent of the suitable
land is used for agricultural purposes. In the areas where there are quite a lot of fluvial sediments,
there are crops grown like corn. Further in the inlands, yams are selected for harvest. There is a
definite reason to grow these, because the yam is a popular ingredient in a traditional Somali dinner.
In past times, there even were plantations after the United States model in large parts of Italian and
British Somaliland. Like in the States, cotton was the main harvest, to be used in the production of
clothes suitable for warm climates.
Gum is the only agricultural export product of Somalia, harvested in the North.
H u n t in g
Despite the present decline of animal numbers, Somalia has a rich hunting tradition.
It used to be much more frequent, nevertheless people still go hunting in the dry seasons.
This is the time the animals gather around the pools to clench their thirst. For nomads, this is the best
opportunity for a successful kill. In most of the cases, animals like zebra’s and antelopes but
sometimes bigger gain such as elephants are hunted.
2.5 Social structure
As noted earlier, the Somali social structure consists of kinships. Those connections are still relevant
in present day society. Clans can be regarded as the foundation for the country’s social structure.
People live in kinships and have tight relations with other clan members.
The means of existence, as illustrated in previous sections, are cattle herding and to lesser extent
agriculture. This implies an autarky and there is indeed a high degree of independence. Life revolves
around the seasons of harvesting, being on the move and taking care of the kinship.
That nomadic existence is required for the reason that the land gets exhausted after a period of time.
(Colluci, 1924) Travelling times need to be reckoned with, the more time a kinship spends on the
move, the less opportunity there is to sow and harvest. Work needs to be dived quite carefully, time is
not something to be wasted. Every generation within the kinship has it’s own task to deal with.
The youngest among the children help their mothers with the keeping of goats and other smaller
animals. Referring to women: there are numerous misconceptions about the position of a woman in
African societies like the Somali. Westerners may think that they are being held back in many ways,
even being discriminated against. This is absolutely not true. A wife has a lot of rights. She is entitled
21
to get taken care of materially speaking. Food, clothing and shelter, everything is responsibility for the
man. He has to take care of all of this. Further more, the position of a woman is a very important one.
She controls everything that is going on in and around the home. She is always ‘guarding’ her
husbands’ possessions, keeping the house clean and tidy. When it comes to the rearing of the
children, the wife has the top position as well. She decides what is going to happen when the children
are concerned. Men have a say in upbringing but they do respect their wives’ words very much due to
the fact that those women take care of the children from the earliest moments on. This picture is not so
black and white as members of Western societies seem to put it, there are ‘some shades of gray’.
In Somali kinships, both women and men have rights and duties. Everyone has their own needs but
also chores or bigger tasks to fulfil.
A kinship consists of a number of sections based on family relations. Every subsection of the kinship
has a representative in the high board that decides on kinship-wide affairs like when to move or which
kinships to form on alliance with in times of need. The high board has a head, the most respectable
member of the kinship. In most cases, age and rank coincide: the head is most likely an elderly man
as the stereotypical image describes. This is the man making decisions, which does not mean that the
rest of the board has no influence whatsoever. They play an advisory role, each member making use
of his own core competence. It is common that the board reaches a consensus on a certain matter
and then advises the head. Giving out advice is something only men can do, as said, women are
important in the home domain or on the fields. Teenage boys and young men also have important
responsibilities concerning the herding of the cattle. They take care of the oxes and the camels.
Letting the animals graze, making sure they do not become ill: those are only two of their main points
of attention. The daily activities of a man differ greatly of those of a woman.
The ‘conquering’ of land is an instrument to expand your kinship’s territory. The young men with their
herds are the first to move into new land. They are the ones that discover new grounds.
Foundations of a kinships territory are the water resources. Those are a good location for a settlement.
Kinships movements are never at random. There is a fixed pattern for it. There is always a fixed piece
of land for the first period of the year. Cattle grazes and consumes most of the vegetation.
After this period, in January, there is a second movement to new fertile lands for animals to graze
upon. All the expeditions a kinship makes are along the boundaries of the territory, after this they
return to the safe environment of the women and the settlement. Around April or May, there are rains
the Somali call ‘Gu’. Those showers provide the fields with more than enough water and as a result,
grass for the cattle to eat. If the ‘Gu’ provides sufficient water for the settlement to live from, the men
will not head out as far away from home. General rule for the April / May movement is, so to say,
“Wherever there is enough ‘Gu’, there is our destination”. The stay in those parts of the territory can
last up to eleven months. During all of this period, the women are home alone, taking care of the
children and looking out for a good development of the harvest. Women, staying home alone means
the opportunity for other kinships to raid the settlement. In these times, young men are indeed dearly
22
missed. This does not mean that the nomadic way of life ever changes. Although men know that there
is a good chance on loss of lives, they still move away to do their tasks. That never seems to change.
2.6 Political decision making – the Mijertein case
In the modern world, a nation can only live a structured life when they appoint a head of state.
The Somali clans must have had foresights in their time: all kinships had an elder, a head of state to
guide them through the difficult processes of decision making. It would be useful to look at the ways of
electing these heads.
There were two common ways to elect a head:
1) The kinship board, a ‘clan committee’ appoints a suitable head of state from their own
members
2) ‘Head of state’ is inherited as a title by the next of kin
Especially the second example speaks to our imagination when we think of Africa: the oldest son as
successor of his father. Reality is that this method is used far less than the use of a board.
To illustrate the typical Somali political processes it is best to work with a specific case, that of the
‘Mijertein’, a kinship under the umbrella of the ‘Darod’. When a head of state gets appointed, he
carries the title of sultan.
6
The normal procedure for the appointment is that there is a gathering of all the representatives of the
Mijertein representatives and those of other kinships belonging to the Harti confederation. Particularly
the relationships with the ‘Dir’ kinship were much tighter than the relations with other clans.
Short description of ceremonial affairs
As noted before, the appointment is not only important to the Mijertein, but to all kinships belonging to
the Harti confederation. During the ceremony, representatives of all other Harti kinships are present to
inaugurate their new colleague. The most important ritual of the ceremony is that the warriors of the
Mijertein approach their new sultan with their spearheads direct to the ground as a token of surrender.
This can be imagined very well, has great symbolical value. The warriors literally exclaim the word
‘MOT’, a kind of greeting. The sultan answers their words with blessings, called ‘Rab’. Along with the
sultan comes his personal advisor, chosen by the sultan himself. The sultan determines his choice out
of his former colleagues of the board. This advisor acts as a deputy on occasions the sultan is absent.
The advisor also serves as a right-hand man in daily political matters.
6
Robecchi-Bricchetti, op. cit. pag. 392
23
The sultan’s rights & responsibilities
The sultan of the Mijertein has the rule of his own kinship as well as the other kinships belonging to the
Harti confederation. One of his most obvious tasks is the providing of protection for all of his subjects.
He is the supreme military commander of the confederacy. Also, it is the sultans duty to determine the
tax rates and to collect these tax payments kinship members make. For example, farmers are obliged
7
to give 1/20 of their harvest for public interest . There is an annual occasion for which there is a
special tax rate: Arafa. This is a festival which has it’s foundation in Islam, the biggest religion in
Somalia. During these festivities, there is an extra tax payment of one sheep to feed the community.
It is only fair to say that the subjects of the sultan are not very eager to fulfil their duties regarding
taxes. They only pay them when the inspectors are at their doorstep. On a couple of occasions,
subjects may try to avoid making the payment. Nevertheless, the administration will reveal if they have
fulfilled their duty.
A second matter of concern is agriculture. The sultan needs to make a decision about what pieces of
land can be used for sowing and harvesting. Some soil needs to recuperate from previous harvests to
maintain it’s fertility. When it is decided that a field will not be used that year, it is also forbidden to let
the cattle graze there. If a farmer violates the decree, his animals are slaughtered as a form of
8
punishment . The tax collectors are allowed to keep an appointed share of their collected taxes as a
9
reward for their work . A third main task is the admittance of new outsiders to the Harti confederation,
for instance a foreign woman marrying a Mijertein subject. She gets the membership of her husband’s
10
kin. A last responsibility of the sultan is the ‘Ikram’ of his guests. This is not specific for Somali
leaders, it is more of a general principle of Islam.
2.7 Religion
The main religion in Somalia is (Sunni) Islam. This has been for an extremely long period of time. Ibn
Haqwal reports that Muslims and Christians lived together peacefully along the Zeila coastal lines as
early as the ninth century AC. The crusades of the Arabs to Somalia gave Islam a chance to spread
and flourish. As briefly documented before, it were the Arabs who gave Mogadishu the important
status it still has up to today. The city became a harbour, a portal to the inlands of Africa. Mogadishu is
also known because of the fierce battles the Somali’s had with Abyssinia, modern day Ethiopia.
Together with the wealth the Arabs provided to Somalian territory, convertion to the religion of Islam
came to be. Settlers started to build mosques, locals started to visit these houses of prayer out of
curiosity. Later on, intergroup marriages took place between Somali women and Arab males. This
caused the wives to convert to their husband’s religion. The spread of Islam was not always as easy
7
Guillan, op. cit. page 443
Cerulli, op. cit. page. 88
9
Cerulli, op. cit. pag. 48
10
Arabic for ‘honouring’
8
24
as described here. It did not go by itself. It did not go by force all the time, but there certainly were
battles fought in the name of Islam. Egyptians occupying the coastal area’s between Zeila and Cape
Guardafui forced the locals who had not adopted Islam as their religion to convert. After these military
actions by Egypt, Abyssinia attacked these foreign invaders of Somalia to keep them away from their
own territory. With Egyptian military forces out of the way, Abyssinia increased it’s influence in
Somalia, conquering an essential part of the Somali lands (‘Ethiopian Somaliland’) and cleared the
path for Western nations to explore the horn of Africa. Not only Abyssinia had a protectorate on
Somalian soil, France, England and Italy all were European colonizing powers in the country. Despite
of this intense history of constant warfare, Islam got it’s chance to spread firmly. But considering the
current Western interests in Islam, how is the nature of Sunni Islam in Somalia? What are the daily
practices and principles of his religion in the country? Although the practice of Islam is officially that of
11
the Sunni , it can be said that some of the practices show a clear deviation from the path of the
Prophet Muhammad PBUH and his companions, pointed to by Islamic scholars as the earliest and the
most authentic Islam. The role of the mosques is a normal one, being a house of prayer five times a
day, a social institute for all kinds of purposes. Worshipping of Allah, asking Him for help, chatting with
brothers of your kinship, mourning a beloved one: it is all permitted in the mosque. It is a normal
practice in Islam that these things happen.
The deviation lies therein that the Imams are made far more important than they should be.
12
Muslims visiting the mosque ask him for ‘Shafa’ah’ . We do not have to read the Qur’an, the main
Islamic scripture thoroughly to discover that this is not the way it is prescribed for a Muslim. As it is
stated by Allah in Surah
13
Al Fatiha, the very first chapter, line five, of His Qur’an:
1:5 ‘Iyaaka Na’Budu Wa Iyaaka Nasta’ien’
You (Alone) we worship and You (Alone) we ask for help (for each and everything)
A Muslim has to direct his wishes and prayers only to Allah. It is allowed to ask for help with normal
daily affairs like asking for assistance in personal problems but only Allah can grant you a good
position in the Hereafter. It is strictly forbidden to ask for intermediation for these kind of affairs.
On the Day of Judgement Muslims believe in, it is for believers alone to be judged by Allah.
The imam has no part whatsoever in the questioning of the believer, nor has his wife, children or other
relatives.
That asking for ‘Shafa’ah’
14
15
is a serious act of disbelief in the religion of Islam, called ‘Kufr’ . This
places a Muslim outside of the Islamic belief. Still, even if when a Muslim commit those deeds, it is not
up for other believers to condemn him. That asking for intermedation is an accepted part of the Somali
11
Derived from the Arabic word ‘Sunnah’, the manners and speech of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH (Peace Be
Upon Him)
13
Arabic term for ‘chapter’
Arabic term for ‘intermediating’ between Allah and the believer for the believer’s faith in the Hereafter
15
Arabic term for ‘disbelief’
14
25
culture. I do not pretend to prescribe people their way practising their Islam, I just try to give a clear
picture of the religious practices in Somalia.
2.8 Conclusions
As a conclusion of this chapter, it is important to point out that there really is no ‘Somali’ culture, just
like there is no uniform ‘Dutch’ or ‘Danish’ culture.
Especially in African countries like Somalia, where there are so many kins living alongside each other,
there is no over arching Somalian culture for everyone. In other words, it is not fully possible to give an
account of a people’s culture without making this very remark. Each and every clan has his own way
of handling the rules and practices. These manners are unique for that specific group. Of course there
are some basic elements that we refer to as ‘culture’ but those basics are really broad. We cannot
generalise them for different Somali clans at all. I have tried to keep it fairly simple by presenting the
basic dimensions of Somali culture like symbols, economic means, royal ceremonies etcetera.
26
3.
‘Generation gap’
Th e S o m a l i g r o u p i n T h e N e t h e r l a n d s
27
3.1 Introduction
The situation of Somali immigrants living in The Netherlands will be described. When describing the
position of an immigrant group in a host community, it is recommendable to make use of certain
parameters as described in the work of Berry (2005). Berry advises to look at certain group
characteristics before drawing any conclusions on intergroup contact. Useful questions Berry proposes
are ‘What are the immigrant groups’ numbers? ‘How can their demographic build-up be
characterized?’, ‘What position can be ascribed to the immigrant group concerning their Social
Economic Status (SES)?’, ‘What does the literature say about social cohesion within the group?’.
These questions are the first few of many points arising when attempting to research an immigrant
group’s position in the host country.
3.2 Context of immigration
After the 1960’s – 1970’s period in recent Dutch history, The Netherlands has become a multicultural
society where all kinds of cultural groups have settled in. The largest immigrant group in number are
Turks and Moroccans, respectively 368.600
16
and 329.493
17
in 2007. The number of Somali’s stays far
18
behind: 30.000 individuals in 2007 . The Somali group is relatively small compared to some other
immigrant groups. When looking at the number of Somali asylum seekers in European context in the
period 1989 - 1998, The Netherlands came in second just after Great Britain.
In recent years, the number of
Somali’s in The Netherlands
declined due to their migration to
Great Britain (Van den Reek,
2003) Motives for their move to the
United Kingdom are often family
related affairs and the Dutch social
climate as this group experiences
it. This tendency even sharpens
the contrast between the Somali
group and other immigrant groups,
which grow through the year.
Table 3.1: Number of applications for asylum by Somali immigrants (1989-1998)
16
http://www.foquz.nl/allochtonen/turkenG1.html
www.cbs.nl
18
http://www.samora.org/NL/Communicatie.htm
17
28
Somali families are quite familiar with the ‘sole parent phenomenon’. In contrast to Turks and
Moroccans, first generation Somali mothers or fathers often raise their children in a single parent
situation. (Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties, 2000) Causes for this are quite
imaginable. The civil war took the lives of many people, most of the Somalian asylum seekers have
left behind some of their family. A very common situation is one where the mother has to deal with the
upbringing of their teenage sons and daughters, depending on the help of welfare.
Table 3.2: Somali immigrant population in The Netherlands, divided by sex and age
A unique characteristic of the Somali group when compared to other ethnic groups in The Netherlands
as the Turks, the Moroccans, or the Surinamese is that the majority of the Somali’s is quite young.
Most of them are in their early teenage years or in the ‘15 – 29 years old’ category. It is possible to
claim that the average Somali immigrant in The Netherlands is in a secondary school age. This age
characteristic can be the cause of specific problems of the group, as we may see in following sections.
3.3 Earlier findings on Acculturation attitudes of the Somalian immigrants
In the nineties, there were some studies conducted dealing with Acculturation attitudes of the Somali
immigrant group in the Dutch context. In most studies they were portrayed as ‘nomads’ who find it very
difficult to get accustomed to the Dutch lifestyle. As Van Kessel (1998) notes:
“Somaliers zijn weinig geneigd tot integratie. Ze stellen zich afwachtend op. Ze zien hun verblijf in
Nederland als tijdelijk. Ze gedragen zich als nomaden in de polder. Ze investeren niet in hun
omgeving; ze zijn altijd op doortocht. Als de omgeving is afgegraasd zoeken ze verder, naar groenere
weiden”
29
In the same vein, Van Berthold commented in Contrast (1998):
“Ze rekenen altijd op iemand die voor hen zorgt. In Somalie is dat de clan. Hier in Nederland is dat de
sociale dienst. Waarom zouden ze werken? Er is toch iemand die voor ze zorgt? Ik zie Somaliers die,
zes, zeven jaar in Nederland zijn. Een Nederlands paspoort hebben, maar geen woord Nederlands
spreken.”
These two accounts may or may not hold truth for the majority of the Somali immigrants present in The
Netherlands, one thing is sure: Van Berthold’s (1998) judgement carries some stereotypical
prejudices. This is definitely not the right manner to speak about a group of people. Readers may think
that Somali immigrants are always dependent on others, extremely ‘lazy’ and not capable of leading
their own lives. The words of Van Bethold are too moralising. As will be presented later, there are
indeed many intelligent first generation Somali men and women who are aware of the dynamics of the
cultural processes that are going on.
Van Kessel’s words are much more realistic. It could very well be that a group of people used to
roaming the plains will show the same behaviour in their new homeland. Habits do not change quite
easily.
It has to be commented that these account are about first generation immigrants. As presented in
detail in chapter five: second generation Somali’s apply a different strategy for living in the Dutch
context. The words above do not hold for Somali children in The Netherlands nor in any other Western
immigration setting. These sentences are only included to give a picture on how researchers see
Somali immigrants in the Dutch situation.
In a publication addressed to native Dutch people the Dutch government has written that Somali
people tend to be a bit sceptic towards integration (Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken en
Koninkrijksrelaties, 2000) Again, this may or may not hold for many, but not for all. When writing on a
group of people, broad generalizations need to be avoided. In most cases, nuances are dearly missed
in the accounts of many researchers. It is good to know both sides of the story, not just pointing the
finger at ‘those ignorant Somali’s’. The main goal in this work has been to give the Somali respondents
an opportunity to tell about cultural change, value conflicts and acculturation processes. That means:
narrative accounts in their own words. Thoughts, feelings on the cultural situation they are in. A
situation in which they are under pressure to comply to the social rules of Dutch society but also have
a longing for traditional norms and values from home. Nevertheless, Van Kessel’s (1998) and Van
Bethold’s words (1998) can be seen as representing dominant discourse in the Dutch society.
30
3.4 Economic perspectives
Having a solid economic position is one of the more crucial factors determining an immigrant group’s
attitude towards life in their new host country. It is needless to say that, if you have a better economic
position, you can do more to support yourself, your children and finally feel happier with the course
your life takes. In order to determine the economic position of Somali immgrants in The Netherlands, it
is recommended to look at different factors influencing economic position.
Knowledge of Dutch language and society
Gaining proficiency in the Dutch language, or any language in general, takes an enormous amount of
time. Language is one of the major instruments providing goods and resources. A good Dutch
proficiency ensures you of a decent job, not particularly a white collar job but any position in general.
Communication has always been one of the major determinants of job performance. In production
environs where they recruit unschooled workers, the workplace demands a Dutch profiency at a NT2
level three (old system) has to be obtained to at least work in a production facility.
Van den Tillaart (2000) has found that 62 percent of the 65 first generation Somali respondents
involved in the language test used for that research did not meet the standard of NT2 level three.
These people’s Dutch proficiency can be labelled ‘very weak’. Less than a half of these 65
respondents can be labelled ‘good’ Dutch speakers. Looking at these results, it is possible to say that
Somali first generation group members in general will not a sufficient knowledge of the Dutch
language and the society. There are some exceptions of course, but language proficiency is a tool to
understand society and if somebody does not have this tool at his or her disposal, it will be very hard
to live and work in that society.
Labour market
Brink (1997) used 151 respondents in her project on the position of Somali immgrants in the labour
market. Compared to the ex-Yugoslavians and Iranians, the Somali’s involved in the project have a
lower standard of education. Degrees obtained in Somalia are greatly devalued on arrival in The
Netherlands. A man holding a respectable position as head of a school in Somalia, can easily end up
as a cleaner of offices. These lower positions are the only opportunities for those people to work. They
often accept the work, without trying to get proper schooling to meet Dutch standards. This implies that
the respectable position once hold in the country of birth, can never be reached in The Netherlands.
The main obstacle to enroll in additional or further education is low Dutch language profiency.
As reported by Van den Tillaart (2000), due to high rates of unemployment half of a total of 112 Somali
respondents were dependent on social welfare payments.
31
Education
According to van den Tillaart (2000) who has also covered the theme ‘education’, one out of five
Somali parents thought that their children underperformed in school.
Research among Somali youth in Amersfoort confirmed the parent’s opinions. According to the author,
the weak Dutch language proficiency of Somali children is one of the causes of school faillure.
A second cause is the lack of help and support from their parents because they did not receive
sufficient education in Somalia so that they can help their children. Those two factors, among others,
lead to underachievement in school. Somali first generation immigrants enrolling in a Dutch as a
Second Language course often drop out due to that same lack of educational formation before coming
to The Netherlands. It is very hard for them to keep up with the pace of the Dutch educational system.
Housing
Housing facilities are a another factor affecting one’s economic position. With income, you can buy a
house or an appartment, but to earn a decent living, you have to live in a good neighborhood as well.
Van den Tilaart (2000), who reported on housing circumstances found that most of the respondents
(72%) lived in a flat in an area where many ethnic minorities live. These people do not have the
facilities to build their lives. Other respondents actually lived in houses, unfortunately those houses
were in lesser economically developed area’s of their cities not giving them the opportunity for social
mobility.
Overall, it can be concluded that first generation Somali immigrants are not in a fortunate position
when it comes to income. Combined with the data on Dutch language proficiency and school
achievements of their children, the perspectives for the Somalians are not that bright.
Educationwise there are also exceptions: children performing incredibly well in school, attending
universities, getting good degrees and ending up in high positions. The major trend however is that
many Somali second generation immigrants remain low on the social ladder. There is little upward
mobility.
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3.5 Ingroup social tensions
One of the most important issues to discuss is that of existing ingroup social tensions among
Somalians. In the earlier mentioned governmental publication (Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken en
Koninkrijksrelaties, 2000) it is mentioned:
“De Somalische gemeenschap in Nederland draagt nog sterk de kenmerken van een gemeenschap in
de overgang tussen twee culturen. Onder velen leeft een behoefte vast te houden aan oude waarden
en normen, clanverhouding, rolverdeling tussen man en vrouw enzovoorts. Tegelijkertijd is er een
tendens waarneembaar die oude tradities af te leggen en zich maximaal te richten op de Nederlandse
samenleving. In die spanning moet elke Somaliër kiezen waar hij/zij staat.”
These social tensions are best illustrated by the high percentage of marriages between Somali men
and women ending in divorce, about 40%. Causes for this are changed roles between men and
women and arguments about the upbringing of the children.
And to complement on these tensions, it is suggested that:
“Somalische kinderen claimen in Nederland de vrijheid die ze in hun schoolomgeving ervaren en als
normaal zien, terwijl ouders dit interpreteren als een inbreuk op de Somalische culturele tradities en
als disrespect voor het ouderlijk gezag.”
This might be the key excerpts of this thesis as it points to value conflict to home and school culture.
This describes accurately how the ingroup dynamics are. Two generations need to struggle between
‘being Somalia orientatied’ and having a Dutch mindset. Parents usually choosing the first, children in
general choosing the latter. Again the challenge is to investigate whether this alleged split between
generations is is there and if so, then let parents comment on this situation, whether to maintain
Somali cultural heritage and transmit this to the second generation without making them lose their
focus on a future in The Netherlands.
3.6 Conclusions
In this chapter, the problematic situation of Somali immigrants in The Netherlands has been sketched.
The following chapters, either serve as a buildup to these problems or as additional information to
understand the framework used to research the questions mentioned above The information
presented will ease the understanding of the results and conclusions.
33
4.
‘Global living’
Intergroup Relations and Acculturation
34
4.1 Introduction
Cross-cultural contact, or the ability to deal with this contact has gained an enormous importance for
majority of the world’s populations. Social psychologists have claimed that people are “social beings”,
who want to bond together and form groups. In this process, there’s no doubt that people need to
communicate with people coming from different cultural backgrounds.
Through technical developments, the world has transformed itself into a Global Village (Wellman et al.,
1999).Communication has developed into something of a commonality: we could not imagine living
without even having the slightest contact with people from other cultural backgrounds. Functioning in a
plural community has become a necessity, a key concept of pleasant and successful living, simply
because of the structure our societies have. In all parts of the world, there have risen plural
communities, social structures which comprise different ethnic and cultural groups.
Given the plural nature of communities, what are the dynamics, processes and consequences
of living together in a multicultural society? To what extent is it possible to maintain, establish or
redefine intergroup relations? Large amount of research have been done on intergroup relations,
especially influential was the study carried out by Tajfel and Turner (1982) who proposed a Theory of
Intergroup Relations. Over the last decades, scholars have tried to apply and revise Tajfel and
Turner’s theory. It would be a good starting point to review this theoretical framework and all of the
developments it has gone through in recent years. It is also helpful to consider the Acculturation
Theory to get a better understanding of intercultural processes. The term ‘Acculturation’ was first
introduced in a classic study done by Redfield, Linton and Herskovits (1936) and the mostly used
research methodology is developed by Berry (1992;2005).
After reviewing both theories, we should be able to apply the acculturation framework in
researching Somali group in The Netherlands.
4.2 Social group formation and intergroup relations
Turner’s (1978) definitions of a social group is very similar to the one in Social Identification Model.
This model described the social group as an entity in which all people have the same perceptual and
cognitive basis. All the group members give more or less similar answers to the question “Who am
I?”. It is fundamentally different from the one Social Cohesion Model proposes. In this model not the
above question but rather “Do I like these other individuals?” is more relevant. Turner, in conclusion,
says that “What matters is how we perceive and define ourselves, not how we feel about others”.
As a matter of fact, both dimensions are highly relevant in contact settings.
Groups are to some extent formed through social categorizations (locating oneself, or another
person, within a system of social categorizations). Simply put, social categorization is about labeling
people with a tag of one group or of another group. Shadid (2003) explains that socially categorizing
people is what makes the world comprehensive for us. Without this simplification of the world, we
cannot handle the enormous amounts of input and distinctions we have to make. Turner (1978) names
35
this process social identification. He further proposes that “the sum total of social identifications used
by a person to define him- or herself will be described as his or her social identity.” Assigning social
identities is very important for group formation, but it is not the only factor constituting groups. The
formal-institutional naming of a certain group also has an essential role. Formal-institutional group
formation concerns labeling groups in a top down fashion by local authorities or national governments.
These two principles work separate. For example, the members the Dutch government names as
Somali’s may not define themselves as such. It might very well be that they think of themselves as
Dutch or ‘belonging to the human race’
Next to his/her social identity, an individual always has a personal identity. This construct
comprises more personal things than social identity like competence, bodily features, feelings and
attitudes. Together, the social and the personal identity form an inidividual’s self concept.
There already has been a long debate on self concept; does it vary across different contexts?
Can it change over time? Up till now, these questions do not have a definite answer. But it seems very
plausible that self concept changes per situation. Identity has not been regarded as a static
characteristic of individuals and this makes it easier to assume that self concept changes depending
on the setting. In this discussion, a social psychological principle plays a major role: people tend to
adapt to the situation they are in. One can have different roles in different contexts.
Turner’s (1975) research has shown that group membership is more prominent in some situations
than in others and also that “the increased salience of a social identification transformed interpersonal
discrimination into differential intergroup discrimination.”
It is also interesting to look at the conditions in which groups are formed. There is in fact little work
done on this question. The projects carried out seem to point in the direction that social cohesion may
neither be necessary nor sufficient for the process of group formation. What is needed to form a group
is social identification, the attribution of certain traits to individuals to put them in a group. Dion (1973),
for instance, found that collective failure raised ingroup favoritism even more than collective success in
his experiment.
In the light of the research project at hand, it may be very relevant to discuss the findings of studies on
intergroup behavior in relation to power. In all societies over the world, there can be found a similar
composition: there is mainly one group in control of all the economic resources and the political power
and that group derives a high status through that control Other groups are lower in terms of status.
The difference between different groups of people can attributed to power differences.
Guillaumin (1972) conducted research in this field and drew the conclusion that high status groups
look at lower status groups in a very overgeneralizing manner. Group members have the tendency to
talk about ‘blacks’, ‘women’, ‘children’ and the ‘elderly’ In other words, one characteristic is enough for
the ones in power to describe these groups. In that study, it became clear that there basically are two
types of individuals. On the one hand, there are people who are defined by just one trait, and on the
other hand there are individuals described by a complex mix of all sorts of personal and group
characteristics. As Guillaumin states it “all ‘social agents’ are defined in relation to the ‘social subject’ ”
36
It appears that both the dominant and the dominated measure themselves with the standard provided
by the first. This means that the non-dominant group falls short on that scale and sees their self
esteem diminish even further. Psychological principles state that the human being is a social creature
constantly balancing between the need for social cohesion and independence (Brown and Levinson,
1987) For this reason, every individual is trying ‘to be liked’ by others. One of the strategies for
accomplishing this is getting closer to the high status group by copying behavior, customs and speech
styles.
4.3 Acculturation – a theoretical framework
In the following sections, Acculturation Theory will be explored extensively by means of a review of the
work already done in the field. Firstly a definition of the term will be provided in the first paragraph.
After this, a short review of the development of the Acculturation Theory will be presented to gain
insights into competing models. This is important for a good understanding of the conceptual
framework of this research on Somalian immigrants.
4.3.1 Defining ‘Acculturation’
Midway 1930’s, people had to provide a clear-cut definition of ‘Acculturation’. Researchers had to deal
with a number of issues and questions. What is the nature of Acculturation? What are the processes
characterizing it? The breakthrough came with the Redfield et. al study (1936). That researchers
identified three aspects of the ‘Acculturation’ process and several sub questions provide a basic
framework for analysis:
A. Type of contacts?
-
Contacts between entire groups or contact between a group and a selected part of a
population (missionaries, administrators)
-
Nature of contact – hostile or friendly?
-
Contact between groups of equal size or groups different in size?
-
Contacts between two equally developed groups regarding complexity of material and
non-material culture?
-
Is a contact with a certain group voluntarily or is the group brought into contact
involuntarily? (indigenous people’s being colonized)
B. Situation in which contact occurs?
-
Are elements of another culture received voluntarily or is there forced contact?
-
Is there social and political equality among groups?
-
When groups are unequal, three scenarios may exist: political dominance by one
group without recognition of the social dominance of that group by the non-dominant
37
group ; political and social dominance by one group ; recognition of the social
superiority of dominant group by the non-dominant group without any political
dominance existing
C. Process of Acculturation?
-
Selection of traits under Acculturation
a. Order of selection
b. Relationship between selection of traits and the types of contacts outlined
under B.
c.
Partial presentation of traits under circumstances of forced Acculturation:
types of traits permitted and forbidden to receiving group? ; strategy used
by donor group to impose traits? ; type of traits where acceptance can be
forced? ; limitation of forced acceptance
-
Resistance by receiving group
a. Reasons for resisting
b. Understanding resistance in relation with traits resisting to
-
Determination of traits presented and selected
a. Presented by donor group: practical advantages ; desiring conformity ;
rthical and religious considerations
b. Selected by receiving group: economic advantages ; prestige
c.
-
Traits rejected by receiving group?
Integration of traits into accepting culture
a. Time taken to accept a trait
b. Conflicting situations during acceptance process
c.
Adjustment of a certain trait: modifying before taking it over ; shift in cultural
focus caused by Acculturation
All these considerations are incoporated in the definition of Acculturation Redfield and colleagues
proposed:
“Acculturation comprehends those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having
different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the culture
patterns of either or both groups”
Redfield, Linton & Herkovits (1936, p. 150)
38
4.3.2 Berry’s Acculturation Theory
After Redfield et. al’s (1936) pioneering work in Acculturation, the way had been paved for other
researchers to investigate the process to a further extent. This opportunity was taken up amongst
others by Berry (2005) Berry’s work has been of immeasurable value to all scholars in the field of
social psychology. In a range of studies he developed an Acculturation Theory taking the classical
Redfield et al. (1936) research as a point of departure. It is recommendable to follow Berry’s steps as
he builds up the frame he proposes.
Step one: Acculturating groups
Groups in contact can be characterized by three different aspects inherent to their contact:
1. Mobility
- sedentary contact versus a migration situation
2. Voluntariness - voluntary contact versus forced contact
3. Permanence
- temporarily contact versus permanent contact
By considering these three questions, specific scenario’s can be worked out. There is a
comprehensive scope of combinations possible. To put this scheme into picture (Berry, 2005):
Mobility
Sedentary
Migrant
Permanent
Temporary
Voluntariness of contact
Voluntary
Involuntary
Ethnocultural groups
Indigenous people
Immigrants
Refugees
Sojourners
Asylum Seekers
Figure 4.1: Acculturating groups scheme
It is imaginable that a group has come into contact with another (part of a) group on a sedimentary,
involuntary basis. Examples of such groups are indigenous peoples who came into contact in their
own territory with a colonizing power. This type of contact is also involuntary, they did not have any
choice obviously, and it could either be permanent or temporarily. In the figure, there are provided
some examples to illustrate that possible from practice.
In present Acculturation research, there is somewhat of a discussion on the issue of
psychological processes during Acculturation. One side of the research field claims that there are clear
differences in psychological processes experienced by all distinct groups, the other side adopted the
view that all psychological processes experienced are similar for each possible group. The latter
position is called universalist perspective which is the angle in this project.
39
Step two: Acculturation strategies
ISSUE 1
Is it considered to be of value to maintain
cultural identity and characteristics?
YES
NO
ISSUE 2
Is it considered to be of value to
maintain relationships with
dominantsociety?
YES
NO
INTEGRATION
SEPARATION
ASSIMILATION
MARGINALIZATION
Figure 4.2: Acculturating Strategies (Berry, 2005)
In multi ethnic societies, people constantly have to deal with two important issues in daily contact. The
first question addressed is to what extent people think their cultural identity (material as well as
immaterial) is important to them. This refers to cultural maintenance. The second point is contact and
participation om society with other ethnocultural groups; do people wish to have contact with other
groups at all? And if they do so, will I let this influence their thoughts and concerns about the group
dealt with (Berry, 1970). These two central questions can be packed together in one scheme and by
doing so, four possible outcomes emerge. When people fully submerge in another culture and do not
want to maintain their own cultural heritage, the Assimilation strategy is employed. If the minority
group refuses to adjust to the mainstream lifestyle, customs and habits, they can choose for
Separation. In this situation, the group keeps it’s own social structures and has distinct facilities like
schools and religious institutions. If the same minority group wants to come into contact with other
groups and adapt to the mainstream community in public spaces but refrain from giving up their
cultural identity, the Integration strategy is used. Fourth, there is a chance for the minority group
members to have little contact with the own group and have no identification with mainstream
members. This results in Marginalization. Cultural loss experienced by second or third generation
members of minority groups drives them towards this strategy. This is an outline of the model, but
some reservations have to be made.
These choices can vary depending on time and place. A person can make choices to pick the
Integration strategy in the area of work, but to use the Separation strategy when it comes to religious
affairs. Secondly, during their lives, people experiment with all strategies before holding on to their
preferred strategy. In a young age, people tend to explore the range of possibilities they have before
settling down in later life and applying one strategy.
The third remark to make here is that the dominant group may not allow the non dominant group to
choose a particular strategy. Possibilities and available options might be limited by legislation,
discrimination in policies related to work or all other areas in life. Another thought to keep in mind is
40
drawn from the work of Berry and Kalin (1995). A person valuing his own cultural identity is still
perfectly able to be an active part of a bigger whole. Valuing of own culture one does not exclude the
other culture. Deciding to acculturate, so taking up Integration or Assimilation strategy is not an easy
step to take. Decision making is not only done by the individual person but all other societal, cultural
and intergroup dynamics affect the whole process
When a person goes through acculturation, there are three areas of change that a person might
experience.
1. Behavioral shift – the changes in behavior are relatively easy, (culture shedding)
2. Acculturative stress (Oberg’s (1954) ‘culture shock’) – getting into contact gives stress
3. Psychopathology – the changes a person has to make in his new environment exceed the
capacity. This leads to psychological problems
Research have been conducted not only on the problems people can face in intercultural contexts and
the solutions they come up with, but also on the adaptation process itself. In these studies, a
distinction has been made between psychological and sociocultural adaptation (Searle and Ward,
1990) Psychological adaptation refers to internal, psychological changes a person undergoes. It is the
true adaptation on the inner level. Sociocultural adaptation describes the change on the surface level
(mostly material culture and public behavior)
41
Step three: Acculturation framework
On the basis of earlier research, the fine lines of Acculturation framework (Berry, 1992) have become
clearer. As seen in figure 4.3, Berry introduced a much broader framework for the investigation of
acculturation. On the left of the figure, the group acculturation factors are shown. Working towards the
right side of the figure, the personal process is the focus. In the middle of the scheme, on the top,
there are individual phenomena like all range of individual factors like gender, age, level of education,
motivation etcetera. Also this is the area where attention goes out to moderating factors existing
before acculturation like language, religion and status. Working towards the bottom, the actual
acculturation process is shown by paying attention to psychological acculturation and the moderating
factors (cultural maintenance. On the right, as noted, adaptation, either/both psychological and/or
sociocultural, is the outcome.
GROUP LEVEL
SOCIETY OF ORIGIN
GROUP
ACCULTURATION
SOCIETY OF
SETTLEMENT
INDIVIDUAL LEVEL VARIABLES
MODERATING FACTORS
EXISTING PRIOR TO
ACCULTURATION
PSYCHOLOGICAL ACCULTURATION
• BEHAVORIAL SHIFTS
• ACCULTURATIVE STRESS
• PSYCHOLOGY
•
•
ADAPTATION
PSYCHOLOGICAL
SOCIOCULTURAL
MODERATING FACTORS ARISING
DURING ACCULTURATION
Figure 4.3: Acculturation framework (Berry, 2005)
Given Berry’s framework, it is necessary to question the role of first and second language competence
in the whole model. Acculturation closely linked to language maintenance and shift as well.
Language is one of the most prominent parts of culture which undergoes change when migrating or
seeking asylum in another country or culture.
42
Therefore, in this study language will also be one of the phenomena dealt with when gathering data on
Acculturation patterns. Language is only referred to as just a ‘moderating factor’ but it is good to look
at the legitimacy of this claim.
4.4 Acculturation framework applied on different types of groups
In this paragraph it is beneficial to look at the outcomes of the model when applied to different types of
groups such as immigrants and refugees / asylum seekers. The informants of this study all belong to
one of these types of groups giving a a good reason to look at the types separately.
Immigrants
Immigrants form a group with three significant other characteristics than refugees and asylum seekers.
The nature of their contact is voluntary. They do not have to migrate to the new context: they are not
pressed in any way. They choose to settle in another country for a wide variety of reasons, but the first
thing is that they are not forced to do so, The contact immigrants make with the dominant group is
permanent for the obvious reason that as long as immigrants are in the host country they will be
dealing with mainstream members of society. Also, their stay is often permanent. There are always
some exceptions but in general this is true for immigrants.
Discussing the application of Acculturation framework on immigrants means discussing their
permanence in staying in the host country, their status and social mobility issues.
Terminology used in identifying immigrant population is an issue, which has cetrain implications for the
integration process. It is clear that the first generation are in fact immigrants because of their arrival to
the new country, but how can second and even third generation group members be defined? Are they
still “immigrants”? Is it just to say that a child born and raised in a country but originating from a
migrant family still belongs to the migrant group? In previous work on acculturation taking immigrants
as population, the difficulty always remained to get a pure sample. Due to their voluntary move to the
host society and their permanent contact, it is to be expected that immigrants have positive
acculturation strategies, either assimilationist or integrationist (Garza Guerrero, 1974; Krupinski,
Stoller and Wallace, 1973). Rogler (1994) reports that the changes immigrants undergo lie beneath
the surface level. Mental difficulties become more of a concern as time passes. In some cases,
immigrants get in trouble in the host society for the reason that they have chosen to cut off their roots
with the country of origin and the dominant group does not accept their preferred acculturation
strategy. The situation becomes even more complicated when immigrant workers do not get the job
they have aimed for coming to a new country. Aycan and Berry (1996b) found that the majority of their
sample did not get a job matching their level of education. This downward mobility makes life even
more unpleasant, causing psychological problems. But this might not be the case in all contexts, since
immigrants tend to have ‘dual frames of reference’ which basically means they can accept the position
they are in (Suarez-Oroco, 1991) Immigrants always make comparisons between the ‘here’ and the
43
‘there’ and in most cases they tend to think that the present situation is always better than the life they
used to have or vice versa. Compared to natives, immigrants carry more risks of mental diseases
because of their sometimes stressful living conditions. Nevertheless, this was falsified by the study
conducted by Burnam et al. (1987) which gave a significant lower rate of mental illnesses among
Hispanic-Americans originating from Mexico than their peers born in the US. The explanation was a
’stronger sense of self’. This prevents the immigrants from suffering from mental problems. They know
what they came to do well in the host country, know who they are and have this determination to
accomplish their goals. Krishnan and Berry (1992) showed that the preferred acculturation strategy
among immigrants is integration. The expectations for the immigrants to have positive attitudes
towards acculturation were confirmed. Neto (1994) found a negative correlation between
marginalization and ‘being satisfied with life’ which means that if immigrants become more satisfied
with their lives, the less chance on marginalization becomes. Sam and Berry (1995) gave a proof for
the negative correlation between the integration strategy and acculturative stress. Trying to acculturate
gives less stress than staying away from the other group and act in a separatist manner.
Refugees / Asylum seekers
Acculturation perspectives of refugees / asylum seekers are mostly negative compared to immigrants.
The reasons for this are twofold:
1. This group comes involuntarily
2. These people are migratory – they are passing through
There is very little elementary knowledge on the psychological well being of asylum seekers.
Organizations such as UNHCR
19
collect virtually no data on this matter; their main concern is to give
protection. The only data available is on pre-acculturational phenomena of asylum seekers
The main factor described in the research literature is traumatic stress. Jaranson et al. (1994) describe
this phenomenon as “an event that individual has experienced, or witnessed that involves actual or
threatened death or injury, or threat to psychological integrity of others.” Many refugees suffer from
post-traumatic stress of which the symptoms are frequent recollection of the stressor events followed
by panic, terror or a feeling of despair. Traumatized people have daytime fantasies as well as
nightmares about the stressor event. Studies in the United States (Beiser, Turner and Ganesan, 1989)
provide evidence for short term capability to deal with stress but a long term adaptation problem.
Through the entire research field the opinion is being held that asylum seekers need constant
attention and monitoring for signs of traumatic stress. This is a kind of illness that can strike at any
time. One of the most hazardous consequences of stress syndrome is a feeling of helplessness the
refugee experiences. This sort of feeling can make them dysfunction in their difficult situation.
19
United Nations High Commission for Refugees
44
A definite risk factor is age (being elderly or very young) and when a person has to flee his country in
an age period in which he is more vulnerable, it is more likely for traumatic stress to occur. Just as in
the case for immigrants asylum seekers report experiencing less acculturative stress when choosing
an integration approach in stead of assimilation, separation or marginalization. The best protective
factor from traumatic or post-traumatic stress is social group support, meaning that a group of
refugees gets help from a group that has similar socio-cultural characteristics when status is
concerned. Berry and Blondel (1982)
4.5 Conclusions
In this chapter the theory behind Tajfel’s and Turner’s work on social identity and intergroup behavior
and Berry’s Acculturation Theory have been reviewed.
Owing to Berry’s earlier work, acculturation research has made a leap forward. It became
clearer what research in this field should focus on to cover the whole phenomenon of acculturation.
The only but nevertheless highly relevant point of critique is the lack of attention for language
maintenance and language shift in the framework. Language has a modest position as a moderating
factor but it may well turn out to be a more crucial variable in the upcoming research on acculturation.
.
45
5.
‘Somali identity in The Netherlands’
Research project
M e t ho do l o g y
46
5.1 Introduction
After having covered concepts as ‘identity’ and ‘culture’ and looking at traditional Somali life in the horn
of Africa and the socio-cultural and economical situation of the Somali immigrants in The Netherlands,
it is necessary to test the hypothesis that has been formulated throughout the previous chapters.
Especially in Bouwmeester et al. (1998) study explaining about Somali family life in The Netherlands,
there has been painted a picture through the interviewing that there is a generation gap between the
first generation Somali’s, parents, and their children as second generation Somali immigrants. \
There have been more projects providing this image on contexts in other immigration countries. In the
US, say Kapteyns and Arman (2005), the position of the Somali immigrants is one of “Diaspora
consciousness lives loss and hope as a defining tension”. This descriptions fits the bill perfectly.
Parents and their children seem to live in ‘different worlds’, the parents trying to struggle against
culture loss, the children fighting ‘downward mobility’: they feel that they slip into permanent poverty,
doing worse then their parents did when coming to the US:
“while some groups of immigrants—often voluntary and not impoverished—assimilate rather
effortlessly into the white middle class, other groups slip into the American underclass and permanent
poverty. Those immigrants who live “in proximity to other U.S. minorities” and are themselves visible
minorities are in greatest danger of this.”
Kapteyns & Armand (2005, p. 55)
The findings presented in the literature may well be quite concerning for second-generation Somalian
immigrants. Although there seems to be a degree of Diaspora between first and second generation
immigrants in the host country context, in the Somali case, it the gap is widening as seen in chapter
three. The research question guiding this project thus are:
1) In what degree are Somali children proficient in the Somali language according to their parent’s
views?
2) What do Somali children, according to their parents, take out of the parent’s attempts to transist
Somali culture?
3) Which means does the Somali association SOMVAO (located in Amsterdam) deploy to raise
cultural and linguistic awareness among Somali children and go against culture and language
loss?
5.2 Literature
As said above, there has been given quite some attention to the existing Diaspora and the mainstream
culture mindedness of the second generation Somali immigrants. The work of Bouwmeester et al.
(1998) and Kapteyns and Arman (2005) has already been briefly introduced. Berns McGown (1999) is
another paper reporting on the Diaspora. When discussing the Somali youth Acculturational behavior,
47
the author speaks of ‘a great deal of flexibility in redefining aspects of its religion and this promises
“successful” integration into the societies in which they live.’ This seems to support the first two
mentioned articles. Bending the rules and customs of Islam, many people stereotypically call this
religion ‘rigid’, ‘non flexible’ and ‘dogmatic’ Somali’s show to possess a spirit of wanting to integrate
successfully into their Western host societies. Darboe (2003) reports on Somali students on an
American high school in Minnesota getting good marks in subjects as Mathematics and Physics.
He discusses this in the light of Assimiliation Theory formulated by Park (1939) dividing the
assimilation process into four phases: Contact, Competition, Accomodation and Assimilation. Darboe
notices that Somali students, as Afro-Americans, have many obstacles on their way to success.
This motivates them to do well in rather difficult school subjects as Mathematics and Physics.
The feeling of ‘having to prove oneself’ gives Somali teens in Minnesota a headstart when compared
to their American classmates. Somali children want to assimilate at all costs. Education seems to be
the best way to accomplish that desired goal of assimilation. On top of this, Young Somali’s are
assimilating in terms of Gordon’s (1964) Assimilation Theory by learning the English language
(assimilation by addition). The term ‘addition’ point to the direction that the children do not lose Somali
proficiency, they obtain an extra language option. Secondly they are assimilating because of the jobs
they hold (primary, structural assimilation) Somali people have to speak English on the labour market.
Third, Somali graduates have an equal status in the public sphere (secondary assimilation) and the
fourth manner of assimilation is intermarriages that Sonmali men and women have with mainstream
Americans (marital assimilation). In line with Gordon’s theory, it is possible to say that Somali
adolescents are fully assimilated in American life. As reported by Darboe (2003) these young
ambitious individuals get equality and chances in their parents’ country of settlement.
How different is the acculturation strategy of their parents, the first generation Somali immigrants
making that journey. In her work, author McMichael (2005) discusses the social network of Somali
women in Australia in terms of ‘social capital’, a construct introduced by Bourdieu and picked up
amongst others by Menjivar (2000) who considers ‘social capital’ as crucial for immigrant solidarity and
cultural continuity. The construct is popular in science as well is in policy making. Scholars and policy
makers in the immigration debate have used it. In spite of it’s wide usage, the term still remains vague.
The most common definition of it focuses on the relations with relatives and friends who are
considered part of ‘social capital’. McMichael (2005) suggests that:
“Informal social networks also operate to ensure that individuals have access to information, goods, and
services. These ties are especially common among new immigrants and are widely viewed as a source of
support and solidarity among them.”
McMichael (2005, p. 33)
48
McMichael used interviews to collect data on ‘social capital’ of 42 participants. The most common
phenomenon among those women seems to be the extreme nostalgia they felt remembering Somalia. They
miss their home situation in Somalia dearly, that is to say: the atmosphere before the civil war.
As McMichael (2005) describes:
Maryam, an elderly widow who lives with her daughter's family, said:
The best thing that I remember is how everybody comes home at lunchtime. After lunch they have a nap,
and when people wake up, the traditional way is to have a cup of tea in the afternoon. When people woke
up I used to go outside to see everybody. In Somalia, most of the houses had a small seat at the front of the
house and all the neighbors would sit outside in groups and have a cup of tea and chat. When that chatting
finishes at about sunset, we would put on nice clothes and go outside without worrying that someone might
hurt you. There was a sense of freedom, a sense of community, a sense of togetherness, and chatting, and
knowing all the neighbors. We would all know about each other's business. That was the best thing.
McMichael (2005, p. 35)
From Maryam’s words, we can taste the old Somalia, the country today’s Somali children have never
known. Complete collectivism and safety that are unique to collectivistic societies in Africa, South America
and Asia. Amina, another respondent, sketches her view of immigration context and it’s effect on Somalian
collective values:
“When we had the fight with our neighbor, there were a lot of neighbors around us who were Somali. The
guy is white, he is drinking, every night drinking and drinking and throwing things at us. The Somali people
saw that, and they told us, "He did this and he did this, he threw this at you, he chased your children!" Then
we fought with him, and the Somali people saw the fight, but they didn't do anything to help us. They just
ran away. The fight got to the police, and the Somalis still didn't help us. We went to court for that fight, and
the court told us that we had to prove that he did these things. But the Somalis said they wouldn't come to
court. Before they told us a lot of things, and we said, "If you have that truth to tell then you have to come to
court." But no Somali would come to say what they had seen. They said "No." The court later decided we
weren't guilty, that he was just crazy. But we had already had to leave the house. The Somali people didn't
do anything. We didn't want them to fight, we wanted them only to say what they saw, to tell the other
people [i.e. police, court judges, public housing officials]. But they didn't. Now, we all live in emergency
housing. Now, I am lonely, I don't have anything to do. I see the people here and they don't communicate
well.”
McMichael (2005, p. 36)
This describes the crumbling of social cohesion among Somali immigrants. Under the pressure of the
Western lifestyle, they have to put their own needs first. That is not necessarily what they want to do,
they do not have another option. If Somali immigrants would give as much attention to their fellow
Somali’s in the host country as they would have given them in the original Somalian situation, they
would have lost all of their opportunities to advance in this new society. Individualistic orientated
Westerners do not seem to have problems with this attitude, but for Somali men and women,
originating from the situation Maryam described, this orientation on the individual is hard to cope with.
It is interesting to research if these feelings described above are present in the Dutch context as well.
49
McMichael (2005) describes accurately how her participants experience the breakdown of social
networks, the demise of ‘social capital’. Kinship ties can not be continued as soon as Somali families
set foot on new soil. Bigger distances, financial and social problems are only two of the factors
challenging the unity of kin. Symbols such as occasional traditional celebrations and food are
considered powerful reminders of Somalia. These special days and dishes are the only connection
with the home country these Somali women in Australia have. Keeping in contact with family back in
Somalia is difficult, going on a holiday and visiting them is hardly an option. Only the sounds of
celebrations, preparation of food take them back to Somalia. One of McMichael’s conclusions is that
‘Our research suggests that social capital is neither necessarily portable nor easily established on
migration.’ First generation Somali’s, in other words, are struggling with Western life, whereas their children
seem to succeed in this by putting everything into work to be successful
In his short note on the “New Mainers Partnership”, Phil Nadeau (2006) - deputy city administrator of
Lewiston, Maine - has described the troublesome yet successful partnership between Catholic
Charities Maine (CCM) in Lewiston, Maine and local Lewiston authorities to handle first generation
Somali immigrants relocated to Maine. There were numerous problems to overcome: language
barriers, lack of funding, non-understanding of the Somali culture and most of all, the collaboration
was based on efforts of volunteers. People of CCM trying to do good for newly arrived people. Due to
these activities, Somali immigrants successfully found a new home at Lewiston, Maine through help
with housing, cultural education and job training. This example may prove useful when discussing the
help Somali immigrants get from Dutch state agencies.
5.3 Method
In this section, the methods used will be outlined. Methodological choices will be justified as clear as
possible. When reading this paragraph, keep in mind that the focus lies on giving the possibility to
replicate the research.
5.3.1 Design
There are some noteworthy comments to be made on the design of the study. In the beginning, the
main idea was to conduct a survey study through the completion of questionnaires. The survey was
partly derived from the Yagmur (2004), Bourhis et. al. (1997), the multiculturalism index, and Yagmur
(in preparation) was used. The survey instrument were adapted to the case of the Somalian
immigrants in The Netherlands for this research. When the first attempts were made to collect data, it
appeared that getting adequate responses from our Somali respondents was extremely difficult.
According to our informants’ reports, the main difficulty was the incomprehensibility of the questions.
The level of language seemed too abstract and difficult to comprehend. Secondly the length of the
50
survey discouraged informants. It simply took too long for them to accurately fill it in with full attention.
There were quite some respondents willing to fill in the questionnaire, however they all failed to
complete it.
When it became clear that would not yield in sufficient and reliable data base, we made the decision to
convert the questionnaire into a panel discussion with three fixed themes to cover. There have been
some clear considerations that underlie the choice for a panel discussion. The nationality of the
interviewer was Dutch. This could mean that some of the Somali respondents might not open up to
speak freely in a one on one situation. According to the model of Samovar and Porter (1991) people
from the same ethnic group, who in general have more characteristics in common draw closer
together than people from different ethnic backgrounds. To overcome this problem, the decision was
made to group the respondents into a panel and let them discuss the themes posed in the questions
of the original questionnaire freely. The discussion was to be monitored by the interviewer, who
functioned as a chairman. In this manner, the Somali respondents would feel more comfortable being
more in numbers.
Although in group interviewing, the danger exists that some respondents seize the initiative more than
others and in this respect ‘take the stage’, I still found the advantages to outweigh the disadvantages.
Feelings of identity, construction of that identity and sense of belonging are the best expressed in
qualitative interview data. The shortcoming of a questionnaire in this would be that people would not
be able to put nuances in their answers.
In fact, there were two one on one interviews conducted. These were the first two, meant to test the
hypothesis that Somali people are somewhat introvert in nature. It proved to be true, more on this is
explained in the ‘procedures’ paragraph.
5.3.2 Participants
The respondents all were active members of the SOMVAO association, the biggest Somali association
of The Netherlands. The aim has been to ask association members since in general they are socially
active, speak to a lot of other Somali people and for that reason are aware of the feelings experienced
and the problems being faced. Mainly, members of the association are higher educated then non
active Somali’s. This high educational level was needed to understand the purpose of the study and to
give meaningful contributions in the discussion. In total, there were eight participants, varying in age
from 24 years old up to 53 years old. All respondents had at least obtained Dutch HBO level in
Somalia. This was established at the time of their arrival in The Netherlands. All informants were born
in Somalia.
51
N am e
Age
Abderrachid
Abdi
Nourredine
Hassan
Nasser
Hassan
Abderrahman
Abu Zakariya
24
27
32
28
41
38
53
27
Country of birth
years old
years old
years old
years old
years old
years old
years old
years old
Somalia
Somalia
Somalia
Somalia
Somalia
Somalia
Somalia
Somalia
Married, nationality wife
No
No
Yes, Somalian
Yes, Somalian
Yes, Somalian
Yes, Somalian
Yes, Somalian
Yes, Somalian
Children
0
0
2 (2 boys, toddlers)
0
5 daughters
0
7 (5 boys, two girls)
2 (2 boys, toddlers)
Table 5.1: Name, age, country of birth, marital status and children of participants
N am e
Age arrival in The Netherlands
Abderrachid
Abdi
Nourredine
Hassan I
Nasser
Hassan II
Abderrahman
Abu Zakariya
18
19
18
14
25
21
36
16
years old
years old
years old
years old
years old
years old
years old
years old
Table 5.2: age of arrival in The Netherlands of participants
For the sake of accuracy, I need to mention one of the informants: Abu Zakariya left The Netherlands
in 2004 to live in the United Kingdom. He has lived in United Kingdom ever since. He was included in
the project because of his strong views on Somali culture and language loss.
5.3.3 Instruments
The interview included the following dimensions to be dicussed with the informants:
1.
Somali language proficiency
a. Of the respondent
b. Of the respondent’s children (or Somali children in general)
2. Somali culture
a. Respondent’s knowledge of the culture
b. What is transited to their children (or Somali children in
general)
3. SOMVAO’s activities
a. Children’s improvement of Somali language
b. Raising children’s awareness and knowledge of a distinct
Somali culture
52
Choosing the open interview seemed to be the most pragmatic choice. When asking about topics with
somewhat of an ‘emotional’ load such as mother tongue and the culture of the home, an interviewer
needs to give the opportunity to elaborate freely what they feel and think. This is clearly a drawback of
the rather ‘static’ questionnaire: there would not be any chance to give additional information outside
the fixed format.
The choice for high educated first generation respondents was made deliberately.
Talking about cultural problems an ethnic group may be facing, explaining deeper thoughts is
something only possible when a person does not belong to the generation faced with these issues.
From the two generations of Somali immigrants available in The Netherlands, the first-generation
Somalians are the most ready for discussions like this. The issues dealt with are still conceptually
difficult need for teenagers. Parents in general can reflect on cultural and linguistic loss their children
or friends experience. Those reflections are the most insightful with higher educated people, showing
more analytical skills than men and women who have barely had any education.
These two points are in favor of selecting higher educated first generation immigrants as respondents
for this study.
5.3.4 Procedures
All interviews were held on the same day, Saturday the 9th of August 2008. Location was the
SOMVAO building in Amsterdam-Noord. The sessions started at 14.00 hrs with individual sessions
each taking about thirty minutes. Respondents taking part in individual interviews were Abderrachid,
Nourredine and Abdi. With each of them, the interviewer passed the themes mentioned one by one to
get good answers. The only exception was Abderrachid: his session was on paper due to time
limitations and startup problems with the equipment. After these interviews, sessions were stopped
due to prayer time. Just after prayer, Nourredine, as Imam of the people of SOMVAO, recruited
motivated respondents for the group interview following the prayer. That session was held at the board
room to have the right setting for group discussion. Planned duration of the group interview was thirty
minutes but there was more than enough interesting material to talk about: over an hour of material
was gathered from this session. The day ended at 21.00 hrs. It needs to be commented that the
language used in the interviews was Dutch and that the accounts were not translated while
transcribing to keep them authentic.
53
6.
‘Somali identity in The Netherlands’
Research project
Results & Discussion
54
6.1 Introduction
The outcomes of the interview sessions have been valuable. Because there was generated a lot of
data, I have tried to keep the results section as tangible as possible by discussing the answers to the
questions seperately
6.2 Results – Children’s language proficiency
‘IN WHAT DEGREE ARE SOMALI CHILDREN PROFICIENT IN THE SOMALI
LANGUAGE ACCORDING TO THEIR PARENT’S VIEWS?’
Nourredine, for example commented about the Somali proficiency of his son Abdullah (three years
old):
“H
Hij kan heel veel woorden Somalisch door ons, ik en mijn vrouw. W e proberen Somalisch
s p r e k en … … ”
Besides stressing that his son has a big vocabulary, Nourredine expressed values the Somali
language very much, he expresses this a couple of times:
Ja, als hij doet komt vanzelf, Somalisch moet hij ook leren, is belangrijk”
“J
And a bit further in his interview:
“J
Ja, als je met de kjnderen jouw eigen taal spreekt, dan…dan….Taal is wie jij bent.”
Abdi support this importance with the following:
Als je vraagt wie ze zijn dan zeggen ze meteen “Ik ben een Somalisch”maar daarna vraag je ze:
“A
‘Maar goed, je spreekt geen Somalische taal’ en dan zegt hij gewoon “Ik ben Somalisch”….dan
zeggen ze: “Ja, maar ik ben hier opgegroeid en Nederlands is mijn moedertaal maar toch zeggen ze
“Ik ben een Somalisch”
In other words, children do not see speaking Somali as a core element as their identity as a Somali.
In his session, Nourredine also pays attention to the need for the Somali parents to keep talking
Somali to their children because of the fact that Somali has only the home domain where Dutch can
learned in many more domains
“A
Als de ouder minder Somalisch spreekt met de kinderen en het kan niet goed die taal spreken, dan
verliezen ze die taal. Mijn kinderen blijven leren. Als zij naar buiten gaan: heel veel Nederlandse
woorden, Nederlandse taal, op school ook. Maar hier moeten wij als Somalische ouders aan hen de
taal geven”
55
Abdi, not being married yet, does not have any children. He still has to share some useful thoughts
with us about Somali language proficiency of the children on account of he is a teacher of Somali
culture at SOMVAO on Saturdays. On a question of the interviewer:
Dus als jij iets tegen ze zegt, ze begrijpen je wel?”
“D
He answers:
Eeh niet honderd procent maar wel eeh voldoende”
“E
According to Abdi, the children in his classroom have more passive than active vocabulary in Somali,
which is logical: understanding of a language always comes first, active production follows later on.
When asked what children do not understand, Abdi says:
“Nou bijvoorbeeld als je ze een verhaal vertelt, dan begrijpen ze niet helemaal honderd procent. Als je
een verhaal vertelt en je vraagt ‘W aar ging het over?’ Nou goed, dan kom je erachter dat ze niet
helemaal honderd procent het begrijpen, maar als ik bijvoorbeeld een aanwijzing geef: “Doe maar die”,
“Doe maar dat”, “Je moet dit schrijven en “Je moet zo doen”: dat snappen ze wel”
On the question what language the children use when playing together, Somali or Dutch, Abdi notes
that Dutch is used the most, in about ninety percent of all cases. They use words in Somali
occasionally, but that is rare.
In the group session, everyone answered the question about the children’s level of Somali.
But especially Nasser and Abderrahman, father of respectively five and seven children, are experts in
that area.
Nasser answered:
“IIk moet vertellen, ze hebben verschillende moeders. De twee oudste die spreken het redelijk goed
maar die….die komen niet hier. Die wonen ergens anders. Die wonen niet in Nederland. Ze spreken
het Somalisch redelijk goed en daarnaast diverse andere talen. De jongste drie spreken bijna geen
Somalisch, eentje kan het goed begrijpen”
Again, it seems that passive skills are much more developed than active control of the Somali
language. Children seem to have too little proficiency in Somali to express themselves properly.
In the case of Abderrahman’s situation, we can see something peculiar. Because Abderrahman does
not speak Dutch very well, Hassan I translated his Somali accounts in the conversation:
56
“[o
over ABR] Hij is met zes kinderen hier gekomen, één kind is hier geboren. Zijn twee jongsten, dus
ene die hier kwam toen die één jaar was en de ene die hier geboren is, ze spreken wel Somalisch, ze
verstaan het wel maar praten is half Nederland. Dus hij vraagt iets in Somalisch en dan praten ze half
Somalisch, half Nederlands. Die andere vijf die spreken best wel goed Somalisch.”
Thus, Abderrahman commented that his children try to speak Somali to their father, but fail and switch
to Dutch. The problem is that his understanding of the Dutch language is not too good. This is a case
of the language barriers meant in chapter three.
The peculiarity in Abderrahman’s case is the following, again Hassan I translating:
“[o
over ABR] De moeder is uit Somalie, zij spreekt heel goed Somalisch. Ik moet wel melden: hij is één
van de beste Somalisch sprekers hier, hij spreekt gewoon heel goed Somalisch. De jongere, de
oudere kinderen spreken heel goed Somalisch, thuis wordt ook alleen maar Somalisch gesproken.
Maar daarbij is het voor die twee jongsten heel moeilijk”
The youngest two children cannot speak Somali despite the extensive use of that language in the
home. In this situation, there is a clear division between the Somali speaking children and the nonSomali speakers among them. The youngest children cannot keep track with their siblings when it
comes to Somali language although, Abderrahman says, their mother tries to teach them Somali very
hard when she has the chance. He himself does not get this chance because he comes home from
work very late when the children are fast asleep.
In that part of the interview, the interviewer tries to explain how this divison in the family between
Somali and non-Somali speakers came to be. A glimpse of the answer was given by Hassan I,
translating Abderrahman’s words:
Het is heel moeilijk voor hen om het bij te houden. Op school wordt Nederlands gesproken, zoveel
“H
Somalisch in dat huis en nog steeds is het voor hen een heel moeilijke taal”
The dominance of Dutch language in the school domain supressing Somali proficiency is clarified
more in his next account:
Hij zegt dat het eigenlijk niet zo moeilijk is. Kinderen gaan naar school en vooral de jongsten die
“H
beginnen natuurlijk bij de crèche. Die beginnen om gewoon Nederlands te leren in plaats van
Somalisch. Op het moment dat ze thuis zijn, ze zitten een beetje te eten of er is ook TV. Die tijd die hij
voor hen….eeh eeh: er was gewoon heel weinig tijd om ze te leren. Je gaat niet zitten om Somalisch
te leren. Je praat gewoon die taal……”
In other words: the Dutch language is pushing the Somali language to the background. After a long
day at school, Abderahman’s youngest children do not get any chance to learn their mother tongue
anymore because of a lack of time for their parents.
57
The consequences of this are told by Nasser, speaking about Abderrahman’s home situation:
“M
Maar wat ik weet van bij Abderrahman, in plaats van met de ouders communiceren en met hen in het
Somali praten, ze communiceren alleen samen, samen praten, samen spelen. Ze sluiten zichzelf in de
kamer op om samen te spelen en dan hebben zij het gevoel dat zij daar beter kunnen communiceren
dan…..”
This is that division. This account gives a very clear image of the communication problem Somali
parents can have with their children. And there absolutely no time to establisch a turnaround as
Nasser explains:
“A
Abderahman heeft die goed verteld dat eeh,,,,,dat je geen tijd kan maken voor wat het kind nodig
heeft om met de ouders te communiceren. Kinderen zitten of op school of de ouders zijn niet
beschikbaar op dat moment. Kinderen zijn op elkaar aangewezen. Ze hebben meer tijd met de leraren
dan met hun ouders. Dat maakt dat zij het beste of het makkelijkste communicatiemiddel aan gaan
grijpen.”
Hassan I puts this lack of parental power into words:
“D
De omgeving speelt een hele sterke rol: ze kijken TV, voor de ouders is het gewoon…..de macht van
de omgeving is gewoon groter, sterker, de school. Ouders kunnen gewoon niet tegen opboksen zeg
m aar ”
Parents do not have the possibility to help their children with school work, because of the lack of Dutch
proficiency. Children take advantage of this by not doing their homework. Abdi says about this:
“Nee, dat klopt. Bijvoorbeeld, je geeft een huiswerk voor een….een kind: “Dat en doet moet hij doen”.
Dan zegt ie “Schrijf maar voor mij op zodat ik het kan onthouden”. Dan schrijf je op en dan zegt ie “Ik
kan alleen maar Nederlands lezen” Dan schrijf je het in het Nederlands, dan gaat ie naar thuis en daar
heeft ie niet helemaal…..nou ja volgende week komt ie wel naar de les toe en dan zegt ie “Ik heb niets
geleerd!” en dan zeg ik “Dan wil ik even met je ouders praten” en dan zeggen de ouders “Je hebt mij
iets geschreven dat ik eigenlijk niet kan begrijpen en hij zegt dat en dat had hij moeten doen”
The children’s Dutch proficiency is not developed enough as well. That creates a problem for them.
Hassan I gives his views on the consequences of this situation:
W at voor deze kinderen in de toekomst gewoon een belemmering gaat zijn, geen enkele taal spreken
“W
ze goed. Maar ook: wat is ‘goed’? Naar mijn mening spreken ze geen perfect Nederlands, geen goed
Nederlands. Naar mijn mening. Dan kom je gewoon in de problemen in de toekomst als jij academisch
niveau bent. In Nederland ga je werken. Kijk, ik spreek wel goed Nederlands, maar als ik echt iets
moet zeggen: dan is het af en toe voor mij ook zweten. Voor mij, Somalisch is geen probleem…”
“E
Exact, en dat wordt voor deze kinderen exact hetzelfde. Maar zij hebben nog een ander probleem. Ze
spreken niet goed Somalisch zoals ik. Ze spreken geen één taal perfect en dan heb je volgens mij een
probleem. Hoe goed je een taal spreekt, hoe goed je andere taal kunt leren. Dat is ook theoretisch
bewezen he?”
58
Hassan I expresses his fear of Somali children suffering from ‘semilingualism’, not having sufficient
proficiency in both Dutch and Somali. This could very well be the consequence of this struggle
between Dutch and Somali language in those different domains. Dutch proficiency is more developed
but most of the time, Somali children are in environments where the standard varierty of Dutch is not
spoken. Family and friends cannot correct them if they make linguistic mistakes. Therefore, children
may end up stuck in the middle, without proper Somali and lacking enough Dutch proficiency to have
succes in school.
All data taken into account, an appropriate answer to the first research question would be that Somali
children in general have a great lack in passive as well as active profiency in Somali. Comparing those
two area’s of language controll, passive vocabulary is better developed therefore enabling children to
understand smaller Somali phrases, commitatives, as “do this!” or “Write this down”. Having the
knowledge that their parents do not have a too well developed Dutch proficiency, this indeed, as
literature proposes, causes a language barrier between parents and children. This only widens the
generation gap. Besides this, if your proficiency is limited to this extent, it is impossible for you to pass
you’re mother tongue on to your children. Expectation is that children of second generation Somali’s
will not speak any Somali anymore.
6.3 Results – Parent’s cultural transmission to their children
‘WHAT DO SOMALI CHILDREN, ACCORDING TO THEIR PARENTS, TAKE OUT OF
THE PARENT’S ATTEMPTS TO TRANSIST SOMALI CULTURE?
’
Abdi, first notes that Somali children indeed suffer from cultural loss:
Ja ik denk wel….ja ja ja. Bijvoorbeeld eerste generatie kan je wel zeggen dat ze 100% Somalische
“J
cultuur aanhouden. De tweede generatie, kinderen die hier geboren zijn zie je wel dat er een
ontwikkeling is dat ze minder van de Somalische cultuur weten. Dan zie je ook dat die trend in
ontwikkeling is.”
Also, he makes the difference between religion and culture, something which not all people are
capable of:
“J
Ja, dat is wat men niet altijd onderscheidt. Heel veel dingen die Somaliërs mee krijgen vanuit de
cultuur gaan ze als religie beschouwen terwijl dat eigenlijk niet zo is. Bijvoorbeeld….voor mij is een
cultuur iets wat helemaal niet met religie te maken heeft maar wel iets dat na jaren overgenomen
wordt door de ouders, het kan iets zijn dat niets met religie te maken heeft maar wel bij de Somalische
cultuur bijhoort.”
These words reveal that in general there is a very close association between culture and religion for
Somalians. Those two are tightly interwoven. It is indeed unique that Abdi is capable of taking the two
concepts apart. That bears witness to a good level of education.
59
On the question what the children actually apply from Somali culture, Abdi replies:
“[[denkt heel diep na] Nou bijvoorbeeld resepect voor de ouders is heel belangrijk en dat naar de
ouders luisteren en soms ook dat de ouders iets zeggen dat de kinderen eigenlijk niet willen maar ze
doen het want “Mijn moeder heeft gezegd…..” of “Mijn vader heeft gezegd…..”: dus ik moet daar
respect voor hebben.”
Showing respect to your parents is a very important part of Somali culture, it is not something
superficial, it is rooted deeply.
However, children do not recognise symbolic elements of the culture, such as Somali independence
day, which constitutes knowledge of Somali ancestral heritage:
“J
Jawel, bijvoorbeeld…..in Somalie heb je wel bijvoorbeeld eeh hoe zeg je dat: onafhankelijkheidsdag,
dat de ouders wel vieren maar de kinderen niet weten of wel in beperkte mate….ze gaan met de
ouders mee maar als je over vraagt waar het voor is dan weten ze niet zoveel. Eehm wat nog
meer…..het gaat over kinderen he?”
Another symbolic element that children do not know about Somalia are items such as the currency
used there and the origin of the Somali flag. But Abdi tries to teach them those things.
After this, Abdi says that Somali adolescents do not respect the traditional Somali rules when it comes
to marriage. He explains those rules in the following excerpt:
Ja, de manier van trouwen, dan zie je dat de jongeren niet traditioneel – ik heb het niet over religie he
“J
– maar ze letten niet op, ze doen het op een andere manier. Je hebt bijvoorbeeld in Somalische
cultuur…ik weet niet hoe ik het moet zeggen…..als het jongen of een meisje is, man of vrouw is, dat
ze gaan praten, dan de tweede stap is in de Somalische cultuur om met de ouders te praten. Ze
vragen toestemming of een advies. Dat wordt niet in Somalie gedaan, daar gaan ze heel ver weg,
naar een andere stad. Proberen ze ongeveer negetig kilometer van de ouders weg te reizen, gaan ze
daar de huwelijksceremonie doen. Daarna komen ze terug en zijn ze al getrouwd.”
Instead of doing this sort of ritual, the man and the woman ask permission to the woman’s parents.
Islamically speaking, this is an obligation.
Just like Somali language, parents find the Somali culture very much worth of passing on with
festivities organized by SOMVAO. Hassan I says:
“V
Vraag je mij persoonlijk dan heb ik veel mee gekregen, ik was tien toen ik hier kwam. W at wij zelf
doen is die feestdagen, dat houden we gewoon, elke feestdag. Zoals je weet zijn wij ook Moslim, dat
is een deel van de cultuur voor ons. Als het Ramadan is, gaan we Iftar hier doen. Dan gaan we het
vasten verbreken zeg maar. Daarnaast doen we nog heel veel dingen hier, we geven hier les, we
geven les in Somalisch aan de kleine kinderen. Dat is ook eigenlijk cultuur. Als we samen zijn dan
doen we toch wel veel. Die Somalische dingen hou je toch wel. Samen zijn……”
60
After explaining this, Hassan I illustrates the feeling of longing for traditional Somali culture that was
brought forward in chapter three:
“K
Kijk, nou komen we verder. De W esterse gemeenschap is individueel: ieder voor zich. De Somalische
cultuur is gewoon….het…het “wij”-gevoel, het “wij”-gevoel is zeg maar groter dan het ik gevoel. Dat
heeft ook meer, als je terug gaat in Somalië. Dat had met economische redenen te maken, met allerlei
redenen te maken. Vroeger ook als je kijkt: in Somalie had je als man drie kinderen en je vrouw maar
het was niet alleen die drie kinderen en de vrouw. Er was altijd een nichtje, neefje die bij hem
opgroeide. Als je naar mij kijkt ook, Iedereen was zo. Ik was nooit thuis, zonder iemand anders.”
But also, and that is something which is not highlighted very often when authors come across it,
Hassan continues with a sense of realism that the bringing back traditional Somali culture is not an
option in Dutch society:
“H
Het zit er nog wel in, we willen, maar “mogelijk” is wat anders. Een huis heeft hier nu eenmaal drie of
vier kamers. Die kamers zijn gewoon voor twee kinderen. Het is ook niet zo breed. Het is gewoon heel
moeilijk om drie of vier kinderen bij je te houden. Dat is niet mogelijk”
Hassan I and Nasser even admit that they have undergone some Acculturation: they admit that the
part of Somali just introduced that somebody can take care of someone else’s children now sounds
strange to them because of change of perspective to Dutch standards
Hassan I:
Als ik hier iemand zou zien die zijn kind weg geeft, zou ik zeggen ‘hij is gek’ “
“A
Nasser:
“IIk zou mij niet kunnen voorstellen dat ik mijn dochter bij iemand anders achter laat, zo van “neem
haar maar”. Maar moeilijke tijden hebben andere regels. Ik kan me goed voorstellen dat vroeger
gezinnen hun kinderen ergens gedumpt hebben met het gevoel van “als ik hem hou kan hem iets
overkomen”. En…en… en, dat is een moeilijke omstandigheid en moeilijke omstandigheden hebben
andere regels dan normaal. Het leven in Somalie is niet zo makkelijk en niet zo. Dat is volgens mij
“hardship”, Dat is wat rechtvaardigt dat een vader of moeder achter laat. Misschien komt hij of zij daar
beter dan met mij.”
These impossibilities are good to in the results of the interviews. You simply cannot take all the
children of relatives and friends and care for them as if they were your own. In Somalia this is perfectly
possible and widely accepted. These utterances show that there is a part of the Somali community
that is aware of the need to acculturate in some degree.
Concluding, children do not know typical Somali cultural behaviour anymore, such as independence
day festivities and marital manners, but however, they have picked up a very essential part of Somali
culture that is also applicable in Dutch society, having respect for your parents. Maybe they have
adopted this behaviour also because of it’s prominence in Islam. It is not only cultural, it is rooted in
61
religion. Children do indeed feel that they are Somali: supported by an incident in Abdi’s classroom we
already saw earlier:
“A
Als je vraagt wie ze zijn dan zeggen ze meteen “Ik ben een Somalisch”maar daarna vraag je ze:
‘Maar goed, je spreekt geen Somalische taal’ en dan zegt hij gewoon ‘Ik ben Somalisch’….dan
zeggen ze: ‘Ja, maar ik ben hier opgegroeid en Nederlands is mijn moedertaal maar toch zeggen ze
‘Ik ben een Somalisch’ ”
6.4 Results – SOMVAO’s activities for improvement of language proficiency
and prevention of culture loss
‘Which means does the Somali association SOMVAO (located in
Amsterdam) deploy to raise cultural and linguistic awareness
among Somali children and go against culture and language loss?’
SOMVAO does organize a lot of activities to improve the children’s sense of Somali culture. To begin
with, there are Qur’an and Somali culture and history lessons on Saturdays, taught by Abdi:
“Nou, eeh wat de vereniging doet is een heleboel dingen, bijvoorbeeld activiteiten organiseren, elke
zaterdag die culturele lessen. Koran-lessen tegelijkertijd ook. Enneh daarnaast krijgen kinderen zeg
maar ook Somalische lessen in lezen en schrijven. Ook lessen over de Somalische geschiedenis…..”
As already mentioned there are joined festivities on special Islamic days like Iftar (eating together to
end fasting for that day) during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, or celebrating Eid Al Fitr at the
end of Ramadan. As we already saw, Hassan I said during his session:
Vraag je mij persoonlijk dan heb ik veel mee gekregen, ik was tien toen ik hier kwam. W at wij zelf
“V
doen is die feestdagen, dat houden we gewoon, elke feestdag. Zoals je weet zijn wij ook Moslim, dat
is een deel van de cultuur voor ons. Als het Ramadan is, gaan we Iftar hier doen. Dan gaan we het
vasten verbreken zeg maar. Daarnaast doen we nog heel veel dingen hier, we geven hier les, we
geven les in Somalisch aan de kleine kinderen. Dat is ook eigenlijk cultuur. Als we samen zijn dan
doen we toch wel veel. Die Somalische dingen hou je toch wel. Samen zijn……”
On several occasions, children following lessons at SOMVAO get the chance to take a trip to
amusement parks like “De Efteling” to meet with peers and spend their day oustide the classroom.
Abdi stresses that it is important for these kids to have contact with each other outside the lessons.
This causes the group to feel united. In the area of education, Abdi mentioned, the association
developed a program for teenagers to help them with their studies. SOMVAO has developed a
coaching program in which a coach appointed by the assocation keeps contact with school to get
informed about school performance of the children. When necessary, these coaches visit teachers to
discuss the bottlenecks for certain pupils. Also, there are ‘buddy programs’ in which higher educated
Somali’s of HBO or university level get paired with teenagers to help them study, to motivate them and
62
to guide them where needed:
“M
Maar jongeren krijgen ook een ander programma. W e hadden de afgelopen drie jaar activiteiten
georganiseerd. Het idee was dat de Somalische jongeren een toekomst konden ontwikkelen en dat
gaat dan bijvoorbeeld over studie, dat er van ons uit een coach is die contact houdt met de school, dat
de coach contact opneemt met de school en dat ie praat met de mentor of mentrix. Als er een
probleem is tussen ouder en kind, dan is er altijd een coach die hij kan gebruiken. Er worden ook
daarvoor bijeenkomsten georganiseerd. Dit jaar was dat de laatste zondag van elke maand. Een
iemand gaat dan een onderwerp voorbereiden, over zijn studie iets of over Somalische geschiedenis
iets, dat kan ook. En dan gaat ze discussiëren. Ze krijgen computertrainingen. W at we ook doen is
matching: jongeren en hoog opgeleide Somaliërs. Het voordeel is dan dat een jongere op de HAVO
die moeite heeft met wiskunde gekoppeld wordt aan iemand die HBO gedaan heeft met een
technische studie en op die manier wordt die jongere geholpen.”
This seems like a very solid program. With buddy’s and coaches, studying becomes easier and when
encountered with problems, it is possible to discuss them with someone who knows these situations.
Children’s parents often have a lack of education, so they are not capable of providing support.
In this way, teens feel the support they need to continue their studying.
An event which was organized just before the interviews were conducted was a outdoor camp in
Belgium. Volunteers took the children to the outdoors to learn and play sports together.
For the educational part of the camp, Somali ‘Masheich’ (Arabic for ‘teachers’) were invited to teach
about Islam and give courses in scientific subjects. These sessions were entirely in Somali with Dutch
translation to help the teens improve their Somali and make them aware of their Somali identity.
A condition for volunteers helping out at this camp was that they had a good Somali proficiency, so
that they could guide the teachers and translate their teachings. How important those activities are, is
illustrated by Nourridine when he said:
“N
Naast de lessen krijgen ze ook sportactiviteiten, voetbal. Het is belangrijk om te zorgen dat jongeren
altijd samen zijn. Niet in die kabyl, er moet één kabyl zijn en een goed beeld over de Islaam. Dat zij
ook zien die Masheich, hoe hoog die zijn. Hoe ze geleerd hebben, hoe ze een voorbeeld zijn voor de
jongeren”
A ‘Kabyl’ is Arabic for kin. Young people should not be focussing on their clan. It is not good for them
to be divided. An elaboration on this point came from Nasser, when he made a remark that the difficult
situation for Somali’s in The Netherlands causes them to unite and lets them feel that maintaining
Somali language and culture is more important than ever:
“M
Maar we voelen nu een soort bedreiging en dat gevoel van bedreiging brengt je bij elkaar en dat
besef: “Hey, als we nu niet hard proberen om dan zal er misschien….” Somalische gemeenschap is
nu bezig om allerlei evenementen te organiseren. Over cultuur, er worden allerlei activiteiten
georganiseerd. Onder andere Somalische taal les geven en dat soort activiteiten. Zaterdag, zondag,
kinderen culturele les geven……nu die bedreiging er is proberen we allerlei dingen te ontwikkelen om
dat vast te nemen”
63
SOMVAO members visit ill Somali men and women to take care of them, provide a touch of traditional
Somali community feeling. They were so successful at this that Amsterdam local authorities decided to
support them financially, Hassan I explains:
W at heel interessant is in het laatste jaar, is ons ontwikkelingsproject wat ten goede komt aan de
“W
Somalische gemeenschap in Amsterdam en omgeving. W e zoeken financiering om dat groot te
maken. W at we de laatste tijd ook doen, ps ychische zorg…..mensen die ziek zijn, die in de cel zitten,
geisoleerd zijn. De gemeente Amsterdam heeft er op een of andere manier erachter gekomen dat het
heel veel geld kost om zieken te genezen, ze willen graag voorkomen. W ij bij SOMVAO bezoeken
Somalische mensen die ziek zijn en we kijken wat ze nodig hebben om voor te zijn dat ze ps ychische
problemen ondervindt. Dat waardeert de gemeente Amsterdam en daarvoor hebben ze
waarderingssubsidie gegeven. Die richting willen ze heen, ze willen eigenlijk. Mensen die tijd hebben
om vrijwillig andere mensen te bezoeken, kijken waar ze mee zitten om toch een gesprek te krijgen.
Ook oude mensen. Als je bijvoorbeeld jouw vader of jouw moeder bij je wil hebben dan wordt ook, in
plaats van dat je naar een….bejaardenhuis stuurt, kan je ook beter bij jou hebben.”
A good answer on the third question would be that SOMVAO actually does many things to preserve
Somali language and culture and tries to teach the children how important this is. Activities like the
ones described above are good for sense of belonging and group identity. To are active in the area of
education, deploying good initiatives to improve the achievements of Somali children in Amsterdam
and surrounding cities. Nevertheless, this is also a weakness, it is still only Amsterdam and
surrounding area’s, it needs to get bigger to have more impact. Although board members have raised
funds, given to them by Anmsterdam authorities, it is still hard to obtain enough financial means to let
the projects grow. Another thing is that besides the contact with the city of Amsterdam, there is little
contact with other Dutch organizations. This should really be expanded in order to develop more and
better projects.
Expansion is all about having connections, you should search connections to grow.
There are quite some positive activities, however it should be more.
64
6.5 Discussion & Recommendations
Through the interviews, it has become clear that the Somali generation gap mentioned in the literature
on the US and the English context also exists in the The Netherlands. The difference in views between
parents and their children could be rather disturbing. It is only natural that there is a change in
perception of the home culture: whereas it is the one thing remembering the parents of their home
country, letting them cling to it, at the same time it is a symbol of non-belonging for their offspring.
The main concern for second generation immigrants all over the world seems to be to ‘belong’, to fit
into the society of the host country. They notice the difficulties their parents face everyday and above
all, they decide that they will not lead that kind of life. They feel the pressure to be succesfull, to
succeed in terms of Western standards. This also is the case with the Somali children. At whatever
educational level those children are, the most important thing is to complete it and break with the
stigma of being unsuccesfull that has “chained” their parents. The children see their parents as
‘shackled’ and not trying to break free at all. These ‘shackles’ are Somali culture and the language
coming with it. Culture and language are seen as obstacles to become a succesfull, good functioning
citizen in the host country. From their point of view, this is perfectly imaginable. In the case of the
Somali children, with that blazing civil war in the back of our mind, there absolutely is no chance to
strengthen their ties with their home culture and language. This is crucial to mention, it is the aspect
making Somali children totally different from the second generation Moroccans and Turks. While the
latter spend their holidays in their respective home countries with their relatives, young Somali’s do not
have that chance. Family in Somalia is visited rarely because of the dangers of the war, as discussed
by illustrating the SOMVAO setting there are practically no Somali reading materials, audio tapes or
CD’s to let children improve their Somali proficiency in several language skills. The only domain where
second generation immigrants, Somali’s in this case, get Somali language input is the home. Judging
the data, Somali is spoken to children from a very early age to let them pick it up.
Nouns, numbers, imperatives: young children do indeed recognize and understand them. The first few
years of their lives, they are adressed in Somali and at that moment it is the only language children are
able to understand. As with all immigrant children in host contexts, the mainstream language takes
over control when children are enrolled in schools. The language of instruction is English, French,
German, Dutch ecetera and from this moment on, these languages become the dominant languages
in the child’s life. These languages are heard in every domain besides the home. Parents loose
controll over their children due to poor Dutch proficiency. As the participants have mentioned in their
interviews more than once, they do not have the power to bring in a counterweight to the Dutch culture
and language. Somali culture and language become less and less important. The language is not
supported in schools because of the lack of materials. Apart from that, teachers have no knowledge of
the Somali culture and language.That is actually not the main problem. The real problem is that there
is no possitive appreciation of African cultures and languages in the classroom. Africans are almost
automatically associated with low SES, unemployment, high dropout percentage in schools
andsoforth. Teachers are, in the most cases, not even aware of these prejudices.
These are purely subconscious. However these appreciations have a rather big influence on the
65
child’s identity. This has been all described in publications on the Pigmalion effect. When they get
older, under the pressure of the ‘Western’ opinions, they decide that it is best to let Dutch cultural
principles guide them for their own good. Eventually,they choose for assimilation strategy due to the
weak ties with Somalia, pressure felt in the Dutch society and the need for social and economic
improvements. Everybody needs social mobility, especially people who feel they are at the bottom the
ladder like Somali youth.That choice for assimilation is maybe is not a choice out of free will, it seems
to be imposed on them. Children have to make the switch to Dutch norms and values to survive in our
society. Going back to their roots could be more or less seen as self destruction. In that respect, the
choice is perfectly understandable.
Taking the assimilation strategy as the Somali youth does, can be extremely hazardous socially
speaking. To explain this, I must turn to the work of Shahid (2003) who makes a very useful comment
in one of his chapters on dynamics of intergroup relations. He notes that integration (let alone
assimilation) takes two parties willing to come closer together. First we have the immigrant willing to
adapt to the mainstream culture and speak the language of the dominant group. The Somali youth
qualifies for this condition without any doubt. Secondly, intergration (or assimilation) is also a case of
the host society accepting the move towards mainstream culture and language of the immigrants.
And to be honest, I am not complety sure if the Dutch accept the Somali youth completely as part of
their society, see them as Dutch people coming from Somalian background. This is the tricky part:
what happens when immigrants make the effort to integrate, or in this case even assimilate, but the
host society does not reward this by accepting them without questions? The Somali children could get
stuck in the middle. Not seen as Somali anymore and not being acceptated by (most of) the Dutch
society. Not Somali anymore as expressed by their parents, aunts and uncles back in Somalia
because of their poor proficiency in Somali (we have learned from the interviews that Somali language
is a core element of Somali identity): not a legitimate Dutch because they are excluded. What is the
alternative if somebody does not ‘belong’ anywhere? The only escape seems taking the
marginalization option, getting shut out completely and having virtually no options to build a solid
future. This is the consequence according to Dutch media.
What could be the solution to this potential problem? The first logical step to take for the Somali
society in The Netherlands is to educate the youth, teach them Somali as good as possible and share
Somali culture with them. In other words, there should be more awareness of the unique aspects of
being Somali. History, poetry, strong Islamic traditions: there is more than enough to be proud of if the
Somali youth looks closely.If only they could break free from that negative perspective they seem to
hold. Associations such as SOMVAO in Amsterdam and Samatalis in Groningen try to raise this kind
of awareness, but they lack in funds. There simply are no means to accomplish the goals they set.
Volunteers like our respondent Abdi teach children about Somali culture on Saturdays, but time and
means are limited. That is why I quoted Nadeau (2006): to suggest this solution for the Dutch context.
Somali associations are completely alone in their battle for awareness and it seems like they are
slowly losing it. More help from the Dutch government is needed. On some occassions, government
66
officials talk to representatives of Somali associations about the needs of the members, but simply
talking is not enough. Now is the time for action There could be intercultural training sessions for
Somali parents to learn how to deal with Dutch society structures and the culture, there could be job
training for Somali youth, there could be more internships for talented Somali students…..I am aware
of the practical restrictions, it takes time to develop these kind of programs, but there should be a start.
Actions should not come from one side. Somali assocations also have a responsibily towards the
community. They should engage more in talks with Dutch organizations. At this moment, SOMVAO is
trying to do this, but it needs to happen more. If people want any help, they should express this in all
openness. Dutch officials will be all ears if they do so. Local authorities are all about multicultiralization
nowadays. They value young talented second generation immigrants. If this appreciation is possible,
SOMVAO should try to raise appreciation for Somali cultural events, explain their concerns about their
children. This should really take place if they want any help from Dutch organs.
67
7.
Co n c l u s i o n s
68
‘The fruits of our work’ – which lessons did we learn?
The Somali group is a relatively unknown group for most Dutch people. Most of them could not
recognize a Somali man or woman out of a group of other Africans. ‘They all look alike’ would be the
most common response. Indeed, without any knowledge it is hard to separate the Somali from the
rest: physically, culturally and psychologically. But with all these facts gathered in this publication, it
should be somewhat easier to identify them. Exploring their traditional culture and the problems of the
group in The Netherlands has given them a face.
But what is that face? Looking back on all the topics covered, we can paint a picture of an immigrant
group in cultural distress. Not only in The Netherlands, also in the US or in the UK, there is a
‘generational Diaspora’ between first generation Somali immigrants (parents) and second generation
immigrants (their children). It has been said in the literature, but more powerful, it has been expressed
in the interviews analyzed in chapter five. Problems become a real issue when we hear real people
talk about them, sharing their thoughts and feelings. Although the parents speak Somali to their
children and try to raise them with Somali norms and values, they are afraid that their children will not
value their heritage and choose for the Western way of world making since that is the dominant (and it
might be the most successful) way in the host culture they are living in. This situation can be analyzed
in terms of Berry’s Acculturation framework (2005) as follows: the first generation immigrants (parents)
generally take the segregation strategy, it is better to say, have to take it simply because they have no
other option. In most cases, first generation immigrants are not familiar with the Dutch language or the
culture, they rarely have contact with native Dutch. In other words, they do not have access to the
resources they need to learn and accommodate. If they are cut off from ways to learn, gain knowledge
about the Dutch language and culture, they are more or less forced to segregate themselves from the
native Dutch and the rest of the ethnic groups who take integration or assimilation strategy. This is a
fairly normal pattern for first generation immigrant behavior. Because they feel comfortable with
Somali language and culture, they highly value it and therefore want their children to inherit it.
They strongly believe it will be good for their sons and daughters, because it has suited them.
Parents put incredible efforts into transmission of the culture and language learning process of their
children.
The second generation immigrants in the Somali group (the children) take a different strategy than
their parents derived from the literature discussed in the previous chapter. They, unlike their mothers
and fathers, have contact with native Dutch group members like their teachers, classmates, the
coaches of their football team, all these people are their access to Dutch language and culture. Due to
the fact that they have access to resources, they are aware of the fact that their parents cannot keep
up with the pace of the modern Western society. Children, under the pressure of native Dutch, the
government and the media, take more and more elements of Dutch culture they do not want to end up
like their parents. Young Somali’s see their parents struggle with new norms and value systems, not
being able to adjust their behavioral patterns and eventually choosing the segregation strategy and
69
rely on the things they are familiar with. That choice has negative consequences for the parents, and
their children are painfully aware of that. Eventually, children end up with the realization that learning
Somali language and culture is not an option. Why should they? It is not beneficial if they are staying
in The Netherlands and build a life for themselves with a good education, a career and a loving family
according to Dutch standards. It is not for anybody to condemn this way of thinking, it cannot be
labeled ‘good’ or ‘bad’. The only thing that can be said is that it is purely realistic. The tragedy of the
situation is that, the more the children advance in social position and status in the Dutch society, the
further away to get from their parents, roots and rituals.
From the interview data it can be seen that especially higher educated first generation Somali’s have a
good sense of awareness of the influences, the dynamics that are threatening the transition Somali
language and culture in the Netherlands. They explicitly point out that they feel as if the Dutch
mainstream culture is ‘suppressing’ Somali norms and values in critical domains in society. As children
get older, the influence of school life and friends begins to increase to enormous levels. This pressure
far outweighs the efforts of the parents. Respondent Hassan I literally used the word “opboksen” as if it
is a battle between parental efforts and outside influences. This may well be very well the case.
At least it is what parents feel it to be. If there has been one thing apparent in the interviews, it has
been the enormous amounts of energy Somali parents put in transitioning the typical Somali norms
and values to their offspring. They greatly value their ethnic culture: from the smaller things such as
the cooking to the sacrifices of raising somebody else’s children if they are in that fortunate position.
In these words, we can notice the longing for those times. Nobody from the first generation immigrants
wants to let go. A characteristic of these higher educated people certainly is that they can see the
advantages of the Dutch way of living as well and that, in some cases, they even choose to adopt it.
In this respect, we should remember Hassan I’s and Nasser’s words on letting somebody else raise
their children. That is something they know was possible in Somalia, in the Dutch situation that is
never an option. The used word “gek” is a very strong predicate for this behavior. The perspectives of
these people have changed in vital ways. That is something we can only hear in this clear way from
this subset of people. It is far from sure that lower educated Somali people can name the advantages
of the Western (Dutch) lifestyle in such a clear manner our respondents did. They can think in different
paradigms, ways of worldmaking. On the one hand, there is that feeling of missing the Somali way of
life possible back home, on the other hand, these men are perfectly capable of living in The
Netherlands because they can see the advantages of the mindset of Western people individually
orientated.
All these differences between parents and children, parental feelings of ‘longing for the old days’ as
well as ‘making the best of the present situation’ situation is in short the Diaspora referred to in the
main title of this thesis. Two opposed parties will not get any closer to each other if the Somali
immigrants do not deploy more initiatives to raise cultural awareness with their children or the Dutch
governmental agencies do not increase the amount of help they provide. These parties need each
other to create a healthy multicultural environment for a peaceful coexistence.
70
Appendix – Interview Transcripts
The interviews have been converted into transcripts for analysis. For reproduction of the research it
should be transparent what was said by who. The conventions are derived from the field of
Conversational Analysis as described by Huls (2003). Due to the aims of the study, the simplified
method has been chosen which means that symbols for seconds, turn taking, interruptions, breathing
pauses etcetera have not been used. The most important comment on the material beforehand is that
the language spoken in the audiofiles is Dutch
Interview I: - Individual session – Abderrachid (short interview on paper, because of time
limitations)
This interview was conducted on paper because of initial errors of the recording device and
Abderrachid was about to leave SOMVAO to head for home when the interviews sessions were
started. Following now are some of the notes made during the conversation with Abderrachid.
Abderrachid is 24 years old, born and raised in Somalia. He is not married yet and does not have
children. His Somali is up to standard. He does not have any experience with the Somali language of
children he stresses, but in general he can say that they do not speak it very well. Only small words
and simple sentences which are relevant for them in their domain of “playing and games”. W hen
turning teenagers, use of Somali does not improve. Vocanulary has of course expanded compared to
when these teenagers were young but most of the time they speak Dutch with Somali friends and to
Dutch friends and coworkers. Communication with the parents is a difficult issue: language barriers
prevent children from being expressive towards their parents. Cultural habits are transferred to young
children on surface, but there is no real understanding of the how and why. These rituals are not being
held on to by children as they grow older. More deep phenomena such as ‘respect for your parents’
are indeed being valued. Abderrachid says that this might be the case because respect is also part of
the religion of Islam.
SOMVAO has very useful activities to raise cultural and linguistic awareness of children. Qur’an
lessons, lessons dealing with Somali culture, making day trips and creating a sense of unity. This has
to be more; Abderrachid sees that the generational Diaspora is getting wider and will remain in the
future. One significant thing he says, is that SOMVAO should try to have more contact with Dutch
governmental officials. SOMVAO recently has had some funds, but it is not all about funding, it is
about sharing ideas and winning others over for your cause.
71
Interview II: Individual session – Abdi
Interlocutor
INT
Utterance
Nou, we gaan dus spreken over de Somalische taal en cultuur en de toestand zoals
die in Nederland is. Allereerst zou ik nog eventjes willen zeggen ook voor mijzelf
zodat ik het onthouden eeh je naam is Abdi en je bent 27 jaar en je hebt nog geen
kinderen. Is helemaal niet erg, komt nog insha Allah. Geen probleem, maar dat we
het maar even weten. Eehm, we beginnen echt voor de Somalische taal dus dat is
echt het eerste waar je aan denkt als je ‘Somalië’ hoort. Spreek jij je taal nog goed?
Ben je hier geboren trouwens?
ABDI
Nee, ik ben in 2000 naar Nederland gekomen
INT
2000, dus je spreekt de taal nog helemaal goed
ABDI
Ja
Wat wel interessant is denk ik….je bent in Somalie geboren dus jouw Somalische
taal is waarschijnlijk goed, Nederlands trouwens ook Masha Allah, heel heel
sterk..eehm taal van de kinderen, de Somalische taal. Hoe is het daarmee gesteld?
Verstaan ze het nog goed? Wat is bij hen sterker: spreken of verstaan?
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
Eeh verstaan
Dus als jij iets tegen ze zegt, ze begrijpen je wel?
Eeh niet honderd procent maar wel eeh voldoende
Uuh, dus ik denk dan de dingen als eeh bijvoorbeeld in jouw klas want je geeft zelf
ook les he over de Somalische cultuur hier (SOMVAO) eehm bijvoorbeeld als je
tegen een jongen of meisje zegt “Pak dit krijtje”, de simpele…..
Dat verstaan ze wel
Welke dingen begrijpen ze niet?
Nou bijvoorbeeld als je ze een verhaal vertelt, dan begrijpen ze niet helemaal
honderd procent. Als je een verhaal vertelt en je vraagt “Waar ging het over?”
Nou goed, dan kom je erachter dat ze niet helemaal honderd procent het begrijpen,
maar als ik bijvoorbeeld een aanwijzing geef: “De maar die”, “Doe maar dat”, “Je
moet doet schrijven en “Je moet zo doen”: dat snappen ze wel
Dat zijn de simpele dingen die de ouders tegen de kinderen kunnen zeggen
Ja…Ja
ABDI
Als je nou….de kinderen spreken…..want ik was net op de gang en ik was aan het
bidden ook, en toen waren er twee jongens. En ze wezen op mij “Aah een
Nederlander, hij doet Salaah” Ze waren helemaal van slag. Ik bedoel, het is ook heel
vreemd dat iemand dat doet he, ze verwachten niet. Eehm spreken ze, als ze samen
praten…meestal Nederlands of meestal Somalisch?
72
ABI
Nederlands
INT
En geen Somalische woordjes tussendoor?
ABI
Nou af en toe gaan ze een Somalisch woord, of twee Somalische woorden kunnen
gebruiken, ja kunnen gebruiken. Meestal, negentig procent, spreken ze gewoon
Nederlands
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
En eeh misschien…..praat je ook met de ouders daarover? Over de kinderen, hoe
dat thuis gaat zeg maar?
Eeh, nou kijk mijn taak is niet zo meer, ik hou bezig niet zo meer met opvoeding
maar puur gewoon om kinderen les te geven en ze iets overdragen, ze te laten leren.
Eeh maar je komt wel af en toe in aanraking met de ouders, je hebt het erover en
goed enneh je merkt dat ouders en kinderen elkaar soms niet goed begrijpen, er is
een taalbarrière
Ja, taalbarrière echt ook?
Ja, dat de ouders dan onvoldoende Nederlands spreken en de kinderen dan soms
eeh…nou ja dan praat je daarover: “Wat gaan we daarmee doen” en….ik heb niet
zoveel ervaring mee…..
Ja, maar kijk…dat hoeft ook niet
Ik zeg soms: “Kijk probeer maar als je thuis bent met je kinderen Somalische taal te
gaan praten, als je vrije tijd hebt dat je je kinderen een verhaal vertelt enneh
nou……ja goed dat soort dingen
Kijk, je hoeft ook geen expert te zijn natuurlijk, ik ben wel blij dat je er met me over wil
praten, dat ten eerste al, maar je zegt een heel belangrijk ding. Dat er een
taalbarrière was wist ik bijvoorbeeld nog niet.
Nee, dat klopt. Bijvoorbeeld, je geeft een huiswerk voor een….een kind: “Dat en doet
moet hij doen”. Dan zegt ie “Schrijf maar voor mij op zodat ik het kan onthouden”.
Dan schrijf je op en dan zegt ie “Ik kan alleen maar Nederlands lezen” Dan schrijf je
het in het Nederlands, dan gaat ie naar thuis en daar heeft ie niet helemaal…..nou ja
volgende week komt ie wel naar de les toe en dan zegt ie “Ik heb niets geleerd!” en
dan zeg ik “Dan wil ik even met je ouders praten” en dan zeggen de ouders “Je hebt
mij iets geschreven dat ik eigenlijk niet kan begrijpen en hij zegt dat en dat had hij
moeten doen”
INT
Yeah, de ouders zijn…..de Nederlandse taal, dat is ook logisch, dat is zwak
ontwikkeld, dat hoeft ook niet sterk ontwikkeld te zijn: ze zijn al wat ouder…maar dat
is al wel belangrijk om te weten, dat er een taalbarrière is.
INT
Eeh de Somalische cultuur, daar geef jij les in dus daar ben je wel een expert in
eigenlijk……
73
ABDI
INT
Nou ik ben niet expert maar ik weet heel veel van de Somalische cultuur omdat ik
min of meer in de Somalische cultuur opgegroeid ben…..
Je bent hier gekomen in 2000, hoe oud was je toen?
ABDI
Volgens mij negentien
INT
Ja dat klopt, dan heb je heel je jeugd gehad in Somalië
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
En eeh, eens kijken hoor, want eeh bestaat er…..als je nou kijkt naar de ouders hier
he, een beetje de mensen van middelbare leeftijd, dus ouder dan wij, in Nederland.
Houden die nog goed vast aan hun Somalische gewoontes en gebruiken?
Ja ik denk wel….ja ja ja. Bijvoorbeeld eerste generatie kan je wel zeggen dat ze
100% Somalische cultuur aanhouden. De tweede generatie, kinderen die hier
geboren zijn zie je wel dat er een ontwikkeling is dat ze minder van de Somalische
cultuur weten. Dan zie je ook dat die trend in ontwikkeling is.
En wat doen kinderen zeg maar….wat doen de kinderen nog wel? Van de
Somalische cultuur, dus dat bijvoorbeeld eeh dus als je het over de Somalische
cultuur hebt dan heb je het in een bepaalde mate ook over de Islaam natuurlijk
Ja, dat is wat men niet altijd onderscheidt. Heel veel dingen die Somaliërs mee
krijgen vanuit de cultuur gaan ze als religie beschouwen terwijl dat eigenlijk niet zo is.
Bijvoorbeeld….voor mij is een cultuur iets wat helemaal niet met religie te maken
heeft maar wel iets dat na jaren overgenomen wordt door de ouders, het kan iets zijn
dat niets met religie te maken heeft maar wel bij de Somalische cultuur bijhoort
Goed dat je dat zegt, want je hebt natuurlijk ook die toestand met Ayaan Hirsi Ali
gehad. Heel goed dat je dit even gezegd hebt…eeh….die kinderen he…welke dingen
van de Somalische cultuur die nemen ze nog over? Het wordt wel minder maar het is
wel goed om ook te zeggen wat doen ze er nog van?
[denkt heel diep na] Nou bijvoorbeeld resepect voor de ouders is heel belangrijk en
dat naar de ouders luisteren en soms ook dat de ouders iets zeggen dat de kinderen
eigenlijk niet willen maar ze doen het want “Mijn moeder heeft gezegd…..” of “Mijn
vader heeft gezegd…..”: dus ik moet daar respect voor hebben
INT
Dus ze doen het wel, uit respect
ABDI
Ja
INT
Oke
ABDI
Ja, wat doen ze nog meer van de Somalische cultuur…..
INT
Bepaalde……ja dat heb ik nog niet na kunnen zoeken hoor, maar zijn er nog
74
bepaalde feestdagen buiten de andere Islamitische….want je hebt natuurlijk de
feestdagen van Islaam heb je, maar zijn er ook nog feestdagen buiten de Islamitische
feestdagen?
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
Jawel, bijvoorbeeld…..in Somalie heb je wel bijvoorbeeld eeh hoe zeg je dat:
onafhankelijkheidsdag, dat de ouders wel vieren maar de kinderen niet weten of wel
in beperkte mate….ze gaan met de ouders mee maar als je over vraagt waar het
voor is dan weten ze niet zoveel. Eehm wat nog meer…..het gaat over kinderen he?
Kinderen, en jongeren mogen ook wel. Als jij iets weet van de jongeren?
Ja, de manier van trouwen, dan zie je dat de jongeren niet traditioneel – ik heb het
niet over religie he – maar ze letten niet op, ze doen het op een andere manier. Je
hebt bijvoorbeeld in Somalische cultuur…ik weet niet hoe ik het moet zeggen…..als
het jongen of een meisje is, man of vrouw is, dat ze gaan praten, dan de tweede stap
is in de Somalische cultuur om met de ouders te praten. Ze vragen toestemming of
een advies. Dat wordt niet in Somalie gedaan, daar gaan ze heel ver weg, naar een
andere stad. Proberen ze ongeveer negetig kilometer van de ouders weg te reizen,
gaan ze daar de huwelijksceremonie doen. Daarna komen ze terug en zijn ze al
getrouwd.
Dat kan?
Ja, dat is iets wat eeh….ze gaan een week feest vieren in Somalië. Dat meisje of die
vrouw draagt een speciale kleding zodat iedereen kan zien ze getrouwd is.
Dat is iets dat jongeren hier helemaal niet doen
Ze gaan niet weg van de ouders….Heb jij dat nog mee gemaakt
Hier als ze elkaar goed vinden, dan is de volgende stap even naar de ouders
Maar niet echt meer voor toestemming?
Jawel, vanuit de religie moet je altijd toestemming hebben
Dat is ook zo, je kunt niet zomaar…..dat is ook zo
Hier gaan ze niet weg rennen
Ze gaan niet weg rennen?
Meestal gaat de jongen naar de familie van het meisje en dan vraagt ie “Ik wil met uw
dochter trouwen” en dan praat je daarover en zo begint het
Als je nou….wat het dus is met die cultuur he….wat ik gemerkt heb en daar schrok ik
een beetje van….ik denk dat de eigen cultuur houden dat dat heel belangrijk is. Ik
heb ooit eens een keer met een heel jong jongetje gesproken, heel klein was hij en ik
vroeg hem…ik vroeg hem gewoon, ik was nieuwsgierig gewoon he? Ik vroeg hem
75
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
“Voel je jezelf Somalisch of Nederlands?”Misschien een hele moeilijke vraag voor
een klein kind, maar hij gaat nadenken en hij zegt “Ik ben een Nederlander eigenlijk”
Ik was wel blij want ja: je bent Nederlander en je vindt het leuk als mensen zich blij
voelen hier in Nederland, dat is eeh mooi. Maar tegelijkertijd dacht ik “Ja maar kijk, jij
bent ook een Somalisch kind” Het was nog een heel jong kindje…Maak jij dat
weleens mee, dat mensen gewoon zeggen van…kinderen ook: “Ik voel me meer een
Nederlands kind als een Somalisch kind”?
Niet zo vaak, nee
Misschien komt dat ook wel, omdat ik er was. Ik ben Nederlander en misschien zegt
hij……
Ja, dat zou heel goed kunnen
Als je vraagt wie ze zijn dan zeggen ze meteen “Ik ben een Somalisch”maar daarna
vraag je ze: “Maar goed, je spreekt geen Somalische taal” en dan zegt hij gewoon “Ik
ben Somalisch”….dan zeggen ze: “Ja, maar ik ben hier opgegroeid en Nederlands is
mijn moedertaal maar toch zeggen ze “Ik ben een Somalisch”
Dat kan wel, dat kan wel. Vind jij het spreken van Somalisch heel belangrijk om jezelf
Somalisch te noemen?
Nou, nou….niet alleen maar om jezelf Somalisch te noemen maar als je Somalisch
spreekt ben je daar wel erg blij mee
Het is wel een heel erg groot stuk van de identiteit
Ja, je praat in die taal met je ouders, ooms en tantes of je gaat terug op vakantie
naar Somalië en dan moet je je familie daar zien, met ze communiceren. Als die
kinderen van hier geen Somalisch kunnen wat gaan ze hun kinderen dan leren?
Niks!
Dan is het er dus niet meer, dan is het weg. Dat is dus wat ik gemerkt heb en dat is
waarom ik deze interviews doe omdat ik eeh……ik ben zelf natuurlijk wel
Nederlander maar ik vind het wel belangrijk dat de Somalische cultuur en taal
behouden blijven, omdat we allemaal Muslims zijn. Ik geef om mijn mede- Musilms
en ik wil gewoon dat ze zichzelf ook gelukkig voelen ook, maar wel met hun eigen
taal, cultuur. Ze hoeven niet van mij allemaal en altijd Nederlands te spreken……
Nou, als je in Nederland bent moet je wel Nederlands spreken, dat is wel een
voorwaarde
76
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
Ja,ja,ja absoluut
Want je maakt deel uit van een gemeenschap en je moet wel kunnen praten
Wat ik bedoel is, het is niet zo dat….sommige mensen in de politiek hebben dat wel
gezegd he….dan zeggen ze “Ja, alle immigranten moeten Nederlands spreken, ook
thuis” Maar dat vind ik onzin want, je kunt iemand zijn taal niet afpakken
Dat is gewoon onzin, je hoort vaak, dart men zegt vanuit de overheid: “De ouders
moeten kinderen helpen. Maar als kinderen helemaal geen Somalisch kunnen
spreken dan kunnen de ouders toch niets voor de kinderen betekenen? Toch niks?
Nee
Dan kan ik die kind toch niet….het kan wel zijn dat de ouders in Somalie hoog
opgeleid waren, maar omdat ze in Nederland geen Nederlands spreken kunnen ze
ineens niks meer. Dus het is heel belangrijk dat de kinderen de Somalische taal goed
beheersen zodat ze ook een goeie relatie hebben met de ouderen en adersom: dat
de ouders hen kunnen helpen
Ja dat is ook zo,dus eigenlijk: die taal is gewoon heel belangrijk. Echt een heel
belangrijk element van je identiteit, wie je bent
Ja
Nou zitten we hier natuurlijk op de vereniging, je geeft les bij SOMVAO. Die
vereniging bestaat al een aantal jaren he, de Somalische vereniging. Eehm, wat zijn
de dingen die jullie zoal doen om die Somalische taal en cultuur echt, ja omhoog te
halen bij die kinderen? Want je wil natuurlijk dat ze ook trots zijn op hun afkomst
Nou, eeh wat de vereniging doet is een heleboel dingen, bijvoorbeeld activiteiten
organiseren, elke zaterdag die culturele lessen. Koran-lessen tegelijkertijd ook.
Enneh daarnaast krijgen kinderen zeg maar ook Somalische lessen in lezen en
schrijven. Ook lessen over de Somalische geschiedenis…..
Ik heb ook veel geschreven over die burgeroorlog, hoe dat ging….
Het is gewoon belangrijk dat de kinderen weten waar Somalië ligt en welke taal er
wordt gesproken en wat is de munteenheid bijvoorbeeld en ja….die leren kinderen
ook wel een beetje hier. De vereniging organiseert ook regelmatig ook iets leuks voor
kinderen, naar de Efteling of naar de eeh….om even dat de kinderen zeg maar eeh
dat de kinderen ook andere kinderen kunnen zien en kunnen praten en…..
Even geen druk, ontspannen samen, gevoel van eenheid maken……
Ja enneh [denkt heel lang na, wordt stil[
77
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
INT
ABDI
Er was trouwens ook een kamp he? Afgelopen paar dagen
Ja, dat was voor de jongeren
Maar jongeren, dat is natuurlijk ook belangrijk, de kinderen gaan naar de Efteling,
iedereen tot, ik denk misschien wel tot twaalf jaar
Maar jongeren krijgen ook een ander programma. We hadden de afgelopen drie jaar
activiteiten georganiseerd. Het idee was dat de Somalische jongeren een toekomst
konden ontwikkelen en dat gaat dan bijvoorbeeld over studie, dat er van ons uit een
coach is die contact houdt met de school, dat de coach contact opneemt met de
school en dat ie praat met de mentor of mentrix. Als er een probleem is tussen ouder
en kind, dan is er altijd een coach die hij kan gebruiken. Er worden ook daarvoor
bijeenkomsten georganiseerd. Dit jaar was dat de laatste zondag van elke maand.
Een iemand gaat dan een onderwerp voorbereiden, over zijn studie iets of over
Somalische geschiedenis iets, dat kan ook. En dan gaat ze discussiëren. Ze krijgen
computertrainingen. Wat we ook doen is matching: jongeren en hoog opgeleide
Somaliërs. Het voordeel is dan dat een jongere op de HAVO die moeite heeft met
wiskunde gekoppeld wordt aan iemand die HBO gedaan heeft met een technische
studie en op die manier wordt die jongere geholpen
Om huiswerkbegeleiding te geven?
Ja
Ja, dat is echt heel goed. Even kijken: er was een kamp afgelopen week. Guled
vertelde mij dat: “Er is kamp en we gaan naar de Belgische Ardennen”Ik weet niet
precies, was het een samenkomst? Was het iets officieels of mocht je gewoon met
elkaar heel veel plezier maken en sport?
De bedoel was om jongeren te trainen die als rolmodel kunnen functioneren. Dus het
was open voor iedere jongere maar wel jongeren die de Somalische taal beheersen
als eerste want die gastsprekers die waren allemaal, spreken ze allemaal alleen
maar Somalische taal. De ene komt uit Somalie, de andere uit Norway dus de
jongeren moeten de Somalische taal kunnen begrijpen en vooral ook spreken. Dat is
een voorwaarde. Tegelijkertijd krijgen ze training of cursus over welk onderwerp dan
ook. Er was ook een hele leuke sfeer. Bijvoorbeeld van acht uur ’s morgens tot een
uur ’s middags alleen maar cursus en van vier uur tot zes uur alleen maar sport,
voetbal of tafeltennis, zeg maar voor ontspanning
INT
Aah, er waren twee delen: eerst leren, hard werken en doen
INT
Ik hoorde ook van Guled al, er waren Somalische gastsprekers ook, en Guled
noemde ze Masheich ook zelfs…gewoon echt geleerden. Waren dat Islamitische
geleerden of waren ze gewoon….?
ABDI
Sommige waren alleen Islamitische geleerden en sommigen hadden ook een andere
studie gedaan
78
INT
ABDI
Dat is alleen maar heel positief als je een andere studie ernaast doet. Ik heb sowieso
altijd gemerkt dat de geleerden die ik ken zijn natuurlijk slimme mensen, maar die
weten ook heel veel van een onderwerp buiten de godsdienst……. We zijn inmiddels
wel aangekomen bij het einde van het interview. Bedankt voor je tijd, ik zie je straks
als ik klaar ben
Oke
Interview III: Individual session – Nourredine
Interlocutor
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
Utterance
Oke, we gaan opnemen. Allereerst eventjes: je naam is Nourredine. Wat is je
leeftijd?
Ik ben 32
En je vertelde net al voor we begonnen: je bent getrouwd en je hebt twee kinderen?
Ja
Dat is heel goed want dan kunnen we ook praten over hoe jouw kinderen het
Somalisch beheersen
Abdullah is bijna drie jaar en Abderrahman is bijna een jaar
Twee zoontjes, twee kleine zoontjes. Eehm ben jij hier trouwens geboren of ben in je
in Somalië geboren?
NOU
Nee, ik ben in Somalië geboren
INT
Wanneer ben je hier gekomen?
NOU
INT
NOU
Ik was 18
Je hebt je jeugd in Somalie gehad, je bent ook….dat is een groot verschil natuurlijk
want je hebt ook kinderen die zijn gekomen toen ze heel klein waren
Ja, ja
79
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
Die weten niet zoveel meer van Somalie, dat is waarom ik dit vraag. Somalische taal
bij jou….ja ik neem aan dat dat heel goed is. Je bent in Somalie opgegroeid dus je
kunt het goed
Dat hangt af eeh……van waar je opgevoed bent. Of ik goed spreek hangt af met wie
je vergelijkt…..
In het algemeen bedoel ik. Dan moet je uitzoeken hoe iemand het spreekt. Ik kan dat
niet he, ik ben er niet goed in [lachende toon]. Maar jouw kinderen die zijn hier
geboren en dat is interessant…hoe goed spreken zij het nog want zij leren het wel
van jou en jouw vrouw, die komt ook uit Somalie, tenminste ik neem aan dat je ook
een Somalische echtgenote hebt he? Is zij hier geboren als ik mag vragen trouwens?
Ze……was drie jaar toen ze hier kwam
INT
Oke, ze was drie jaar en toen kwam ze naar Nederland
INT
De kinderen leren van jullie Somalisch, ze zijn nu nog klein maar ze spreken een
paar woordjes denk ik?
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
Abdullah kan een beetje
Abdullah spreekt een paar woordjes en Abderrahman is nog maar een jaar, heel
jong. Die brabbelt [dat voor hoe brabbelen gaat, ter verduidelijking] Maar Abdullah
he, die spreekt dus Somalisch, woordjes?
Hij kan heel veel woorden Somalisch door ons, ik en mijn vrouw. We proberen
Somalisch spreken……
Geen Nederlands?
Heel soms, een beetje. Mijn vrouw praat af en toe.
Van die kleine woordjes, “pas op”, “kom hier”: dat soort dingen. Dat zijn de dingen,
maar de meeste tijd praat je Somalisch met hen? Dat heeft misschien ook te maken
met…..dat komt ook door, hij is nog niet naar school gegaan
Hij is maandag voor eerst gegaan. Naar de voorschool
Peuterschool, daar gaat hij ook Nederlandse kindjes zien, gaat ie ook praten in
Nederlands. Maar jullie spreken Somalisch
Ja, als hij doet komt vanzelf, Somalisch moet hij ook leren, is belangrijk
80
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
Daarom! Je zegt al een beetje dat je belangrijk vindt dat ze spreken. Jij praat met
Abdullah altijd Somalisch, dat zal misschien altijd Somalisch zijn. Met Abderrahman
straks ook als hij kan praten. Vind jij het ook dat belangrijk voor dat ze zich
Somalisch voelen?
Ja, als je met de kjnderen jouw eigen taal spreekt, dan…dan….Taal is wie jij bent.
Heel goed dat je dat zegt hoor, Ik had met Abdi in het vorige interview ook over…de
ouders en de kinderen. De ouders zijn vaak nog in Somalie opgegroeid. De kinderen
zijn daarna in Nederland opgegroeid. Dan is er zo een….ik weet niet of je begrijpt,
maar een barrière. Moeilijkheid is dat ze elkaar niet meer kunnen begrijpen. Op een
gegeven moment he, daar kan jij nog op letten bij zowel Abdullah als Abderrahman
dat hij de taal blijft begrijpen en dat hij met jou blijft praten, maar er zijn ook families
waarin de kinderen heel goed Nederlands praten en niet zo heel Somalisch en dat de
ouders en de kinderen elkaar niet kunnen begrijpen
Als de ouder minder Somalisch spreekt met de kinderen en het kan niet goed die taal
spreken, dan verliezen ze die taal. Mijn kinderen blijven leren. Als zij naar buiten
gaan: heel veel Nederlandse woorden, Nederlandse taal, op school ook. Maar hier
moeten wij als Somalische ouders aan hen de taal geven
Dat is mooi als je dat zo zegt! De cultuur is iets anders dan de taal. Het zit wel bij
elkaar, het is belangrijk, het ene beinvloedt het andere…jij en jou vrouw, natuurlijk:
jullie kennen de Somalische cultuur, hoe je met elkaar omgaat, het eten, de kleding.
Noem alles maar, jullie kennen het helemaal Dat is niet zo verrassend. Want wat jou
vrouw niet weet omdat ze in Nederland is opgegroeid leer jij haar weer neem ik aan?
Ja
Dus zij leert ook nog van jou. De kinderen he, die zijn nog klein. Het is moeilijk om
daarover te praten maar leren jullie ze ook al dingetjes van Somalische cultuur?
Onze cultuur zit samen ons geloof….kun je dat zeggen?
Hmmm, onze religie ja, onze Dien…..
Als je ze geloof wilt geven, komt ook cultuur bij
Dus als jij kinderen geloof, dus Imaan wil geven, dan moet je ze ook cultuur geven?
Natuurlijk zitten er ook dingen in de cultuur die niet goed zijn [denkt lang na]
Weet jij er ook eentje, die niet goed is?
81
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
Bijvoorbeeld……ik kan niet uit mijn hoofd in Nederlands…ze praten nog niet over
Kabyl
Geweld?
Kabyl….kabyl
Ooh, stam…..ik ken het woord wel: clan
Als een dochter van mij, achttien jaar of negentien jaar zij is en er komt iemand om te
trouwen, dan kijken wij: wie is hij?
Ze kijken goed?
Hoed [verstaat niet wat interviewer zegt]
Goed
Goed. Maar ik bedoel van welke tribe. In grote clan of een kleine
INT
Bijvoorbeeld de, moet je niet lachen om de uitspraak hoor: Hawiye, dat is een clan
toch
NOU
Ja! Ja! Hij kent die clan! [zegt dit tegen een ander die bij het gesprek zit] Hawiye en
Darod zijn grote clans ja, maar zijn ook kleine cans die je niet eeh…..kleine clan,
maakt eigenlijk niet uit: als iemand Muslims is, hij is gelijk
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
Een hele grote boodschap van Islaam. Maakt eigenlijk niet uit: als iemand komt, dan
moet hij een eerlijke kans krijgen om de dochter te krijgen
Kinderen weten niet van die clans, dat is een slecht ding
Kinderen praten nog niet van “Mijn papa, mama en ik zijn van die clan”, ze spelen
gewoon met kindjes van andere clan, dat doen ze nog
Ik leer ze van Somalische cultuur om klap op de deur te geven….kloppen?
Kloppen. Ja, dat leren ze al: dat je moet kloppen?
Ja dat is ook ons geloof he, zit ook in jullie cultuur he?
Ja, laten weten dat je komt
82
NOU
In de Islaam zit dat en hij weet al. Als hij komt, hij klopt om te vragen hij mag binnen
INT
Abderrahman hoeft nog niet te kloppen [lacht] die zit nog in zijn box, die kruiupt
straks rond. Maar…..we hebben hier SOMVAO, daar zitten we nu, ben je lid of zit je
in het bestuur?
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
Ik zit niet in bestuur, ik ben lid. Ik werk hier ook
Om activiteiten te organiseren?
Nee, als…..boekhouder
Ooh Masha Allah, dat is jouw vak?
Nee, mijn specialiteit, niet mijn vak. Ik ben ICT’er maar ik heb hier nog niet gewerkt
Je bent gelukkig in afgestudeerd. Ik werk ook in de ICT, ik was geen ICT’er maar nu
ineens wel, beetje vreemd maar kan gebeuren. Maar goped, jij bent boekhouder, dus
jij kijkt: is er geld voor een activiteit
Ja!
Welke activiteiten wil jij dat SOMVAO doet, welke vind jij belangrijk?
Dat wij kunnen de kinderen, of de jongeren activiteiten organiseren, dat vind ik
belangrijk. Bijvoorbeeld discussie….over geloof en cultuur
Somalische cultuur
Ook over hoe je omgaat met andere mensen
Discussies maken dus, dat kan hier ook, dat is belangrijk zeg je: praten dat je één
groep maakt? Wan ik had het gevoel dat het was in Somalië: “Kabyl”, “kabyl”, “kabyl”
maar hier moet je één groep zijn om te overleven. Ik doe deze scriptie eigenlijk ook
daarom. Taal is belangrijk en als we straks niet oppassen spreken de kinderen geen
Somalisch meer, ik bedoel onze Muslimkinderen
Wat ik gehoord heb he, er was een kamp in de Ardennen, weet jij van?
Huh? [weet niet wat interviewer bedoeld]
Dat kamp in België, de Ardennen…..Guled vertelde dat. Was jij daar ook?
Ja, ik was daar
83
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
NOU
INT
Wat hebben jullie daar gedaan voor Somalische cultuur?
We hebben daar Masheich gebracht. Er waren zes, iedere Sheich gaf een andere
vak, cursus. Een geeft bijvoorbeeld Sirah, ken je dat: Sirah?
Ja, het leven van de Profeet SAW
Ook Fiq, weet je wat dat is?
Recht, ik zat te denken aan Somalische cultuur maar dit is Islamitisch: hoe je bidt,
hoe je Woedoe doet
Naast de lessen krijgen ze ook sportactiviteiten, voetbal. Het is belangrijk om te
zorgen dat jongeren altijd samen zijn. Niet in die kabyl, er moet één kabyl zijn en een
goed beeld over de Islaam. Dat zij ook zien die Masheich, hoe hoog die zijn. Hoe ze
geleerd hebben, hoe ze een voorbeeld zijn voor de jongeren
Dat ze zeggen; “Ik wil graag net zo zijn als Shech Yusuf of Sheich……
Ja!
Dank je wel! Ik moet helaas stoppen want het is tijd voor Salaah
84
Interview IV: Group session – Hassan I, Hassan II, Nasser, Abderrahman & Abu Zakariya
Interlocutor
INT
HAS I
Utterance
Nou, ik hoop dat we het allemaal goed kunnen horen, dat zullen we allemaal nog wel
merken. Allereerst zou ik willen beginnen met een soort van voorstelronde: dat je
zegt wie je bent, hoe oud je bent en ook vooral of je getrouwd bent en hoeveel
kinderen je dan hebt, dan begin ik met eeh Hassan eigenlijk
Eeh ik ben Hassan, ik ben 28 jaar, ik heb nog geen kinderen, ik ben wel getrouwd
INT
Wel getrouwd
NAS
Ik ben Nasser, ik ben 42 jaar en ik heb vijf kinderen, vijf dochters
INT
Abu Zakariya, I am going to do it in English, okay?
ABU
My name is Abu Zakariya, I got three kids, three boys and I am married
INT
Just for the interview, you used to live in Holland right?
ABU
Yeah, I used to live in Tilburg
INT
He knows a little bit about the Dutch context as well
ABR
Ik ben Abderrahman, ik ben 53 jaar. Ik ben getrouwd en ik heb zeven kinderen
INT
Ooh Masha Allah da’s een mooi leven zo!
HAS II
INT
Ik ben Hassan, ik ben 38 jaar oud, ik ben getrouwd en ik heb nog geen kinderen
Nou, dan gaan we beginnen met het eerste deeltje zeg maar. Dat is de Somalische
taal zoals jullie hem spreken. Jullie zijn zeg maar zo oud, dat ik eigenlijk kan zeggen
dat jullie allemaal in Somalie geboren zijn, er is geen enkel van jullie die in Nederland
geboren is……ook eeh….You understand it right? [vraag aan Abu Zakariya]
ABU
Yeah, I used to live here before you know [lachend]
INT
That’s what I know of course. Dus jullie Somalische taal is, is, is, goed
85
INT
HAS I
INT
NAS
Ik kan zelf niet controleren of het heel goed is, ik spreek het zelf natuurlijk niet: maar
het is gewoon goed
Ja
Het leuke is om over de kinderen te praten, da’s het meest informatieve. Degenen
die kinderen hebben, bijvoorbeeld Nasser, die kan daar heel veel over vertellen
natuurlijk. Jouw dochters, spreken die goed Somalisch of kan je al merken dat dat
toch minder aan het worden is. Minder is dan dat jullie het kunnen?
Ik moet vertellen, ze hebben verschillende moeders. De twee oudste die spreken het
redelijk goed maar die….die komen niet hier. Die wonen ergens anders. Die wonen
niet in Nederland. Ze spreken het Somalisch redelijk goed en daarnaast diverse
andere talen. De jongste drie spreken bijna geen Somalisch, eentje kan het goed
begrijpen
INT
Het verstaan, het begrijpen werkt nog wel bij de jongsten. Bij de oudsten, het
spreken is daar ook best goed ontwikkeld.
NAS
Ja, ja, ja. Al kun je wel merken dat het niet hun eerste taal is
INT
Misschien is dit een privé-vraag maar als je niet wil antwoorden dan hoeft het niet:
eehm….moeders he, want ik heb altijd gehoord dat die heel belangrijk zijn om
kinderen taal te leren. De moeder is altijd bij de kinderen en als ze goed Nederlands
spreekt dan kan het kind het ook goed leren en als de moeder goed Arabisch
spreekt, dan leert het kind ook goed Arabisch meestal. Dan jouw vrouwen ook
verschillende moeite om ze Somalisch te leren?
NAS
Ik heb iedere keer maar één vrouw gehad, ik zou er geen vier aankunnen [lacht]
INT
Het zou natuurlijk kunnen weet je. Heel goed om te horen op de band he, Nederlands
houden daarvan, dat je één vrouw hebt
NAS
Mijn oudste [laatste?] vrouw spreekt ook geen Somalisch, dus mijn dochters kunnen
alleen maar van mij leren
INT
Dus het komt echt helemaal van jou uit zeg maar?
NAS
Ja
INT
En bij Abderrahman? Is dat bij jou ook zo, want jij hebt ook veel kinderen natuurlijk
ABR
[spreekt Somalisch, Hassan I vertaalt het in de volgende beurt] English?
86
INT
Doe maar wat je kunt, English is okay? Somalisch is prima, oke
HAS I
[over ABR] Hij is met zes kinderen hier gekomen, één kind is hier geboren. Zijn twee
jongsten, dus ene die hier kwam toen die één jaar was en de ene die hier geboren is,
ze spreken wel Somalisch, ze verstaan het wel maar praten is half Nederland. Dus hij
vraagt iets in Somalisch en dan praten ze half Somalisch, half Nederlands. Die
andere vijf die spreken best wel goed Somalisch
ABR
[spreekt weer Somalisch]
HAS I
INT
HAS I
[over ABR] De moeder is uit Somalie, zij spreekt heel goed Somalisch. Ik moet wel
melden: hij is één van de beste Somalisch sprekers hier, hij spreekt gewoon heel
goed Somalisch. De jongere, de oudere kinderen spreken heel goed Somalisch, thuis
wordt ook alleen maar Somalisch gesproken. Maar daarbij is het voor die twee
jongsten heel moeilijk
Ze kunnen natuurlijk niet aanhaken
Het is heel moeilijk voor hen om het bij te houden. Op school wordt Nederlands
gesproken, zoveel Somalisch in dat huis en nog steeds is het voor hen een heel
moeilijke taal
INT
[tegen ABR] Ik denk dat je wel verstaat he, als ik Nederlands praat? Heb je idee hoe
dat komt? Want ze horen zoveel Somalisch eigenlijk, dat….dan zou je toch iets…dat
ze dat ook gaan pakken op een gegeven moment?
ABR
[spreekt Somalisch, Hassan I helpt]
HAS I
INT
HAS I
Hij zegt dat het eigenlijk niet zo moeilijk is. Kinderen gaan naar school en vooral de
jongsten die beginnen natuurlijk bij de crèche. Die beginnen om gewoon Nederlands
te leren in plaats van Somalisch. Op het moment dat ze thuis zijn, ze zitten een
beetje te eten of er is ook TV. Die tijd die hij voor hen….eeh eeh: er was gewoon heel
weinig tijd om ze te leren. Je gaat niet zitten om Somalisch te leren. Je praat gewoon
die taal……
De tijd nemen om ze die taal te leren gebeurt niet, dat is ook logisch. Ze worden al
moe van school en om ze doen nog apart van school Somalisch te leren is gewoon
ook moeilijk
Ja, ja, dat bedoelt ie
INT
Daar moeten ze ook echt heel veel motivatie voor hebben, dat is ook zo. Eehm eens
even kijken…….Abu Zakariya, could you tell us something more about the
level…..the profiency in Somali of your children?
ABU
Yeah, my youngest child is about eight months and the oldest is about three years
87
INT
Aah very young
ABU
Yeah
INT
He’s not talking
ABU
The youngest one cannot talk, but the oldest one he’s trying to learn some words. He
knows the word “me” and “I wanna go” and he says “I want to pray”……
INT
So the small sentences
ABU
He’s very smart though. When he sees his mum talking on the phone he says some
of the words
INT
He just repeats them
ABU
His mind if fresh, he picks up everything very quick
INT
So in the future he probably will be able to speak Somali…..
Yeah, my dad is a literate in Somali poetry and all that so maybe it’s in the family
ABU
INT
He must be quite a linguistic type
HAS I
His father is very famous for his Somali language, for his poetry, poëzie
INT
Yeah? What’s his name? Maybe we should look him up on the internet
ABU
Ahmad Farah, if you google him you ‘ll find him
INT
Really? Ja het zou kunnen
HAS I
His father, he lived in Tilburg
INT
Aah okay?
ABU
He lived at Westermarkt
INT
Ooh, just like me
88
HAS I
Kijk, hij [Abu Zakariya] is heel jong uit Somalië vertrokken, toen kwam hij hier
INT
Hoe oud was je toen?
ABU
negen jaar. Toen de burgeroorlog kwam, 1991
INT
Aah, toen de burgeroorlog kwam, kwam jij hier
HAS I
ABU
Ja, zijn vader is één van de beste schrijvers in Somalie he, en nou moet je weten: hij
[Abu Zakariya] spreekt niet zo geweldig Somalisch. Het niveau van zijn vader is veel
veel hoger
Ik heb zijn niveau niet. Als je vergelijkt mij met andere Somalische jongens, dan kun
je zeggen: ik wil niet mij hoog maken ofzo maar ik kan wel zeggen dat ik beter ben
INT
Dat mag je ook gewoon zeggen, ik bedoel: het zit hem gewoon in zijn achtergrond. If
your father was one of the most profound…..
ABU
In the country
If the situation is like that it’s only fair to say that you are probably better than the rest
INT
INT
So it’s like eehm, the children in general – beetje afwisselen tussen Engels en
Nederlands – We kunnen zeggen dat ze het goed kunnen verstaan, bevelen van
“kom hier”, “eten nu”, al dat soort dingetjes maar spreken dat dat bij de kinderen toch
wel achter blijft. Wat ik mezelf ook afvraag he, de kinderen onderling, dus als ze hier
spelen bij SOMVAO, wat, wat, welke taal gebruiken ze dan? Gewoon echt
Nederlands? Do they speak Somali when they play?
ABU
They cannot have a normal conversation ‘cause the other one would not answer
back. The other one is too small to answer back right?
INT
In your case it’s just like this but…..
NAS
Dat is heel interessant, want de kinderen, bijvoorbeeld bij Abderrahman, zijn kinderen
die al wat ouder zijn met hun Somalische taal, dat de jongsten daar van zouden leren
INT
Ja
NAS
Maar wat ik weet van bij Abderrahman, in plaats van met de ouders communiceren
en met hen in het Somali praten, ze communiceren alleen samen, samen praten,
samen spelen. Ze sluiten zichzelf in de kamer op om samen te spelen en dan
89
hebben zij het gevoel dat zij daar beter kunnen communiceren dan…..
INT
Dan met hun ouders?
NAS
Dan met hun ouders of met broers of zussen die andere talen spreken
Dus dat is gewoon erg raar, dat de kinderen terug gaan trekken en…en…
INT
Dus eigenlijk….kan je dan zeggen dat er een probleem is? Een taalbarrière tussen
de ouders en de kinderen?
NAS
Abderahman heeft die goed verteld dat eeh,,,,,dat je geen tijd kan maken voor wat
het kind nodig heeft om met de ouders te communiceren. Kinderen zitten of op
school of de ouders zijn niet beschikbaar op dat moment. Kinderen zijn op elkaar
aangewezen. Ze hebben meer tijd met de leraren dan met hun ouders
Dat maakt dat zij het beste of het makkelijkste communicatiemiddel aan gaan grijpen
HAS I
De omgeving speelt een hele sterke rol: ze kijken TV, voor de ouders is het
gewoon…..de macht van de omgeving is gewoon groter, sterker, de school.
Ouders kunnen gewoon niet tegen opboksen zeg maar
NAS
De omgeving slokt als het ware
INT
De omgeving slokt als het ware de macht van ouders op om Somalisch te leren aan
hun kinderen? Dat kan je natuurlijk als groot probleem zien
HAS I
INT
HAS I
Kijk, ik heb laatst een boek gelezen, dat wil ik je zeker vertellen. Kinderen, als ze hun
taal heel goed spreken, dan kunnen ze hun andere talen heel goed leren
Ja, ja….dat helpt elkaar
Wat voor deze kinderen in de toekomst gewoon een belemmering gaat zijn, geen
enkele taal spreken ze goed. Maar ook: wat is ‘goed’? Naar mijn mening spreken ze
geen perfect Nederlands, geen goed Nederlands. Naar mijn mening. Dan kom je
gewoon in de problemen in de toekomst als jij academisch niveau bent.
In Nederland ga je werken. Kijk, ik spreek wel goed Nederlands, maar als ik echt iets
moet zeggen: dan is het af en toe voor mij ook zweten. Voor mij, Somalisch is geen
probleem………..
………..Als ik iets moet schrijven Somalisch is geen probleem. In Nederlands moet ik
er drie keer over nadenken……
INT
Nadenken voordat je schrijft?
Exact, en dat wordt voor deze kinderen exact hetzelfde. Maar zij hebben nog een
ander probleem. Ze spreken niet goed Somalisch zoals ik. Ze spreken geen één taal
90
HAS I
perfect en dan heb je volgens mij een probleem. Hoe goed je een taal spreekt, hoe
goed je andere taal kunt leren. Dat is ook theoretisch bewezen he?
INT
Ja, klopt klopt!
NAS
Als je dat ontwikkelt, ga je naar een beter niveau met alles. Het is net een lift, dan ga
je hoog boven eeh…….
INT
INT
HAS I
INT
HAS I
INT
HAS II
Hmm. Wat je daar zegt klopt, het is ook bewezen in de wetenschap. Maar ik hou
daar mijn mond over, jullie mogen lekker praten, des te meer ik praat des te minder
tijd is er voor jullie. Ik vind het jammer, maar ik zeg helemaal niet zoveel
Eehm even kijken, de cultuur is toch wel weer iets anders dan de taal he.
Het bestaat wel voor een deel uit taal maar het heeft ook te maken met hoe mensen
denken, de klederdracht, het eten, feestdagen, Somalische vlag zelfs. Dat is een
bekend symbool, Hoe beleven jullie de Somalische cultuur in Nederland, hoe doen
jullie daar nog iets aan? Om die levend te houden?
Vraag je mij?
Ja, iedereen. Ik kijk naar jou [lachend] ik kan wel helemaal zo gaan kijken [iedereen
tegelijk aankijken]
Vraag je mij persoonlijk dan heb ik veel mee gekregen, ik was tien toen ik hier kwam.
Wat wij zelf doen is die feestdagen, dat houden we gewoon, elke feestdag. Zoals je
weet zijn wij ook Moslim, dat is een deel van de cultuur voor ons. Als het Ramadan
is, gaan we Iftar hier doen. Dan gaan we het vasten verbreken zeg maar. Daarnaast
doen we nog heel veel dingen hier, we geven hier les, we geven les in Somalisch
aan de kleine kinderen. Dat is ook eigenlijk cultuur. Als we samen zijn dan doen we
toch wel veel. Die Somalische dingen hou je toch wel. Samen zijn……
Door de vereniging wordt ie wel behouden zeg maar. Vinden jullie dat ook belangrijk?
Abderrahman vind jij dat ook? Heb je het begrepen?
[voor ABR] Ik zal proberen…..we zijn niet gewend om contact te hebben met andere
mensen. We kunnen wel contact maken maar over de grenzen gaan. Hoe zeg je
dat? Somali’s zijn wel eens met andere mensen getrouwd, maar is toch moeilijk om
dat te maken. Voor Somalische mannen of vrouwen die met andere mensen trouwen
is toch moeilijk, dat wordt heel moeilijk.
ABU
Let me tell you: Somali’s are different people, they are open yeah. If a man is nice to
a girl yeah. Her parents can come at any time, we are the same for the Dutch
INT
Yeah, just pay them a visit you know
91
ABU
The mum of the girl can do anything to the house: clean, take money and the guy will
not say anything. The thing is, in the other cultures, you can’t do that. It’s hard right?
Over here with all the girls, there’s a competition. About the English in contact with
the Somali, it’s so hard, how can I say this?…….
INT
Cultuurverschil? Cultural clash?
ABU
Yeah
HAS I
Kijk, nou komen we verder. De Westerse gemeenschap is individueel: ieder voor
zich. De Somalische cultuur is gewoon….het…het “wij”-gevoel, het “wij”-gevoel is zeg
maar groter dan het ik gevoel. Dat heeft ook meer, als je terug gaat in Somalië. Dat
had met economische redenen te maken, met allerlei redenen te maken. Vroeger
ook als je kijkt: in Somalie had je als man drie kinderen en je vrouw maar het was
niet alleen die drie kinderen en de vrouw
Er was altijd een nichtje, neefje die bij hem opgroeide. Als je naar mij kijkt ook,
Iedereen was zo. Ik was nooit thuis, zonder iemand anders.
HAS I
Er was gewoon altijd iemand daar. Ik had altijd iemand. Er was een neefje of nichtje
van het platteland, wie dan ook, om daar te gaan studeren, Die blijft daar en gewoon
als broer of zusje groeit die op. Er is maar één kostwinnaar, alleen de man die daar
woont. Opa is daar ook, of oma: hij onderhoudt heel veel mensen
INT
HAS I
INT
HAS I
INT
Gewoon een grote familie eigenlijk
Een heel grote familie, soms wel veertig mensen
Veertig mensen? Aah…….
Die cultuur is zo, voor jou een beetje lastig om voor te stellen
Ja, ik probeer het wel maar in Nederland zou je dat niet kunnen…….
HAS I
Begrijp ik, begrijp ik ook. Als je kijkt bij Guled [Abu Zakariya heet eigenlijk Guled] dan
zie je nog veel meer mensen
ABU
Everybody came studying at university with is. Everybody did economics there,
everybody in my dad’s house. He had the money for it
INT
So it was a bit of a central point there. You can live there and finish……..
ABU
Yeah, that’s it
92
HAS I
INT
Gewoon omdat hij in de positie is dat hij mensen kan verzorgen. Hij heeft werk, een
eigen zaak, een huis heeft. Iedereen kan daar wonen
Maakt niet uit eigenlijk
In Nederland gebeurt dat nu ook nog? Zou…zou…zouden jullie dat nog willen doen?
INT
HAS I
Het zit er nog wel in, we willen, maar “mogelijk” is wat anders. Een huis heeft hier nu
eenmaal drie of vier kamers. Die kamers zijn gewoon voor twee kinderen. Het is ook
niet zo breed. Het is gewoon heel moeilijk om drie of vier kinderen bij je te houden.
Dat is niet mogelijk
INT
Dat kun je hier niet doen, dat kost gewoon ontzettend veel geld
ABU
In our country you can do just it, but in England and over here it’s impossible
INT
It’s unimaginable. In Holland, when you hit the age of eightteen, you get out. That
was the case with me. I turned eightteen years old and it was like “okay, you are
grown up, bye” That’s hard
HAS I
[HAS I legt het uit aan ABR uit]
HAS I
In Somalië, vroeger de mensen verhuisden van plek naar plek. Heel heel vrijheid. Als
iemand veel had en een ander weinig, dan gaf hij toen koeien voor een paar
maanden.
INT
HAS I
INT
HAS I
INT
HAS I
INT
Een soort van huren ofzo
Geen huren [lachend], lenen. Hij geeft hem drie maanden, die armere man melkt
hem en daarna geeft hij hem weer terug.
Hij wil niets voor terug?
Hij wil niets voor terug. Hij leent die tien koeien omdat hij dat kan
Een soort van “deel”-cultuur
Als iemand op het platteland woont en hij wil zijn kinderen op school laten gaan, dan
gaat hij naar het dorp naar een kennis, hij zegt “deze kind moet naar school”. Groeit
het kind daar op, gaat ie naar school, leert ie wat, zeg maar
Oke, dan komt het kind ook weer terug zodra die wat geleerd heeft?
93
HAS I
INT
HAS I
NAS
INT
NAS + HAS I
Hij brengt die jongen naar de stad om te laten studeren, om een toekomst te geven
Ik kan me voorstellen dat dat hier niet meer lukt, je kunt niet hier iemand even…stel
ik heb een kind en eeh even voor het voorbeeld: ik zou Somali zijn en ik geef een
kind aan jou omdat jij meer geld hebt en jij laat het studeren? Dat zou hier niet lukken
Als ik hier iemand zou zien die zijn kind weg geeft, zou ik zeggen “hij is gek”
Ik zou mij niet kunnen voorstellen dat ik mijn dochter bij iemand anders achter laat,
zo van “neem haar maar”. Maar moeilijke tijden hebben andere regels. Ik kan me
goed voorstellen dat vroeger gezinnen hun kinderen ergens gedumpt hebben met het
gevoel van “als ik hem hou kan hem iets overkomen”. En…en… en, dat is een
moeilijke omstandigheid en moeilijke omstandigheden hebben andere regels dan
normaal. Het leven in Somalie is niet zo makkelijk en niet zo. Dat is volgens mij
“hardship”, Dat is wat rechtvaardigt dat een vader of moeder achter laat. Misschien
komt hij of zij daar beter dan met mij
Het is gewoon meer liefde dan dan…..het is gewoon eigenlijk hele grote liefde
Absoluut Absoluut
INT
Het is gewoon grote liefde
NAS
Ik heb mijn kind afgestaan, gewoon omdat ik beter gun dan wat ik heb
INT
Dat is ultieme liefde, als jij…ze zeggen dan: “To love someone is to let someone go”
Dat kan zijn
ABU
Just right
HAS I
Het is gewoon een heel ander denkbeeld die wij hebben. Het leven van een ouder
met zijn kind, het is heel anders wat wij kennen, we beleven anders
INT
HAS I
HAS I
Bij jullie is dat beeld ook veranderd sinds juliie in Nederland zijn
Daarom zei ik net ook “hij is gek” als iemand zijn kind weg geeft. Wij waren met twee
jongens en één meisje. Toen ik daar was, ze waren gewoon mijn broertjes en zusjes.
Ik wist niet beter. Maar als ik achteraf kijk, dan zou ik niet eeh……
Maar in Somalie is moederliefde of vaderliefde gewoon anders. Als ie na vijf jaar
terug komt en hij ziet zijn kind, iets geleerd: dan is hij helemaal blij. Dan kan hij daar
tien jaar op verder. Dat ene moment is voor hem beter dan dat hij zich bij zich houdt
al die vier jaar
94
Liever een toekomst en hem dan weg moeten geven
NAS
Er is ook iets anders dat een rol speelt en dat is niet makkelijk maar dat is dat de
omgeving anders is dan hier……
HAS I
Absoluut!
NAS
INT
HAS II
INT
HAS I
Dat je weet dat het kind als ie in een bepaalde omgeving leeft, dat iedereen
verantwoordelijk is, mede-verantwoordelijk is voor dat kind. Het is daar niet zo van
“iedereen denkt aan zichzelf “. Somalie had een omgeving voor opvoeding, voor
correctie voor…….
Voor dat kind
Maakt niet uit wie iets tegen het kind zegt, als er iemand op straat loopt en dat ziet
het kind iets doen…..
Maakt niet uit wie het is.,……
Waar ik opgegroeid ben, komen al die buren daar, al die wijk kende mekaar.
Bijvoorbeeld: ik was Hassan Ouled Barre: Hassan, zoon van Barre en Khadija
Iedere keer als ik vier straten verderop wat uithaalde, dan wisten ze dat
De eerste oom die zag dat ik wat deed, sloeg me om mijn oren
[algemeen gelach]
INT
HAS I
Zo ging het gewoon
Ja, zo ging het gewoon. Iedereen corrigeert iedereen. En echt iedereen, jouw broer,
jouw oom. Mijn buurjongens in Somalie nog steeds, die ken ik nog steeds. Daar houd
ik contact mee. Die band is zo close. De buurt waar ik nu woon, vroeger woonde ik
zeven jaar in West [Tilburg West] Ik kende die buren niet eens. Ja volgens mij eentje
INT
Ja, heel apart is dat. In Nederland is dat gewoon niet. Je leert elkaar gewoon niet
kennen
ABU
That’s in all Western countries, those so-called “developed countries”……
INT
Yeah, development is nothing
HAS II
Waar Abdel Nasser en ik wonen, is ongeveer 800 km. Als ik daar ben, ik ga naast
zijn huis zitten. Hij zorgt automatisch voor waar ik moet slapen, waar ik moet eten
Dat is wat ik mis hier: dat het kind van alle kanten gecorrigeerd wordt, wordt
95
NAS
HAS I
INT
aangesproken. Bij ons, taalkundig ook, is iedereen je ‘tante’ of je ‘oom’ en je spreekt
ze ook zo aan, als tante of oom. Taalkundig ook, iedereen die je tegen komt,
afhankelijk van leeftijd: ik zeg of “broer”, “zus”, “tante”, “oom”of “opa” of “oma”
Gewoon als een man vijf straten verder woont, hij is oud, dan is hij jouw oom: Ader
[=oom]. Je noemt niet bij de naam
Je geeft hem koosnaampje, lief naampje
HAS I
En de vrouw van vier straten verderop, is gewoon Haweya [=tante] He noemt haar
niet “Fatima” of wie dan ook
HAS II
Het is heel onbeleefd als je haar naam roept
INT
Dan schrikt ze daarvan
HAS I + HAS II Ja
HAS I
INT
ABU
INT
HAS I
INT
HAS I
INT
Familie is zo belangrijk voor ons…….
Dat merk ik nu wel, dat is eigenlijk niet iets waar ik naar vraag maar ik ben heel blij
dat dat nu naar boven komt want dat is denk ik wel iets wat jullie graag zouden willen
dat dat kan in Nederland, maar dat lukt gewoon niet meer
It’s no big deal you know. When you go back to Somalia, and this is irrelevant but I
have to say this. This Western people, they are ignorant. This so-called “civilised”
people miss a loving environment. I still keep contact with my teachers. Mothers keep
always in touch with their children. If my son was thirty six years old, I would still be
close with him. These mothers we are talking about, she knows that this is a solution
And if it’s possible, than have them with you until they get married
That’s so hard to imagine for Dutch people you know, having your kids at home until
they get married
Kijk, wat ik in het begin ook heel schokkend vond, hoe de oude mensen hier zijn. In
Somalie ga je respectvol met ze om. Bijvoorbeeld mijn oma, die woonde met mij en
mijn moeder, haar broer voor drie jaar. Toen begon mijn tante te zeiken van: “Ja, bij
ons komen…..”
Wij willen haar ook hebben
Daarna ging ze bij hun heen. Ze heeft daar een paar jaar gewoond. Zo ging het, ze
heeft gewoond…..
Rouleren
96
HAS I
Rouleren ja, bijvoorbeeld iemand naast ons: heel de familie was bij hen, ook opa.
Een koning was hij gewoon. Hij kon alles doen. Hij ziet de kind, de kleinkinderen en
nog meer kleinkinderen [achterkleinkinderen?]
INT
Perfect like that
ABU
He can see his grandchildren
HAS I
Zijn dochter woonde naast hem, die was getrouwd, oom woont ernaast. Nu gaat hij
hierheen, volgende keer daaro. Het is gewoon zijn eigen…….
INT
His small world
ABU
Yeah, absolutely his small world
INT
Ik bedoel: wat voor mij heel veel pijn doet, mijn oma zit daar en ik vind dat heel
vervelend. Maar ja, ik kan niks doen. Dat gebeurde, ik was student en ik kon haar
niet nemen……
HAS I
Ja, maar kijk: voor jou is dat veel te moeilijk
ABU
Difficult situation you know
INT
Of course
HAS I
De situatie is gewoon heel moeilijk en mijn oma, om hem nu bij mij te hebben is heel
moeilijk, Ik ga elke ochtend om vier uur weg. Ik moet altijd weg, snap je?
Het zou zo moeilijk zijn, om nog eens een keertje mijn oma te….te verzorgen
Het systeem, maakt het voor ons heel moeilijk om dat te doen allemaal
NAS
Precies!
HAS I
Het draait allemaal om geld, dat is hoe het systeem hier in elkaar zit. Het maakt het
moeilijk om bij mensen erbij te blijven
NAS
Niemand hier is slecht om zijn papa of mama zomaar ergens te dumpen, het is
gewoon de sociale inrichting die zo is
INT
Geen mogelijkheid
ABU
The system is made like this
97
INT
HAS I
INT
HAS I
INT
INT
HAS II
Als je het over mij bijvoorbeeld hebt, ik ben net begonnen met werken, eerste
baan…….
Oke
Tilburg woon ik, Schiphol werk ik……..
Dat bedoel ik!
Veel reizen, anderhalf uur heen, anderhalf uur terug. Drie uur per dag reizen, Vijf uur
’s ochtend sta ik op om te gaan. Insha Allah kom ik terug half negen, waar is in gods
naam nog tijd? Ik mis het gewoon!
Ik wil wel meer doen maar het kan gewoon niet. Ik zeg altijd: “ik zie mijn collega’s
meer dan mijn familie” Heel stom maar het is gewoon zo
Abderrahman ook, als hij gaat werken staat hij vroeg op en komt hij acht uur ’s
avonds thuis en liggen de kinderen al te slapen
INT
Maar het mooie is, en dat sluit weer heel mooi aan op het derde punt dat we eigenlijk
hadden. We hadden het over verenigingsleven, je hebt SOMVAO natuurlijk. Alles dat
we nu zeggen van “Dat willen we doen om de Somalische cultuur in stand te houden”
Buiten kan dat niet, maar hier kan je dat wel. Hier heb je dat stukje Somalië nog. Hier
kan je dat nog bouwen, ook al kan je dat in Nederland niet. Nederland is moeilijk, ik
bedoel: Nederlandse basisschool, kinderen ja…….we kunnen het onszelf niet
voorstellen hoor in Nederland, ik zou dat ook wel willen dat ik iedereen “oom” en
“tante” kon noemen, maar sommige mensen zijn gewoon ontzettend gemeen, die wil
je niet als tante hebben. Die hele verantwoordelijkheid is er gewoon niet
ABU
You don’t want them….
INT
Bedoel ik: they are still mean and cruel
INT
Kijk eeh….I’ll continue in English: what does SOMVAO do to improve the sense of a
Somali culture. Wat doet SOMVAO om die Somalische cultuur te houden
Mijn mening, dat zijn meestal de kleine dingen. Kijk, zoals je weet is SOMVAO een
kwartiertje lopen van Centraal [Amsterdam CS] Toen ik nog niet de voorzitter was en
niet in het bestuur zat, merkte ik ook al dat van iedereen was.
Ik ben de voorzitter nu, ik ben hetzelfde als iedereen. Zo ziet iedereen mij ook.
Dit is voor iedereen, dit is voor ons samen. Dat is ook Somalische cultuur, dat dat
eeh
98
INT
You understood it right?
ABU
Yeah, but I am so tired [Abu Zakariya was op dit tijdstip net uit Birmingham
aangekomen om zijn vrienden te bezoeken, had niet geslapen]
One problem though, Guled is working, don’t know Amsterdam well
INT
Yeah, that’s still the culture. He’s alone but he is not used to being alone. That’s a
cultural phenomenon. When you are alone, you cannot even shape your life
ABU
You got to find everything out yourself. It’s so hard, struggle
INT
Yeah struggle, so even when I am talking to you know, it’s like eehm I always used to
think that there’s was this problem and no one wanted to maintain Somali culture
anymore, the whole story, my whole perspective has changed really. 'cause no I see
that everybody wants to keep but it’s incredibly hard under the pressure of the Dutch
people and the society, the system and….so it’s like: that’s the key point
HAS I
INT
HAS I
INT
HAS I
ABU
That’s the key point
Thats the key point: everybody wants to keep it and in here it’s the place to keep it
but outside the SOMVAO walls……..
That’s the system
And what could you think, could could strengthen SOMVAO to….what can they
do….even in het Nederlands nu….om het sterker te maken? Dus dat je zegt van:
SOMVAO heeft nu een klein bereik, wat zou er nodig zijn om dat groot te maken?
Wat heel interessant is in het laatste jaar, is ons ontwikkelingsproject wat ten goede
komt aan de Somalische gemeenschap in Amsterdam en omgeving.
We zoeken financiering om dat groot te maken. Wat we de laatste tijd ook doen,
psychische zorg…..mensen die ziek zijn, die in de cel zitten, geisoleerd zijn.
De gemeente Amsterdam heeft er op een of andere manier erachter gekomen dat
het heel veel geld kost om zieken te genezen, ze willen graag voorkomen
Wij bij SOMVAO bezoeken Somalische mensen die ziek zijn en we kijken wat ze
nodig hebben om voor te zijn dat ze psychische problemen ondervindt.
Dat waardeert de gemeente Amsterdam en daarvoor hebben ze waarderingssubsidie
gegeven. Die richting willen ze heen, ze willen eigenlijk.
Mensen die tijd hebben om vrijwillig andere mensen te bezoeken, kijken waar ze mee
zitten om toch een gesprek te krijgen. Ook oude mensen. Als je bijvoorbeeld jouw
vader of jouw moeder bij je wil hebben dan wordt ook, in plaats van dat je naar
een….bejaardenhuis stuurt, kan je ook beter bij jou hebben
You see that the Muslims, the Turks, Moroccans and Somali’s do the same thing as
the Dutch now, Their fathers, mothers and elderly people, they put them away…..
99
INT
It’s like they don’t have a choice
ABU
It’s not only the Dutch now…….
[algemeen geroezemoes]
ABU
I left 2004 and it has only gotten worse
INT
No, it hasn’t improved. More or less the key point I guess, Amsterdam is giving funds
to SOMVAO
NAS
Wat ook speelt, we zijn met een kleine groep. Somali’s zouden meer moeten
verenigen. Niet alleen Amsterdam, maar in heel Nederland. Gebeurt te weinig
INT
Ik ken Samatalis in Groningen. Volgens mij doen die precies hetzelfde alleen kleiner
allemaal
NAS
Maar we voelen nu een soort bedreiging en dat gevoel van bedreiging brengt je bij
elkaar en dat besef: “Hey, als we nu niet hard proberen om dan zal er misschien….”
Somalische gemeenschap is nu bezig om allerlei evenementen te organiseren. Over
cultuur, er worden allerlei activiteiten georganiseerd. Onder andere Somalische taal
les geven en dat soort activiteiten. Zaterdag, zondag, kinderen culturele les
geven……nu die bedreiging er is proberen we allerlei dingen te ontwikkelen om dat
vast te nemen
INT
Dat is ook wat Abdi doet toch, die culturele lessen op zaterdag?
NAS
Ja
INT
Die zorgt zeg maar iedere zaterdag dat die de cultuur gaat…..cultural awareness zeg
maar
Even terugkomen op het punt over hoe we SOMVAO sterker kunnen laten worden.
Initiatieven om gezond te houden, sterk te worden moeten uit de Somalische
gemeenschap komen. De wil moet uit de gemeenschap komen, de gemeenschap
moet iets opzetten
INT
Mooi punt om mee af te sluiten: d’r moet geofferd worden en eigenlijk is de cultuur
bedreigd van buitenaf. Iedereen wil hem houden, de ouderen eigenlijk voorop. Jullie
gaan voorop, de kinderen gaan dat gevoel ook krijgen als ze ouder worden. Dat ze
denken: “Hey, waar zijn we mee bezig, we moeten dit vast houden” Vernederlanden
100
tot op een bepaalde hoogte is goed, maar niet tot in je kern. You don’t want to lose
your identity, give it up
HAS I
Gevaarlijk punt het laatste jaar: dat je hardop zegt dat je je eigen identiteit wilt
houden. Nog een punt: “wanneer ben je geintegreerd?
INT
Dat is iets van Geert Wilders, you know Geert Wilders, the blonde guy?
ABU
Yeah, he makes it blonde, with peroxide. The point is: he’s fighting for his dawaah
[verkondiging van mening] and we are fighting for our dawaah
He uses the masses, he makes them believe other cultures are a threat. He works for
his own goal. Uses the people, their fear.
Yeah, but the maint point is that a very small part of the people agree with him. There
are some people agreeing with him but let’s marginalize them because that’s not the
true Dutch spirit. Holland is what they call “tolerantie-land”
ABU
I want to give an example: Moroccan girl and a Dutch girl were outside, on a field.
The Dutch girl was praying and the Moroccan girl was watching over her.
Moroccan girl was just looking at her: Dutch Muslims, you can see
[het interview kwam aan een eind om 21.00 uur, hoogste tijd om het pand af te
sluiten ivm brand alarm]
101
8.
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102
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Websites
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http://www.swan.ac.uk/cds/rd/images/Scan230001.jpg
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