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Interview with the Aden Amin Awil Family

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Interview with the Aden Amin Awil Family Aden Amin Awil Family Narrators Mary Murphy-Gnatz and Nora Murphy Interviewer August 14, 1998 Aden Amin Awil - AAA Safia Abdullahi - SA Mohamed Amin - MoA Ahmed Amin - AA Mahamoud Amin - MaA Project Mona Amin - MA Filsan Amin - FA Amin Amin - AmA Mary Murphy-Gnatz - MM Nora Murphy - NM History Society MM: The Minnesota Historical Society is honoredOral to interview Aden Amin Awil and his family, including his wife Mrs. Safia Abdullahi, and his son Mohamet Amin, in Minneapolis, and his son Mahamoud Amin. It is Friday, August 14, 1998. The information Mr. Awil’s family will provide in this interview will be used to write a short biography about Mahamoud and Mohamet and the family’s journey from Somalia to Minnesota, for an educational curriculum for fourth graders on the history of Africans andPlaces African-AmericansHistorical in Minnesota. Mr. Awil and his family arrived in Minnesota at the end of 1996. We are pleased that they are willing to share the story of their historic journey with the Minnesota Historical Society for the benefit of students in Minnesota. The first questions are for Mr. Awil and Mrs. Abdullahi. What were your impressions of Minnesota when Gatheringyou arrived here at the end of 1996? Minnesota AAA: Minnesota is, as you know, a state in the North. At the beginning, my plan was to go to the South whereOur it’s warmer, but I changed my mind. Some of my friends were here and I came here with the help of God. When I came here, to Minneapolis. It’s a great city. It’s economically and historically a well-known city. My first impressions were really that we, me and my six kids and my wife, were welcomed by the community and my friends here, and we were fairly comfortable. We got most of the things we wanted. The first was security. Again, we were supported and had a house, and could feed the kids and, then, the kids had a chance to go to school. Now, being here was very helpful to us. We could stay here and build a new future and I think my wife will add whatever her first impressions were. [speaks in Somali to his wife] 1 SA: [speaks in Somali] It was very difficult at the beginning. AAA: She says, “At the beginning, it was difficult to get visas and air tickets to come over here.” My first impression was that it was difficult for her because of the environment. MM: Do you mean the weather? AAA: The weather was, of course, one factor, but it was not a crucial one. In Somalia ladies could move about, could buy things in shops, talk to people who speak the same language, would know about places, but the contacts, the language, and the life that she got used to was not here. She has much more to do than me as a mother. Dad can run around to earn. I think the first impact falls on the mother, because she has to find and cook what the kids can eat, dress them well for school and keep them clean and safe in a new environment. Project MM: Was it easy or difficult to register your children for school? AAA: It was easy. In fact, we registered them for school at the homeless shelter. We were in the shelter for one month. It was in October 1996. We did most of the things that we could get done in the shelter. The shelter people helped us. We did not moveHistory about a lot to do school registration, health screening and immunization. Society MM: Is this your first home here? Oral AAA: This was my first—I’m still here. SA: [speaks in Somali] PlacesHistorical AAA: We had our minor problems. It’s very expensive to start with, $800 a month for this place. It’s almost half of what I earn, but I cannot take my kids to another place. They have the space. I want to keep them healthy, but we hope to move out of here to a new house in the neighborhood. SA: Seven hundred and fifty. Gathering AAA: Plus electricity bill.Minnesota [speaks in Somali] MM: WouldOur you give us a little background on your family in Somalia before the war? AAA: Before the war, I had four kids to start with. In Somalia, we were doing fine. I was in government service for almost twenty-seven years. I was a technocrat, not a politician. I never liked politics. When things fell to pieces, I was the in ministry of finance as a director general in the budget section of the ministry of finance. Before that, I was the chairman of a cement plant in Berbera and before that, I was a chairman of a meat canning plant. I was in industrial management most of the time. But, in the last eight months, I was transferred to the ministry of finance to work as a budget man. We were doing fine. We had houses. I was [unclear] some real 2 estate at the same time. I used to buy land and [unclear] houses. [speaks in Somali] We owned houses, cars, whatever people have around there. I never used to bother about that. What I had was a little bit of schooling. I wanted to send them abroad to go to school. MM: Where did you live in Somalia? AAA: Mogadishu. MM: Right in the city? SA: The city, yes. AAA: We lived in Mogadishu. I came back from England in August 1963 after five years of schooling. I studied for a special degree in social sciences, majoring in Economics.Project When I graduated, I came back to the north, to the former British Somaliland. I had to go to Mogadishu to get a job. From 1963 to 1991, I was working in Mogadishu. But this cement project that I was in charge of, which was, of course, built by some French people was a sort of tank thing. They were running the show. I was only keeping them safe from those other people. It was in the north, in the north, when I say, near Arabia—the Gulf of Aden. MogadishuHistory is on the Indian Ocean, but I worked in other regions in the Republic in the north at Berbera PortSociety cement plant and the South at Kismayo meat canning plant. I used to travel a lot in Somalia. Oral MM: How did you travel? AAA: By air or sometimes by road. MM: By car? PlacesHistorical AAA: Land rover. MM: Land rover. AAA: We slept oneGathering night in a hotel, we’d go about 2000 kilometers. One night I would spend on the road. When there was noMinnesota plane I used to go by road. [His wife speaks to him in Somali and he answers.] But it was a good road, she says. Our MM: Did you ever go by sea? AAA: By sea, no. It’s a long route! MM: [Laughter] A long route. AAA: Ships carrying heavy [fuel] oil (Magut) for my cement plant Mogadishu to Berbera where the cement plant was built. It was a long journey round Cape Guardafui in the Horn of Africa. 3 MM: How long did that take by sea? AAA: By sea, almost one and a half day from Mogadishu Refinery to Berbera fuel storage depot. MM: Tell us about your house. What was your house like in Mogadishu? AAA: I had two families, elder wife in Mogadishu and the younger wife in the North in Hargeisa, ex-British Somaliland capitol. Hargeisa was the capitol in the north and Mogadishu was ex-Italian/Somaliland capitol. My elder wife died—God bless her—in 1993 in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. MM: Oh, I’m sorry. Project AAA: She had a daughter and who is now in Holland. My present family was living in the north of Somalia for some time and, then, they joined my other family in Mogadishu. My two families were living in two Villas in different areas in Mogadishu City. I owned some other property in the city. It was not like this. History MM: Much more room? Society AAA: The houses were well furnished, but sometimesOral there was shortage of electricity and water. But, life was easy. I could read. I could relax. I could sometimes go swimming on the beach. MM: You were close to the beach? PlacesHistorical AAA: Yes, close to the beach and near the airport. It was a good residential area. MM: Do you have any photographs of your home in Mogadishu? AAA: We left a lot of things behind. I doubt if we took any photographs of our properties. I did manage to run awayGathering with my legal ownership of properties. Minnesota MM: Someday, we’d like to see some of your photographs if you would share them with us. Our AAA: If we have the chance. We just stored them somewhere. These things don’t matter now. Now, we’ll have to start a new life in the United States of America. MM: Start over. AAA: I’m not a young man and it’s not easy to start a new life. It is an uphill task. I was surprised. I got the transcript of my degree [from when I graduated] thirty-five years ago. I sent a handwritten note from here to my university. 4 MM: In London? AAA: No, in Leicester. It is in the east Midlands. I read social sciences and I majored in economics. They sent me the transcript and I was most grateful to them.
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