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Transcript of Oral History Interview with Osman Ahmed

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Transcript of Oral History Interview with Osman Ahmed Osman Ahmed Narrator Ibrahim Hirsi Interviewer June 18, 2016 Minneapolis, Minnesota Osman Ahmed -OA Ibrahim Hirsi -IH IH: This is Ibrahim Hirsi recording for the Minnesota Historical Society Somali Oral History Project. I’m interviewing Osman Ahmed in Minneapolis. Today is Saturday, June 18, 2016. Osman, thank you very much for joining me and sharing your story with me. OA: Thank you, Ibrahim. Thanks for having me. IH: Tell me about your childhood years. Where were you born, when was it, and how was life at the time? OA: I was born in Somalia, south-central, a small city in Somalia. I was the second youngest of my family. I have older siblings, eight of them. Actually, I am the eighth, so seven of them. IH: So you’re from a family of eight people? OA: Yeah, a family of eight. So, one younger and six older and me. IH: Is that too big for Somalis, or that is just normal? OA: I would say that’s average. I think seven is an average family size for Somalis. I was younger. I was born in 1987. I don’t remember really that much about Somalia, but I remember later our family came to Kenya when I was probably six years old. IH: Is that after the civil war? OA: Yes, after the civil war. So I don’t really remember much about the civil war. I remember moving around and going to different cities, visiting my grandma who lives in Caabudwaaq, which is also, I think, in south-central Somalia. A small city, which the civil war did not impact that much. It was away from the capital. IH: Okay. The civil war impacted more in Mogadishu than other places. 1 OA: Yes. I think that, before, there were some wars up north, too, but I don’t remember the north wars. So at my time, I think the damage was more in Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia. I remember moving around. Always I say I did not finish the Quran, because every time I was going to new Islamic studies when I was young. I think I started as five, but moving around didn’t allow me to even go to school or finish the Quranic studies, Islamic studies. IH: And that’s, I think, for every Somali family, especially for younger kids, before they are sent to school, they first have to go to what we call madrassa [Islamic school]. OA: Or dugsi [Quran school], yep. IH: Or dugsi, to learn the Quran. When they complete it, then they go to schools. OA: Yes. That’s where a lot of that generation that was born at the same time probably would not finish. Some of us did, but most of us did not because of that life impact of moving from different places. Every few months, a new place. So you just have to start over again. IH: What did your mom and dad do for a living at that time? OA: My dad had a business. He used to work for the government. I don’t remember exactly his title, but he was working. He had a really good-paying job. My mom was just taking care of the kids and staying at home. My father at the time, he was also a little older, so he almost retired, and then he had his own business. I remember we were doing well. We were just actually living good until that thing happened and we were just running around—which in a good way I don’t remember, because I don’t remember exactly seeing all the horrific things that happened. IH: Right. Also, how about the fun part of childhood? Do you remember anything? An eight or a four-year-old child in Minneapolis right now, what they do for fun is a little bit different than what we did back home. What do you remember about that? OA: I remember, I always loved shopping. I actually was the kid—I used to be called the clean kid. So even like three years old, actually, I used to polish my shoes. [chuckles] And also, of course, I used to look forward to the Eid, the celebration of Eid. IH: Eid al-Fitr is the end of Ramadan. OA: Yeah, the end of Ramadan. IH: The holy month of Muslims. Also the other one is Eid al-Adha, for those who don’t know. That’s the end of hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. OA: Yep. I used to look for those days. We used to play “rush”. Rush is this game of the kids chasing each other with, basically, I think it was toy guns. Which now, when I grow up, actually doesn’t make sense. But it was fun. We just filled them with water and just chase around with each other. 2 IH: Shoot with water. OA: Yep. [chuckles] So that was really good. Also when we go to dugsi, we used to have fun with writing script with coal. Just making coal and make it dark. Writing the Quran with those. So the ink, basically, we make our own ink—I know unofficially you know—by mixing the coal with the milk. IH: And creating an ink out of that. OA: Yep. To write down the Quran. IH: And the Quran is mostly written on what we call loox [tablets], which is more like a board made out of wood or trees. OA: Yeah. They used to sell those. Somebody was just chopping up a tree, and made wood and made it flat, so that way it can be used to write the Quran. So those were fun times. Always playing outside. I remember coming from dugsi and coming outside and just doing our stuff and chasing around with other kids and playing soccer. I was not a big fan of soccer. I wasn’t scared, but… And also I was always clean, so I used to like nobody touching me. [chuckles] So if you play soccer, I’m pretty sure you know that you have to get a lot dirty. IH: You didn’t want that. OA: Yeah. Sometimes I did play, but that was not kind of my thing to do. I was not a fan of that. IH: Tell me about the environment and the neighborhood. How did it look? Give me a picture of what that place looked like. OA: We lived in a house. There were big houses with big gates that opened for two cars that can go through. There were small streets. Usually you can see the other person sitting in the next house or the one across from you. You can see somebody just sitting there, actually even talk to them. That’s how close it was at times. For those who do not probably know the Somalis—I just went last year to California, Anaheim, for vacation. Actually early this year. And actually that reminded me. The short houses. The houses have to be like… IH: There’s no tall buildings. OA: Yeah, no tall buildings at all. IH: They’re usually short. OA: Yep. They’re usually flat houses with at least five, six bedrooms or even sometimes eight. There is always a balcony and the old people used to come at the balcony and just sit there, just talk about things—family, politics, just talk about children and what is going. Those you’d see. I used to like when they’re having tea and they’re just chit-chatting in the evening. They called it casariya [evening tea]. 3 IH: Right, casariya. And that was usually around maybe four o’clock or five o’clock. OA: Yeah. It was around… IH: When people come back from school or work. OA: Yeah. When people come from work. As an estimate, I would say 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 p.m. IH: People used to have that tea and just talk. OA: Yeah. It was similar to happy hour here. IH: I was thinking about that actually. OA: [chuckles] Yeah. It was similar to happy hour here. IH: That’s interesting. And then the civil war took place, and then you left with your family to Kenya. OA: Yeah, we left with my family and we split. My mom didn’t actually make it to Kenya, so I lived with my siblings in Nairobi. Then we went back to the camps for a little bit, and then we came back to Nairobi. IH: The capital city of Kenya. OA: Yeah, the capital city of Kenya. Myself, I haven’t really lived a lot in the camps, Dadaab [Dhadhaab]. I haven’t experienced that. IH: Was it by yourself who came, or you came with the family? OA: Yep, to Kenya, I came with my two sisters and three brothers. And here, we all came all together here when we came. IH: So your mom kind of was left behind, stayed behind. OA: Yes. IH: Because she wanted to be there? OA: No, actually, it wasn’t by choice. I don’t remember exactly how we split. But I know she couldn’t come and she couldn’t make it, I guess. But as I grow up, I find out how the process is really long. Before we came here, I don’t think she was able to make it. IH: How about your dad? 4 OA: He came with us here, and then he lived here in Minnesota, and then moved to Seattle.
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