Hanin Elathram

Professor Douglas

uwRT

1101-090

4 November 2014

Somalian at the Expatriation

An ethnographic study of a Somalian Discourse Community in U.S. This study took

place in MAS mosque in Charlotte, North Carolina. Somalia is an African country that is located

in the eastern horn of the continent. The mosque is a place where Muslims practice and learn
about their religion. MAS mosque which stands for Muslim American Society mosque was being
used by different Muslim groups at the weekends as a school to leam Arabic language and to
learn how to understand and memorize Quran, the holy book for Muslims. The participants

this observation were about thirtySfemales and maleywhose roles

in

rung.A&npachers

to

students. My role was a participant observer; I used to work in this mosque as4olunteer on
q

Sundays to teach kids there Arabic language and how to read

euran.

The participants' nationalities ranged between Somalian, Bosnian, Palestinian, Jordanian,

Eritrean, but the majority were Somalian. The two connections that connected all of these
ethnicities were the religion and the expatriation. Each one of them had a different story, culture,

history, and in some cases language, but all of them were compiled in one place to learn about
their religion's fundamentals. Hoping it may lessen their nostalgia to the home's soil, they took
from the mosque a home or refuge for them to discover and leam about their original cultures by
interacting with peers from the same country or culture.

The age of the school was five years; it was opened by

Mr. Mohammed, a Somalian
teacher of Arabic and Quran who left his country after
immediately beginning the

He came

tWS in 1979 hoping

civil war there.

to have a refuge that might provide the safety and a better

life

'lt''r,

that he did not find in his kidnapped home.

During my observation time, Mr. Mohammed was the first person

who came to the
school at nine forty five at the morning on Sunday to open
the door for the kinds and greeting

their families' Because he was by himself, it was a huge responsibility

for him to take care

of

these kids, so he was very careful about keeping them in

one room until the whole students

artive, then he took them to their regular classes. After few

minutes the other teachers came. The
whole classes started their day byfunk God for his graces in
a grouped voice. The student,s age
ihe"kl^,3

ranged between eighteen to four years old. The innocence

was the united factor between their
faces.

Then they started studying Arabic language. Some of them

were stili leaming how to

write the letters and the older students were trying to read
and combine words together.
Particularly, in my observed class, there were eight students:
three girls, five boys, and a teacher.
The whole students and the teacher were Somalian except
two students.lvere palestinian.

while they were practicing writing the letters, each one of the students '*,r
was sharing with hisfnar
friend what he did in the last week and what he would do
in the contemporary week.
The break's time came. The students joyfully brought their
snacks and were ready to take
a rest after the hard

work. From time to timelcould see students distribute and

share some of

their snacks with their PeerTwhich reminded me by one of the

Arabs, famous character
"Generosity;" that made me wonder how a consuming society
like an American society did not
succeed in changing their original characters.

While I was there, unfamiliar word was being repeated continually by some of the
students and teachers and

it was not

an Arabic nor an English word that flamed my curiosity to

know its meaning. Then, it tumed out to be "dogsi" a Somalian word for a mosque. From that
coincidence I knew that there are four languages in Somali: Italian, French, Arabic and Somalian
based on the different colonialisms that the country passed through.

After half an hour of rest, the students went back to their classes to start learning how to
read Quran while

I distributed

a survey to the students to evaluate their knowledge and

connection with their original country. The questions were related to their home town Somali; I
wanted to know

if

some of them have visited

it before4ttthey wish to visit it in the futurTor

if

they still have memories of it.

The survey's results showed that the all participant students did not visit their home
country before which was obviously predictable because most of them were born in U.Srwhose
parents left Somali after the beginning of the

civil war.

After an hour of studying, it was the time for praying. The whole students and the
teachers went in organized queue to the praying hall to pray. At the last thirty minutes before

pm, it was the time for the kids to play outside in the mosque's yard.{Their thoughts as any
other kids, having a candy and playing outside represented the most joy for them ignoring what
was happening in their country.

My concept about Somali from my birth was always about the civil war. Somali
in

has been

civil war for twenty four years. It started after the public protesting against the comrpted

government there 4nd it is still until these days. I have never looked at the bright side of this
,country or basically I have never thought that there is any bright side for this country, but these

kids and the hope in their eyes proved me wrong.

Uanin Elathram
Frofessor Douglas

uwRT 1101-090
11Novembet2014

irnrus esReciallv
This discourse community study was about somalian immigrants

|14.

+l{
Carolinfharlotte'
North
in
mosque
MAS
in
teach
particular group who used to study and
There are four languages in Somali
Somali is an African county in the eastern horn of Africa.
subjected
based on the types of historical colonialism that the county

toi ltalian, French'

Somalian, and Arabic.

most of the time,
This discourse community group was speaking Somalian and English

religion' lslam' Their

but they were studying Arabic in the mosque, because of their
how to read and understand
commitment to their religion pushes them to study Arabic to learn
Quran, the holY book for Muslims'

li"'

even though most of them do not speak

..TheXethnicity of its citizens is considered Arabic

African based on their

Arabidfhe.majority speak$,somalian and some of them are considered
origin.
s14,n1o{r"pp

ffrisgnnffiffistudy

was spotting the light on how they were trying to balance

to learn their original language and

between living ir/$merican society on one hand and trylng
r'A

pushed this group of Somaliansto

culture on thgother hand. There were many reasons that
leave their country and go

to

US

or other countries'

somali was in a civil war for twenty four years after

a revolution that started by its
public against their previous corrupted government.
Based on the serve conditions there during

the civil war, the famine spread in most of the country especially
the east and the north
regions' There was no agriculture strength during the

>'S"

countrv

started,gd

its sources of energy.

Vlttsc

wal**t

made the land dry for a while.

rn" ;;;.r?fitha"
deaths
t#----'

increased

whether because of the violence or the famine.

During the last decade, a lot of health and humanity
agencies entered and went to the

county to solve the famine problernqgs$'rorq huge financial

support came from neighboring
countries, but until these days

therefstill

o{o

people who suffer from

+qFv in" some

hwp "' far regions.

Another reason behind the famine that pushed for increasing

the immigration was disappearing

the basics of the life. ln other words, the number of the deatl-6increased
dramatically whether
because of the violence or the famine. That pushed
the peopre

life outside of their county.

to immigrate to have a better

Work Cited

Lewis, I M. A Modern History of Somalia: Nation and State in the Horn of Africa.
London: Longman, 1980. Print.g

Mukhtar, Mohamed H, and Margaret Castagno. Historical Dictionary of Somalia.

Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press,2003. Print.