CULTURE PROFILE| << | CHAPTER |
| SOMALI
BANTU
— THEIR HISTORY AND CULTURE
CULTURE PROFILE |
|||||
|
CONTENTS | PREFACE | INTRODUCTION | LAND | PEOPLE | ECONOMY | HISTORY | RELIGION | DAILY LIFE & VALUES | LANGUAGE & LITERACY | EDUCATION | CROSS-CULTURAL CHALLENGES | GLOSSARY | BIBLIOGRAPHY | ORDER A PRINT COPY | ||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
This booklet is a basic introduction to the people, history and cultures of the Somali Bantu. It is designed primarily for service providers and others assisting Somali Bantu refugees in their new communities in the United States. The principal writers are Daniel Van Lehman and Omar Eno. Mr. Van Lehman is on the faculty in the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon and a board member with the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization. He was a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) field officer in the Dagahaley Refugee Camp from 1992 to 1994 when the UNHCR first tried to resettle the Bantu to Tanzania. He was again hired by the UNHCR in 1997 to help seek resettlement for the Bantu refugees to Mozambique. His master's thesis promotes the concept of intra-Africa resettlement for African refugees using the Somali Bantu as the case study. Since 1992, Mr. Van Lehman has advocated for protection through resettlement for Somali Bantu refugees. He has spoken at conferences and authored many articles on their plight and potential. Mr. Eno is a Ph.D. candidate in history at York University in Toronto, Canada. His dissertation is on "Slavery, Stigma, and Legacy: The Case of the Wazigwa Diaspora and the Indigenous Bantu/Jareer People in Southern Somalia (1850-2000)." He is deeply committed to bringing the attention of the international community to Bantu issues, and he regularly travels and works in East Africa. He is also one of the first Bantu to advocate in an international forum for civil and human rights on behalf of the Bantu people in Somalia. He is a member of several international academic organizations, such as The African Studies Association, The Inter-riverine Studies Association, and The Somali Studies International Association. He is the cofounder of The Bantu Rehabilitation Trust in Nairobi, Kenya. Several people read and commented on drafts of the manuscript. In particular, we would like to thank: Ann Kasper, Refugee Education Specialist with Portland Regional Educational Telecommunications Corporation; Pindie Stephen, Sasha Chanoff, and Abdi Kadir Sheikh Abdullahi, all from IOM/Kenya; the Bantu elders of Dadaab refugee camps; Catherine Besteman, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Colby College; Francesca Declich, with the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Italy; and Kelly Gauger, Program Officer in the Admissions office at the State Department's Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration. We would also like to thank Eng. Ahmed Q. Ali, an independent Somali researcher based in Phoenix, AZ, Ahmed Mohamed Ali (Nyanyurow), Mohamed Adan Ibrahim (Farkeeti), Catherine Besteman, Francesca Declich, Lee Cassanelli, Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, Mohamed Abdulkadir Eno, Ph.D. student at St. Clement University, and IOM/Kenya for allowing us to use some of their materials. We would also like to express our appreciation to Donald Ranard for his thorough and timely copyediting and proofreading assistance and to Vincent Sagart for his design expertise. Finally, we would like to thank the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the U.S. Department of State, whose support made this culture profile possible. |
|
 |
|
|
|||
|
The Cultural Orientation Project--http://www.culturalorientation.net,
for more information contact sanja@cal.org |