Somali Panelists Answer: What Does Home Mean to You?

Nimco Ahmed opened up a discussion with panelists at the National Convergence for Democracy conference held at the Minneapolis convention center in August. The panel was titled “From Fear to Collective Power: Lessons from Somali Community ICE Resistance.” She opened the conversation by asking:

“This year, home was redefined for many of us. I don’t think we thought about what home meant until ICE showed up here in the Twin Cities. Please tell me, when you hear the word home, what comes to mind? Has the definition of home changed over time for you?”

(l-r) Malika Dahir and Mohamed Ibrahim (photo by Sarah Whiting)

Malika Dahir

As-salamu alaykum. Peace be upon you all.

My definition of home has has certainly changed over the years. As a child, it was found in the lap of my grandmother, at the feet of my aunt, as she braided my Hair. As I got older, it is where I became a mother, I became a wife. Home was always in the people, not necessarily the physical space. I find myself fiercely protective of Minnesota because of that very reason — the people, and how they welcome me. Eleven years later, I’m still here. This is my home, and where my children are taking their next steps towards adulthood. It’s the people I’m around that define home for me.

Mohamed Ibrahim

I’m a double immigrant. My parents immigrated from Somalia to Yemen, and then from Yemen to here. What I’ve always found to be home is the people that I’ve been surrounded with, the community.

Quite frankly, this country has always had a history of violence against its people, whether we start with the Indigenous community. The latest iteration is the Somali community. Growing up studying the history, you realize that this is kind of part and parcel of the American fabric, right? For me personally, the fact that this has happened here doesn’t change the idea of home. I think it strengthens the idea of home. It strengthens the idea of community, and the belief I have in the people that are part of my Minnesota community. Anybody that was paying attention to Minnesota really saw what home looks like in terms of how the people stood up for their neighbors, how the people loved and took took care of one of one another, and and how people picked up whistles to protect and warn their neighbors. All of that shows us what home is. I’m really proud to call Minnesota home.

(l-r) Fahad Mahamud and Yusra Mohamud (photo by Sarah Whiting)

Fahad Mahamud

Home is my mother. Through my mother and my brothers and sisters, the Somali culture is my home. I was born in Milwaukee, and I came to Minneapolis when I was three years old. I’ve been finding home through the cold winters, the ice — the good kind. For me, I would say home is the Minneapolis city, the train station, the metro line. That’s all I know. Midwest is home.

Yusra Mohamud

When I first moved here, I was about five or six years old. It was Halloween and my neighbors knocked on the door. Two kids asked my mom, “Can she come trick or treating with us?” My mom said, “Absolutely not.” An hour went by, and someone knocked our door again. It was them. They had two pillowcases of candy and said,”We just want to drop this off for her.” After that day, my mom let me play outside with them every day.

That was my first memory of home — with neighbors and people who looked different than me, who spoke different languages than me. Since then I have never had any desire to live somewhere else. I’ve had so many opportunities to move — to go to school somewhere else. Every time I’ve traveled, I’ve always missed Minnesota. There’s no other community that has given me a sense of belonging like here.

With everything that has happened, we are known around the globe for our resilience. In June, I had the opportunity to do an amazing fellowship in Germany with 10 cohorts. Everyone introduced where they were from. When I said Minnesota, everyone stood up in the room and talked about how they stood with us and how they were impressed by how we were able to remain strong and fight back against this administration, this government, this cruelty, this hate rhetoric.

Minnesota is the epitome of what I call home.