London (Ontario) Somalis fear for loved ones

London (Ontario) FREE PRESS REPORTER
Sun, January 14, 2007

By JENNIFER O'BRIEN,

"It is all anybody talks about. Everywhere you go, everyone you see is worried all the time," said Ahmed Yahya Ali, president of London's Somali Association.

Though many of the 150 families in London have lived in Canada since civil war first ravaged Somalia in 1991, most have close relatives and friends still living in Africa.

Daily, Canadian Somalis fear for their loved ones' lives, said Ali, whose father and several siblings remain in the capital, Mogadishu.

The worry has intensified during recent weeks since Ethiopian troops routed an Islamic militia that had controlled most of southern Somalia for the last six months. That allowed the government to enter Mogadishu, but it must now deal with clan divisions that have spoiled the last 13 attempts to form an effective government since the last one collapsed in 1991.

The recent attacks dispersed the Islamists, who had restored some peace to the war-torn country but were losing favour because of their fundamentalist rules that invited comparisons to Afghanistan's deposed Taliban.

While London Somalis were concerned over the hard line the Islamic militants had started to take, enforcing curfews and closing cinemas, they now worry that without the militants, the Horn of Africa nation will return to violence.

At a London African restaurant, over a feast of traditional food, the talk a few days ago varied from academic political views to personal nostalgia to fears for family.

"At first I told my father to come here, but he would not, he does not want to leave," said Ali. "He believes when it is time to die, it is time to die."

The violence left Ali's brother -- peacemaker Abdu Lkadir Yahya Ali -- murdered in his own bed last year.

As Ali spoke of his grief, his stress was mirrored in the eyes of a man across the table.

Most of Hussein Haji's family is out of Africa. He's been in Ontario since 1990 and his wife since 1991. The two have five children, the eldest 21, the youngest three.

They have a busy life here. Haji, an engineer and researcher with a PhD from the University of Guelph, works as a tobacco researcher in Delhi. He also helps his wife, who owns a restaurant, Jubba, beside Glen Cairn Community Centre.

Though he immigrated when the civil war began, Haji remembers his hometown of Marka as a beautiful place.

"We woke up early to go to the beach and play soccer, we went to school . . . I'd go to my dad's store and help him and then we'd play until we got hungry," he says of his boyhood in the coastal city.

Ali nods at Haji's memory.

He knows that nostalgia.

Now, he says, there are nights he can't bear to watch the news.

"I'm already stressed here. I have five children, I have to work, I run a restaurant, my plates are full and then I look at the news and it is very sad what is happening. You know there are times when we think, 'We are Canadian, let's forget about it.' But you can't; you have real bones over there and they are in danger all the time."

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SOMALIS IN LONDON (Ontario) Canada 

- London's Somali community includes about 150 families, with as many as 2,000 people.

- Many immigrated during the early 1990s after civil war left the African country controlled by clan-based warlords.

- London Somalis, though dispersed around the city, are closely knit, says association president Ahmed Yahya Ali.

Source: London Free Press, Jan 14, 2007