Blessed and Banned: Surveillance and Refusal in Somali Diasporic Art & Literature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24847/v9i12022.311Keywords:
Somali Anglophone literature, literatures of diaspora, migration literature, Arab Anglopohone literatureAbstract
This essay examines the work of twenty-first century Somali Anglophone writers and artists, analyzing how they confront the connected experiences of displacement, migration, and surveillance. I interpret the work of Warsan Shire, Diriye Osman, Ladan Osman, and Ifrah Mansour as embodying place-based transnationalisms that resist stereotypical media and political representations of Somali refugees as invasive and dangerous, especially gendered clichés of Somali, Muslim men as inherently violent and Somali, Muslim women as universally oppressed. Through writing, art, and performance, these works reveal how the state prevents communities from caring for one another through state apparatuses, and articulate instead a right to mutuality and care-taking.
References
Abdi, Cawo. Elusive Jannah: The Somali Diaspora and a Borderless Muslim Identity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015. https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816697380.001.0001. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816697380.001.0001
Ahmed, Ismail I. and Reginald Herbold Green. “The Heritage of War and State Collapse in Somalia and Somaliland: Local-Level Effects, External Interventions and Reconstruction.” Third World Quarterly 20, no. 1 (1999): 113–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436599913947. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01436599913947
Alinejad, Donya and Sandra Ponzanesi. “The Multi-Sitedness of Somali Diasporic Belonging: Comparative Notes on Somali Migrant Women’s Digital Practices.” Journal of Global Diaspora & Media 2, no.1 (2021): 23–37.
Asante, Godfried, Sachi Sekimoto, and Christopher Brown. “Becoming ‘Black’: Exploring the Racialized Experiences of African Immigrants in the United States.” Howard Journal of Communications 27, no. 4 (2016): 367–84, https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2016.1206047. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2016.1206047
Basarudin, Azza and Khanum Shaikh. “The Contours of Speaking Out: Gender, State Security, and Muslim Women's Empowerment.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 19, no. 1 (April 2020): 107–35. https://doi.org/10.1215/15366936-8117746. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/15366936-8117746
Besteman, Catherine. “Representing Violence and ‘Othering’ Somalia.” Cultural Anthropology 11, no. 1 (February 1996): 120–33. https://doi.org/10.1525/can.1996.11.1.02a00060. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/can.1996.11.1.02a00060
Besteman, Catherine. Unraveling Somalia: Race, Class, and the Legacy of Slavery. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812290165. DOI: https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812290165
Beyoncé: Lemonade. Directed by Beyoncé Knowles, Kahlil Joseph, Melina Matsoukas, Todd Tourso, Dikayl Rimmasch, Jonas Åkerlund, and Mark Romanek. Parkwood Entertainment and Good Company, 2016. Visual album. HBO, 2016.
Black is King. Directed by Beyoncé, Blitz the Ambassador, Jake Nava, Dikayl Rimmasch, Emmanuel Adjei, Jenn Nkiru, Ibra Ake, Julian Klincewicz, Joshua Kissi, and Pierre Debusschere. Parkwood Entertainment and Walt Disney Pictures, 2020. Visual album. Disney+, 2020.
“Building Community Resilience.” The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota. 25 April 2017. https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/building-community-resilience.
“Building Community Resilience Minneapolis-St. Paul Pilot Program: A Community-Led Local Framework.” The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota. February 2015. https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/file/642121/download.
Dawson, Ashley. “New World Disorder: Black Hawk Down and the Eclipse of US Military Humanitarianism in Africa.” African Studies Review 54, no. 2 (2011): 177–94. https://doi.org/10.1353/arw.2011.0024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/arw.2011.0024
Dickinson, Sheila. “Somali American Artists Create a Space All Their Own.” Hyperallergic. 5 October 2016. https://hyperallergic.com/327998/somali-american-artists-create-space/.
Dueben, Alex. “Good Literary Citizens: An Interview with Ladan Osman.” The Paris Review. 13 July 2015. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/07/13/good-literary-citizens-an-interview-with-ladan-osman/.
Eler, Alicia. “First Somali-American Art Show at Minneapolis Institute of Art Spans Three Generations.” Minneapolis Star Tribune. 24 August 2017. https://hiiraan.com/news4/2017/Aug/143833/first_somali_american_art_show_at_minneapolis_institute_of_art_spans_three_generations.aspx.
Fergunson, James. The World’s Most Dangerous Place. Boston: De Capo Press, 2013.
Friedman, Darren. “Liability Lessons from the Maersk Alabama.” Martine Executive. 18 June 2009. https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/2009-06-18-liability-lessons-maersk-alabama.
Hall, Kia M. Q. “A Transnational Black Feminist Framework: Rooting in Feminist Scholarship, Framing Contemporary Black Activism.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 15, no. 1 (2016): 86–104. https://doi.org/10.2979/meridians.15.1.06. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/meridians.15.1.06
Haltwinger, John. “New Report Claims Us Could Be Guilty of War Crimes in Somalia for Killing Civilians under ‘Shroud of Secrecy.’” Task & Purpose. 20 March 2019. https://taskandpurpose.com/us-war-crime-somalia-report.
Hirsi Ali, Ayaan. Infidel. New York: Atria Paperback, 2010.
Hirsi Ali, Ayaan. Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations. New York: Atria Paperback, 2011.
hooks, bell. “Moving Beyond Pain.” 9 May 2016. http://www.bellhooksinstitute.com/blog/2016/5/9/moving-beyond-pain.
How to Have Fun in a Civil War. Created and performed by Ifrah Mansour. Directed by Lindsey C. Samples. Solo Emerging Artist Celebration. Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, MN. 13 March 2018.
Jacobs, Ben and Alan Yuhas. “Somali Migrants Are ‘Disaster’ for Minnesota, Says Donald Trump.” The Guardian. 7 November 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/06/donald-trump-minnesota-somali-migrants-isis.
Kapteijns, Lidwien. “I.M. Lewis and Somali Clanship: A Critique.” Northeast African Studies 11, no. 1 (2004–2010): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1353/nas.2004.0000. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/nas.2004.0000
Kuo, Lily. “This Poem Is Now the Rallying Cry for Refugees: ‘No One Leaves Home Unless Home Is the Mouth of a Shark.’” African Quartz. 30 January 2017. https://qz.com/africa/897871/warsan-shires-poem-captures-the-reality-of-life-for-refugees-no-one-leaves-home-unless-home-is-the-mouth-of-a-shark/.
Leetsch, Jennifer. “Ocean Imaginaries in Warsan Shire’s Afro-Diasporic Poetry.” Journal of the African Literature Association 13, no. 1(2019): 80–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/21674736.2019.1594910. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/21674736.2019.1594910
Lombardi, Bernie. “Watering the Imagination: Childhood and the Spaces of African Queerness.” College Literature 45, no. 5 (Fall 2018): 687–94. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/lit.2018.0043
Mevsimle, Melis. “Second-Generation British Somali Women: The Translocal Nexus of London and Global Diaspora.” Journal of Global Diaspora & Media 2, no. 1 (2021): 57–72.
Monaghan, Jeffrey. “Security Traps and Discourses of Radicalization: Examining Surveillance Practices Targeting Muslims in Canada.” Surveillance & Society 12, no. 4 (2014): 485–501. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v12i4.4557. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v12i4.4557
Osman, Diriye. Black and Gay in the UK. London: Team Angelica Publishing, 2014.
Osman, Diriye. Decolonizing Sexualities: Transnational Perspectives, Critical Interventions. Oxford: Counterpress, 2016.
Osman, Diriye. Fairytales for Lost Children. London: Team Angelica Publishing, 2013.
Osman, Diriye. Queer African Reader. Nairobi: Pambazuka Press, 2013.
Osman, Diriye. “To Be Young, Gay, and African.” In Decolonizing Sexualities: Transnational Perspectives, Critical Inventions, edited by Sandeep Bakshi, Suhraiya Jivraj, and Siliva Posocco. Oxford: Counterpress, 2016.
Osman, Ladan. Exiles of Eden. Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2019.
Osman, Ladan. The Kitchen Dweller’s Testimony. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 2015.
Pratt, Geraldine and Victoria Rosner. “Introduction: The Global and the Intimate.” In The Global and the Intimate: Feminism in Our Time, edited by Pratt and Rosner, 1–28. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.7312/prat15448-intro. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/prat15448-intro
Read, Katie. “Q&A: Poet, Writer and Educator Warsan Shire.” Africa Writes. 21 June 2013.
https://africainwords.com/2013/06/21/qa-poet-writer-and-educator-warsan-shire/.
Savell, Stephanie. “When Is America Going to End Its Shadow War in Somalia?” The Guardian. 5 September 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/05/ilhan-omar-send-her-back-somalia-us-foreign-policy.
Schmid, Christina. “Numinous Anomalies: Somali Visual Art in Minnesota.” MN Artists. 30 September 2016. http://www.mnartists.org/article/numinous-anomalies-somali-visual-art-minnesota.
Sharpe, Christina. In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822373452. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822373452
Shire, Warsan. Our Men Do Not Belong to Us. Chicago: The Poetry Foundation, 2014.
Shire, Warsan. Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth. London: Mouthmark, 2011.
Sium, Aman. “From Starving Child to Rebel-Pirate: The West’s New Imagery of a ‘Failed’ Somalia.” borderlands 11, no. 3 (2012).
Stonehouse, Rachel. “UK Somalis ‘Racially Profiled’ over FGB.” BBC News, 13 January 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51064309.
Taylor, Jessica. “Trump Calls for ‘Total and Complete Shutdown of Muslims Entering’ U.S.” NPR. 7 December 2015. https://www.npr.org/2015/12/07/458836388/trump-calls-for-total-and-complete-shutdown-of-muslims-entering-u-s.
Valentine, Gil, Deborah Sporton, and Katrine Bang Nielsen. “Identities and Belonging: A Study of Somali Refugee and Asylum Seekers Living in the UK and Denmark.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 27 (2009): 234–50. https://doi.org/10.1068/d3407. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1068/d3407
“Viewpoint: What Donald Trump Gets Wrong about Somalia.” BBC News. 6 July 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53268582.
Weldemichale, Awet Tewelde. Piracy in Somalia: Violence and Development in the Horn of Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108683425. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108683425
“White House Summit on Combating Terrorism, International and Law Enforcement Leaders.” CSPAN. 18 February 2015. https://www.c-span.org/video/?324398-2/white-house-summit-combating-terrorism-international-law-enforcement-leaders.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Danielle Haque
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
The content of this journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.