Posted on 05/05/2004 12:49:57 AM PDT by sarcasm
The education of a Somali Bantu family began with the flick of a light switch in a modest little apartment in Rainier Beach.
Dark rooms suddenly brightened, revealing objects that put the newly arrived refugees in awe: a stove that produced heat without firewood; a toilet with water coursing through it; a refrigerator with more food than they'd seen in an entire African resettlement camp.
Haji Shongolo, who arrived March 31 with his wife and four children, lacked any frame of reference to describe it, other than to say through a translator: "It just seems new. I don't know anything about America."
A primitive tribe descended from 19th-century slaves, Somalia's Bantus are scorned today even by other Somalis. With no alliances to militia clans, they have been the victims of atrocities since civil war broke out in Somalia in 1991. Warring factions have robbed, raped and killed thousands of Bantus for their food, their land — or simply for the sport of it.
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Many Bantus don't know how to turn a doorknob, use a pencil, boil water or brush their teeth — let alone read, write or speak English. About 30 have arrived in Washington in recent weeks, with about 300 expected to settle here by fall, mostly in King County. The influx is posing challenges for resettlement agencies here, and for the Bantus themselves, many of whom have spent years struggling to survive in crowded resettlement camps in Kenya.
"They also are more rural than the average Somali, and they have less education," said Robert Johnson, regional director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a refugee agency in Pioneer Square that will resettle 70 Bantus.
"There are generations that have grown up in the camps. They have not been a part of regular society. And there is a lack of food in camps, which leads to development issues."
Unexpected allies
Typically, some 70,000 people fleeing political strife or war-torn homelands are allowed into the U.S. each year.
For two months after the 2001 terrorist attacks, though, the State Department denied all refugees entry for security reasons, then began admitting under half the number it had previously let in. This year, the numbers are expected to be higher.
Washington has typically received about 2,600 to 6,000 refugees annually. While most have come from Vietnam and the former Soviet Union, Africans represent the latest wave, joining more than 1,000 Somalis who have settled in King County in the past eight years.
"The Bantus are one of the least-acclimated groups of refugees," said Cal Uomoto, head of the World Relief office in Seattle. Complicating matters, they are being resettled here near other Somali refugees who for centuries have been their enemies in the homeland.
While the Hmong farmers who arrived in the late 1970s to early 1980s and the "Lost Boys of Sudan" in the late 1990s were also a challenge for the area's refugee agencies, Bantus pose — and face — greater obstacles, several refugee agencies said.
Though the Hmong farmers were illiterate, they had extensive training in Western culture in refugee camps. And the Sudanese refugees were mostly teens and young men who spoke English and had attended schools in their refugee camps.
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Local refugee agencies fear that the discrimination Bantus faced from other Somalis in their homeland could resurface in the established Somali community here, but they also believe Bantus will adapt faster if placed among people familiar with their languages and culture.
In the past three months, caseworkers contacted local Somali community leaders to get assurances that they and the Bantus could coexist. To the surprise of resettlement officials, local Somalis came forward to help as the Bantus began arriving.
"Somali neighbors have brought clothes, food and have stopped by to make sure everything is fine," said Johnson of the IRC.
"They aren't treating them like second-class citizens here."
'Baby steps' in a new life
In March, the IRC resettled Salah Aroni, his wife Aukumo Kule and their two children in Tukwila, giving them a crash course on electricity and how to get warm water from the sink and shower.
It was overwhelming for the couple, who had lived in a hut and cooked over an open fire.
One day in April, the 23-year-old husband put milk on the stove to heat, forgot about it and walked to a neighborhood mosque.
The milk boiled and spilled over the pot. The smoke detector beeped.
His petrified 20-year-old wife fidgeted with the knobs before figuring out how to turn off the heat, then stood by her open front door and waited for her husband to return. She hasn't stepped near the stove since.
Since arriving March 31 in Rainier Beach, the 33-year-old Shongolo, his 24-year-old wife, Fatuma Maliko, and their four children have had similar tribulations.
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Another day, the militia murdered her father with a machete and stole the meat he had purchased for the family dinner that night.
When news of her father's murder reached Maliko and her family, they grabbed some food, plopped on their sandals and walked for two weeks to a resettlement camp in Kenya, abandoning their farm.
They didn't bother burying the family patriarch or even saying their goodbyes. Sometimes, you know when it's time to leave, Maliko said.
The rebels, she said through a translator, "always come wanting money ... or something to eat. And they do not mind killing you.
"It's better to just run away."
She was just a girl when the family arrived in 1991 in a refugee camp. They were there for about 11 years, during which time all four of her children were born.
In late March, the family arrived in Seattle, where the local resettlement office of World Relief set them up with a Somali host family.
They recently moved into their own apartment in Rainier Beach. Their older children — girls aged 10, 7 and 5 — are enrolled in a Seattle public school, while Maliko cares for the baby, a 9-month-old son. The family will receive about $840 a month in welfare for up to five years or until Shongolo is able to support them.
From the beginning, volunteers, caseworkers and neighbors have overwhelmed them with instructions: how to plug things into electrical outlets, flush the toilet and dry off after showering.
Much of it remains daunting. Maliko still has difficulty getting warm water from the faucet and figuring out which knobs heat which burners.
Their children had never seen cartoons, and she and her husband didn't even know what a television was until they saw one in the Nairobi airport on their way to the U.S.
And while they do know what a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich is, they don't know how to buy the bread to make one.
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Maliko can't read the names of products or figure out what they cost, so the trip was but a baby step in her new life.
Her husband, Shongolo, had six years of schooling in Somalia and had worked on cars, making him one of the most educated Bantus in the Northwest, several refugee agencies said.
While Maliko is shy, keeping busy with the children, Shongolo is more gregarious.
In the coming weeks, he will join members of three other new Bantu families for a class in introductory English and Western culture. They will learn how to greet folks and ride a bus — and be reminded again how the stove works.
He has tried to settle in by playing soccer with the neighbor kids and chatting up the local Somalis — learning something new every day, he said though a translator.
Get ready.
...and you believe there is justice, now?
The only 'justice' available, is the chance to keep your children safe, by arming yourself, within your home. Outside, you have no guarantees. We are "at war"!
Temper that thought, though. Because of the draconian WOD, and the continuous assaults on our second and fourth amendment liberties, you are no longer safe in your home!
...and it's all 'for the chil'run'!
For example: (Police kill dog while stopping at wrong house on alarm call- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1128781/posts)
Me thinks this is getting out of hand. Does the Hill think we aren't following news like this out here???? What is going on letting all these Somali's into our Country during "times like this?" Is there a chipmunk in the woodpile?
Senator Baladacci, (the now Governor of Maine), worked with Rep. Tom Allen and the Catholic Charities to bring in around 1,200 Somali's to Lewiston, Maine back in 2002:
BALDACCI AND ALLEN SEEK FEDERAL ASSISTANCE TO ADDRESS INFLUX OF SOMALI IMMIGRANTS
June 6, 2002
Representatives Baldacci and Allen called for $100,000 in funding to enable Catholic Charities of Maine to provide needed services to Somali immigrants in Lewiston and other communities. Catholic Charities provides outreach and assistance to refugees and immigrants.
Maine has a hard time finding work and feeding their own. Yet Baldacci and Allen want an INFLUX of immigrants! What's up with this!
Governor Baldacci
One of our own American gals living in a shelter in Lewiston had a baby. She went to the shelter supply closet one morning to get diapers for her baby. The Somali women got there first. They cleaned out every diaper. Our own gal left empty handed.
The Somali Teen's in the High School are being beat up by our teen-agers.
Lewiston High School brought in a teacher to teach OUR teens how to speak Somali. How about teaching the Somali's how to speak ENGLISH? We didn't vote on this, yet we have to pay her salary. I think these immigrant teens need to learn ENGLISH so they can grow up and contribute something to our economy.
Last I heard.............49 Somali's were working. 49 out of 1,200. The rest are still on welfare. There is just my cat and I. Yet my cat and I are paying for this extended family of immigrants? I did not get to vote on this. Yet, Maine Government is taking my tax dollars to support the influx.
For some reason, news about the Somali's in Lewiston died out. We do not hear any news anymore about the Somali's. Are they being protected for some reason? I have a strong feeling that they are all registered LIBS though! Don't you?!
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HARLEY SOLTES / THE SEATTLE TIMES
