Around the Diaspora December 2017

  1. Somali Deportees File Suit against ICE

Attorneys representing several Somali men facing deportation to Somalia filed a class-action lawsuit on Monday to block the deportations of 92 Somalis rounded up by immigration agents since Trump took office.

The men and women were supposed to be in Somalia by now, but their cases became complicated when their flight returned to the United States, landing in Miami, after a brief stop in the West African country of Senegal.

They are now in detention centers in Florida, and lawyers say the detainees could be deported as early as Wednesday. At least 10 of the 92 detainees are Minnesota residents.

  1. Somali Music from the 1970’s Nominated for a Grammy

Somali Music from the 1970s and 1980s known as the “Golden Age of Music” has been nominated for a GRAMMY! Ostinato Records is reviving neglected and forgotten Somali music record tapes in Hargeisa and Mogadishu one cassette tape at a time.

Sweet as Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes from the Horn of Africa was produced and compiled by Vik Sohonie and Nicolas Sheikholeslami. Nominated in the Best Historical Album category, the 15-track mixtape features Somali classics that document the vibrant music era of Somalia before the civil war broke out in 1991.

It is an album that captures the melodious voices of prominent Somali singers like Hibo Nura, Nimo Jama, the Waberi troupe, and the Iftin Band, among others

  1. UNICEF Awards 13-Years-Old Somali Polyglot And Refugee in Greece For His Talent

On the occasion of the International Day of Children’s Rights, UNICEF awarded several individuals and organization for their work and talent. Among the award winners is thirteen year old Mohammed, a refugee from Somalia, who speaks six languages and has become the “right hand” of volunteers at the Eleonas ‘hot spot’ since he informally acts as an interpreter. Mohammed managed to learn the foreign languages, by listening to volunteers and other refugees carefully.

He lived in Turkey for three years before moving with his mother and five siblings to Greece, where he learned the language very well. The other languages, other than English, he learned playing with other children or at the refugee centre as well as in other places he had been before.

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