Somali or part of the Somali diaspora?

So, are you part of the Somali diaspora?

… that’s a very good question. In fact, I’ve never been asked that before.

Sahra Koshin leans over to grab a sheet and a pen. She takes notes while talking. Single words – Diaspora, Zambia, father.

Sahra Ahmed Kosin’s life has been very different from most people her age living in Denmark.

But in many ways, it probably resembles the life of the group of people she’s studying in her Ph.D. namely Somali diaspora.

Sahra was born in Zambia in 1980. Her father had migrated from Somalia in the 1960ies to start a business.

“If it wasn’t for my parents, I would probably have grown up feeling Zambian. But especially my father went to great lengths to give us a strong Somali identity. He bought Somali food. We spoke Somali at home. We stuck to our culture.”

In 1991 when Sahra was 11 years old civil war broke out in Somalia. Somali refugees started coming to Zambia.

“I remember how the Somali like my parents already living in Zambia were so supportive of the Somali that had fled the war. Taking people in, collecting money to help their fellow countrymen.”

For more than 20 years Somalia has been torn by war. Different clans fighting each other over resources, power, religion. The civil war in Somalia has resulted in millions of refugees and today almost half of the population in Somalia is displaced.

But despite war, conflict, and poverty a lot of Somali who fled or migrated for better opportunities still feel a very strong connection to Somalia and an urge and obligation to help when crisis occur.

They are the Somali diaspora.

Mobilize help across the globe

Somali diaspora and their role in dealing with humanitarian crisis in Somalia has been a great interest for researchers for a decade.

It’s remarkable how quickly people living outside Somalia can mobilize across the globe when a crisis occurs. And how much money they are able to collect.

In 2017when Somalia was hit by an extreme drought know as ‘Sima’ which means equalizer because it hit everybody equally hard – rich or poor – the diaspora managed to collect and sent more than 1,8 billion dollars to Somalia. The international community sent about 7 million.

In the research project D-hum (Diaspora Humanitarianism om Complex Crisis), which Sahra Kosin’s Ph.D. is a part of, researchers from Denmark, Kenya and Somaliland are investigating the role of Somali diaspora when crisis occur.

When she was invited to participate in the research project, she immediately knew that this was what she wanted to do. To participate in a project which aims to develop a better understanding of the Somali diaspora and their motives and ways of organizing help.

“As a Somali living outside Somalia, you have this inherent feeling of Somaliness – a strong connection to your homeland and to other people from Somalia. And in our culture as part of Islam humanitarianism an obligation to help is a cornerstone. This concept of giving is so complex. Just like inuits have different names for snow we have different names for giving.”

“First you must help your own family, then your nearest neighbor and your clan. I myself have three different WhatsApp groups for raising money if needed – one for my nearest family, one for my relatives in Somalia and one for my clan. I really want to develop a better understanding of this Somali humanitarianism.”

Somalia is home

Sahra Kosin and her family moved to Holland from Zambia when she was still in her teens. In Holland she studied to become an anthropologist and since her graduation in 2010 she has been working with gender issues in Somalia and Sierra Leone. She has funded ‘Somalia Gender Hub’ which works for greater gender equality in Somalia by promoting research in gender issues.

“I have a very strong connection to Somalia. When I graduated, I went to Somalia to my father’s homeland to reconnect with my ancestors. But I also know that if I had been born and had grown up in Somalia then I wouldn’t as a woman have had the opportunities that I have today.”

In her PhD she combines her interest in Somali diaspora with her interest in gender issues. As part of the D-hum project Sahra Kosin will focus on the resourceful Somali women who are part of the diaspora in Zambia and who have done quite well for themselves.

“A lot of those who came in the 1960ies are millionaires today. They have started their own businesses and now own large firms in the oil and gas industry. The ones who came because of the war are probably less resourceful but in general the Somali diaspora in Zambia has done very well and they sent a lot of money back to Somalia.”

Little research has been done in the Somali diaspora in Zambia and even less in Somali women in Zambia.

“I feel that my PhD project can really help close a knowledge gab. I want to get a better understanding of why those women – some of whom were born in Zambia and have never been in Somalia – still fell such a strong connection to Somalia and an obligation to give. And I also want to investigate how they organize donations and start fundraising when a crisis occurs.

Sahra Ahmed Kosin herself was born and grew up in Zambia and Holland. Her daughter was born in Holland and has Dutch citizenship. Sahra has also lived and worked in Sierra Leone but when she moved to Somalia, she felt she really came home.

“Objectively I’m part of the Somali diaspora. And I also feel that way. But at the same time, I also have such a strong connection to Somalia that I at the same time feel Somali – even though I wasn’t born in Somalia and have lived away from Somalia most of my life. Not growing up in Somalia has given me the opportunity as a woman to have my freedom and get an education. To me those opportunities come with obligations and responsibilities. I feel it’s my responsibility to give some of that back to Somalia by doing this research and promoting more research in gender issues in Somalia.”

The research project Diaspora Humanitarianism in Complex Crises (D-hum) started in 2019 and runs until 2024. It’s funded by the Danish Consultative Research Committee (FFU) as part of the development research funding provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. The project is led by researchers at DIIS who collaborates with researchers from University of Nairobi, Rift Valley Institute in Nairobi and Rako Research and Communication Center in Somalia.

Sahra became part of the project in 2020. She is planning to do fieldwork in Zambia where she’ll do anthropological observations and conduct about 60 interviews with Somali women living as part of the diaspora in Zambia – both women that came in the 1960ies due to work migration and women who fled the war in the 1990ies. She’ll also arrange 3 focus groups with the women to get a better understanding of how and why they organize help when crisis hit Somalia.