1 week ago
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On a warm summer night two decades ago, I sat around a table at a Minneapolis restaurant with five young Somali men who were living in the Twin Cities, the country’s largest Somali diaspora.
It felt like a transitional time for Somalis, who by then had been living in Minnesota for about 15 years. Some elders in the community had recently floated the idea of a “Somali council” – an elected body that would serve as a kind of advisory board to the Somali community and as a conduit to the state Legislature.
The idea never gained any traction, but it made for a spirited discussion that night. The men weren’t sold on the idea, though they understood the sentiment behind it – concern, among older Somalis, that disagreements about the civil war in Somalia and other rifts were damaging the community.
As one of the men, Mukhtar Gaaddasaar, told me then: “Many Somalis living in the diaspora are out of touch...
