Seeking Salaam: Ethiopians, Eritreans, and Somalis in the Pacific Northwest

Six: The Challengers Within

172 he opportunity to influence generations of schoolchildren through their history textbooks represents a prize that local somalis, ethiopians, and eritreans have been quick to appreciate. Their readiness to speak out in order to establish their versions of “the truth” testifies to their awareness of story’s importance. When the challenge comes from within their own communities, however, from members who say, “i, too, have a story, and it doesn’t jibe with yours,” it is seen as a betrayal that exposes the community’s dirty laundry. When Philip Roth published Portnoy’s Complaint in 1969, for example, members of the american Jewish community expressed outrage. struggling for acceptance and still faced with anti-semitism in many neighborhoods, they felt they couldn’t afford to be represented by one of their own in an unflattering light. During the early Harlem Renaissance era, african americans, too, reacted angrily to black writers who created characters who drank, swore, or womanized. it wasn’t until a black middle class arose and achieved standing in the larger american community that unflattering individual portraits could be tolerated. members of the new communities just settling into the Pacific northwest remain unsure of their own standing here, so they feel understandably if the nose is injured, the eyes will cry. —eritrean proverb T He CH al l en g eR s W i TH i n THE cHaLLEnGErs WiTHin 173 nervous about the unguarded word. at stake is their image, the way they are perceived as a people, which ultimately can translate into how well their neighbors, bosses, and lending institutions accept them as individuals. Yet, as their adopted country preaches, democracy requires tolerance for dissenting voices. “We also have a right to our stories,” say somalia’s outcasts and Bantu; “We also want our voices heard,” say the ethiopian Oromos. members of these groups have been treated as second-class citizens in their own countries, sometimes even as slaves, and now that they stand on the verge of new lives in the United states, they want to clear the record. some seek redress for their exploitation at home, while others hope merely to discard their old class labels and gain acceptance into mainstream society here. To the credit of the Horn of africa communities in the Pacific northwest, sections of it move stoically and with resolve in the direction of tolerance. the somali bantu at Portland international airport, a group of somali Bantu men, women, and children pass through the doors of the baggage-customs hall and step into their new lives. They have been prepared for this moment by the refugee service agency under whose auspices they emigrated to escape the violence in their homeland. They have undergone medical exams, security checks, literacy training, and cultural orientation, so they know what to expect. still, the size and bustle of it all overwhelm them. They look around in wonder at the many people and the number of restaurants. Despite their weariness, they take it all in and stash it with the many other bits of information about america that they accumulated in their somali-kenyan border camp while preparing for this day. The sudden boom of a jet taking off startles them, and some of the women jump, then smile apologetically at an elderly white couple who have turned to stare as if trying to make out from the women’s looks where they have traveled from. With their dark skins, the Bantu could easily be confused with kenyans, Tanzanians, or even Ugandans. The host families move forward now, and the arrivals break into small family groupings and wait expectantly. a carefully practiced “Hello, my name is abdi. How are you?” reaches across the void and is met with 174 cHaPTEr siX hearty handshakes, smiles, and even a tentative “Salaam.” The agency leader checks off the new arrivals’ names on her long list, and, one by one, the groups pair off with their receiving families and trail out to the parking garage The men lug baggage and boxes tied with string, while their children struggle to keep up and hang onto the long corners of their mothers’ familiar shawls. The somali Bantus’ appearance on the public radar has taken many scholars in the area by surprise. For years, they’ve considered somalia a homogeneous country where everyone is of the same ethnicity, speaks the same language, and practices islam. somalis in the Pacific northwest...