Somalis still feel safe in Uganda even after attacks

Xenophobia?
For the Somali community in Uganda, the attacks marked the beginning of two months of anxiety. Ms Umar, a mother of two, bounced into Owino to buy groceries. But, moments after she had entered the market, a man first jeered and heckled her shouting ‘al-Shabaab’. She fainted. Some Ugandan women market vendors administered first aid to resuscitate her. “I was fasting, and weak. I am diabetic and have blood pressure. I felt bad when that man labelled me al-Shabaab,” says Ms Umar, who has lived in Uganda for nine years.

For the next four weeks, Ms Umar avoided any market, fearing further insults or possible assault. “I resorted to sending some Ugandan friends to buy for me whatever I wanted.” Ms Umar adds that the situation has normalised and some Ugandans are even teaching her Luganda. She says she also feels safer in Kampala than she would in Kismayu, Somalia.

For Ali Sid-ahmed, 42, self-employed, the biggest problem occasioned by the bombings was that Somalis, regardless of what passports they carry, are subjected to unnecessary scrutiny at Entebbe International Airport.

“At the airport, the only nationality the immigration officials seem to target are the Somalis, who are ushered into a room and asked to provide the names of the people they are visiting in Uganda,” says Mr Sid-ahmed. “Up to now, the problem persists. It makes one feel like a criminal attracting the attention of customs officials. Why subject Somalis to such hustle?” asks Mr Sid-ahmed.

The Spokesperson of the Civil Aviation Authority, Mr Ignie Igundura, told this paper on phone that since Entebbe is an international airport, there are many agencies at work there. “I would not know which agency subjected him to that,” said Mr Igundura. However, Mr Sid-ahmed adds that once they are cleared, they are then free to move anywhere in Uganda.

Mohamed Musa, 48, a resident of Nalukolongo, a Kampala suburb, has been in Uganda for 21 years. He says things have changed obviously as happens when a person moves to a new address; they need time to settle. But though he had considered himself settled, 7/11 changed that for some time. “July was very bad. I passed by the International Hospital, Namuwongo one week after the bombings and some man told me Somalis had slain Ugandans,” says Mr Mohamed. He adds that the man had to be restrained by other onlookers because he had started sparring even though Mr Musa had ignored him.

Another day, when he was walking along Malinga Road in Kisenyi, a youngster shouted at him, “al-Shabaab!” He confronted the youth and asked him what it meant. He responded that it meant Somalis. “I told him it was the Arabic word for youth and asked him who of the two of us was more youthful. It was he, not me. So he was more al-Shabaab than me,” he says.

Mr Mohamed also had problems at his Barwako Lodge that he manages. “Whenever an employee would make a mistake and I tried to reprimand them, they would tell me Uganda is not Mogadishu,” says Mr Mohamed, stroking his goatee. On the other side, some ‘insensitive people’ would tell his children that they are not needed in Uganda; and should go back to their homeland.

Locked up
“There are many good-natured Ugandans. But there were also some who would tell us that we are not needed here,” he says. But he sums, saying they are not discriminated against these days. And Mr Mohamed’s friend who used to drink with some Ugandan ended up at a police post when the ‘friend’ allegedly told police that there was an ‘al-Shabaab’ in their area.

Police locked up the Somali until his community leaders came to his rescue.
For Abdullahi Hassan, 16, a student at a secondary school in Lubiri, fellow learners began avoiding him, including leaving an entire desk to him. “Suddenly, some students said they did not feel comfortable sharing a desk with me.” He had to go and ask his father what was seriously wrong with being a Somali.

Issa Ahmed, 36, a resident of Mengo, says he felt fear. “I had to stay at home most of the time because I was scared anything could happen,” says Mr Ahmed. But he is not fazed, insisting that as long as Somalia is not at peace, then Uganda will be his home. “I have even fathered nine children here,” he says. He, however, says should peace return to Somalia, he would go back.

Business people
Mr Paul Mugerwa, a boda boda cyclist, says some Somalis, especially the youngsters, would sometimes get into arguments, which threatened to degenerate into fisticuffs. “The seasoned Somalis are not jumpy. But the younger ones would easily be drawn into a verbal exchange with other persons, says Mr Mugerwa. According to the Chairman of the Somali Community, Hussein Abukar Hassan, there are about 14,000 Somalis in Uganda.

Mr Hassan says many of them with some money to spare are now venturing into business. They have set up Internet Cafés, supermarkets, restaurants, clinics and even petrol stations and even a butcher’s shop that sells camel meat. Mr Hassan says they relate well with Ugandans and in business. The Somalis are mainly in Kisenyi, Mengo and Nalukolongo suburbs of Kampala.

Many say they now take Uganda as their home because Ugandans, save for the two months after the July 2010 bombings, are very hospitable. “I would want to get married to a Ugandan man. But he should be a Muslim,” says Ms Umar, who is widowed. Her husband died during the Somali insurgency.