UPDATED 1.1.2007 Clansmen, Helsinki-style
When a Somali in the Finnish capital joins the army, it won't be in Mogadishu, but in Santahamina
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By Tommi Nieminen
Alibeto Abdiwahab lopes into the Coffee House in Helsinki's Sokos department store with a sports bag slung over his shoulder. The 22-year-old from the Kannelmäki suburb is coming from the nearby Motivus gym.
Abdiwahab has more claim to be a local than a good many others in this city of migrants, since he came here as an 11-year-old in 1995.
After Abdiwahab has sat down with his latte, along comes 24-year-old Mohamed Guled from Malmi, bearing a tray. Guled has an even longer Helsinki pedigree: he arrived here in 1992.
It is Thursday evening. Almost exactly 6,700 kilometres away from downtown Helsinki and its Station Square, a war is going on for control of the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
Radical Islamists are being driven out of the city, as Mogadishu is taken over by the forces of the transitional Somali government, backed by troops from its ally Ethiopia.
"Who rules there does not interest me, just who can secure peace", says Abdiwahab. "I supported the Islamists [the Union of Islamic Courts or UIC], because they brought security and order to Mogadishu's streets, but now it looks as if their time has come and gone."
Sunni Islam is the religion that unites Somalis. It also provides a common moral code for Abdiwahab and Guled.
Even the strict Sharia law with its capital punishment for the crime of adultery is acceptable to Abdiwahab - in Somalia.
"If that is what the people want", he says.
All the same, he does not want Sharia in Finland. In his own life, Finnishness and the Somali way are difficult to separate: as Sunni Muslims they pray five times a day, but then again they also go regularly to sauna. In terms of clothing and musical tastes, there is little difference between young Somalis and the rest of the youth population.
"The only difference from other young people lies in the religious faith, because in the Somali culture religion is a way of life", says Guled.
It took quite some adjusting, on both sides, when the first Somali refugees landed on Finnish soil in the spring of 1990.
Now they are a familiar element in the street scene, since Finland already has around 8,600 people who speak Somali as their mother-tongue. Even Abdiwahab's and Guled's version of Islam sounds somehow Finnish in tone - consensus-minded and as practical and pragmatic as a two-year collective bargaining agreement.
There is no fulminating about Jihad, but rather discussion about common ground rules.
It is therefore little wonder that they are both horrified by the mayhem going on in Somalia right now.
The biggest curse are the clan chiefs and their militias, who stepped into the power vacuum after the downfall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, and fought vicious turf wars one with another.
Or we might let Guled explain the matter: "It's kind of like a situation where you'd have one warlord from Ostrobothnia and another one from Savo Province, and the Savo one would say that our clan has control over this area."
Clans are important in Somalia. In Finland, on the other hand, the younger generation of Somalis does not even really recognise such a thing. Yes, there are the Somalis from the eastern suburb of Vuosaari, those from Matinkylä in Espoo, or the ones living up in Kuopio. But they seldom if ever end up coming to blows.
"People don't talk about clans here, it's more about families", says Abdiwahab.
Hence neither of the men can spend much energy discussing the clan situation back in Somalia. Much more on their mind is that their relatives in the capital Mogadishu should be able to live in peace.
The idea that they themselves would join the ranks of the retreating Islamists is treated as absurd.
"We don't even discuss this stuff. We are specifically trying to avoid war", says Abdiwahab firmly. "Put the guns down and pick up the pen."
And if anyone is going into any army, then it is going to be the Finnish Defence Forces.
Guled did his national service at the garrison on the Helsinki island of Santahamina. Abdiwahab would also do his stint in the Finnish military if it weren't for his knee, which he trashed in a football match to the point where it is now held together with titanium screws.
Both Abdiwahab and Guled have recently got married, to Somali girls. Almost without exception, Finnish Somalis marry among themselves.
"I think that subconsciously we want to preserve our own culture. From the point of view of bringing up children, it is important that the couple share the same religion", says Guled.
The whole question of religious faith has gained in importance as they have moved from adolescence into adulthood.
"As a teenager it is harder to understand, when the peer-group smokes cigarettes and people go and buy six-packs of beer from the store. But at this age it is clear that we are Muslims and that we don't drink beer", says Guled.
Nevertheless, many a young Somali in Finland has slipped into a spiral of marginalisation. For all that, Guled does not envision any broad-ranging spread of extreme Islamic fundamentalism hereabouts: "It is possible to tempt individual youngsters into most any kind of bad things."
And what about these two? What do Abdiwahab and Guled do with themselves? Do they hang out all day among the unemployed Somali men at the café in the city's main railway station? Maybe prowl around Kaisaniemi Park peddling dope?
Err... not exactly, no.
Abdiwahab works as a security officer at Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport. He is the stern security guy who rummages through passengers' hand-luggage and their plastic ziplock bags of roll-ons and eau de colognes in order to make sure that terrorists do not manage to blow up a scheduled flight somewhere over the Atlantic.
Guled is studying genetics and biosciences at the University of Helsinki. He hopes at some point to be able to return to the Horn of Africa and to Somalia on a research expedition, to collect the region's unique genetic material.
If Allah is willing, that is.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 31.12.2006
TOMMI NIEMINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
tommi.nieminen@hs.fi
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| 19.12.2006 - THIS WEEK |
 UPDATED 1.1.2007 Clansmen, Helsinki-style |
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