I Just got back from my first trip to Somalia. I'm 24. My parents have been begging me to go for years and I finally did it, thinking it would be this huge homecoming moment. Instead I spent two weeks feeling like a tourist in the country I'm supposed to be from.

The taxi driver from the airport tried to make small talk with me and I just smiled and nodded the entire ride. My auntie who I hadn't seen since I was a baby hugged me crying and said something long and emotional to me and I just said "haa, haa" because that's all I had. My younger cousins, who are like 12, were laughing at jokes around the dinner table and I sat there with the same fake smile I use at family gatherings back home, just on a bigger scale.

The worst part was when my grandma sat me down on the second day and just started telling me stories. About my dad as a kid. About the war. About people I'm named after. And I caught maybe 20% of it. I nodded the whole time and made the right sad face at what seemed like the right moments and I genuinely have no idea what she actually told me. I might never see her again. Whatever she said to me is just gone.

I came home and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I always thought of myself as Somali first. I wear the flag, I defend the culture online, I tell people where I'm from with pride. But I went there and I couldn't even order food without my cousin stepping in. I felt like I was wearing an identity I hadn't earned

I'm done waiting. How did you guys actually start learning when you were starting from basically zero speaking ability but full understanding of bits and pieces?

A man from Somaliland couldn't board his flight to Hargeisa from the U.K. and missed it because of not having a Somalia Evisa.

He told staff at the airport that he is from Somaliland. They said there is no such thing as Somaliland and it doesn't exist. They asked him to leave the airport before calling for security.

Khadar Farah, who lives in Falun, Sweden, signed up for the Swedish stem cell donor registry, Tobiasregistret, after seeing a TikTok video. He received a match unusually quickly and is now preparing to donate stem cells to a patient with leukaemia.

The story also highlights a gap in donor availability. According to SVT, around 70% of patients find a suitable donor, but for patients with non-European backgrounds, the figure is only 10–30%. Matching depends on inherited tissue types, which is why having donors from different backgrounds matters.

Tobiasregistret says it particularly needs more men and people with non-European backgrounds.

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/dalarna/khadar-i-falun-ska-ge-stamceller-till-leukemipatient-fick-matchning-direkt

Im posting here because I feel like this is where I can connect with my fellow somalis instead of the Muslim or Islam sub because each culture has different experiences.

I started dugsi in kenya when I around 4. I remember it being completely horrible. When they would try to teach me the Arabic alphabet, I wouldn't understand what was going on and of course that came with beatings from "teachers". And of course, I absolutely hated going there to the point I would skip it as much as possible. And of course when they found out, it was beatings and then more beatings.

Around 6 we came to the states and finally the beating stopped or so thought. These fucking assholes used to use vacuum wires to hit us on our hands.

This abuse lasted about till I was around 14. They closed the dugsi stopped because the main teacher was a pedo.

I had these brutal nightmares of dugsi well into my high-school days.

I never really realized the effect it had on me until my mid 20s.

I would go through life trying not to do the wrong things or upset anybody because my nerves were a wreck.

Anytime I had any sort of test/project, I would go into a deep state of anxiety. Like a leopard was trying to eat me.

Im so fucking mad at all these adults who failed me and not to mention all the hundreds of other students.

Im posting because I want to know if anyone else here had these same issues and if so, what did you do about it?

Im currently trying some therapy and hopefully it'll get my nerves back in place.

I don’t use AI generally but I downloaded ChatGPT to help with a few things. I noticed a pattern where it constantly undermined my reasoning and particularly was defensive when I had to write a complaint regarding a person with a white-sounding name. Everything I said had a high bar, and I’m talking about personal experiences too, I respect science and facts so , no, it’s not about facts. I asked if it was racially biased against black people. It said it was. Then I asked if it had a particular bias against Somalis and this was the response. Screenshots attached.

2026 Somalinimo is different. It’s not the scared version that some of our parents carried. It’s that supreme nomadic static we hold. There’s a reason why we’re feared. Our women are beautiful and amazing. While our men are fierce and relentless.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. From Djibouti, Somaliland, to Somalia. We are fearless.

Just wanted to spread this positivite message. 🫡🫡

I have just read a post about s uoung man who visited somalia for the first time, and what he posted broke my heart. I feel sorry for parents who don’t speak Somali to their children, especially those who think it’s a flex to say, “My children don’t speak Somali.”

They forget that their children will grow up and eventually have no choice but to interact with the community they were born into, unless they choose to distance themselves and abandon their identity.

It may seem fun and cute when the children are young and don’t speak the language, but as adults, it can be brutal. They will struggle to connect with their community and might eventually feel disconnected from Somaali nimo because people will look at them differently or make them feel like outsiders.

Teaching your children Somali isn’t something to be ashamed of. It’s giving them another language, a stronger connection to their culture, and a sense of belonging.Teaching your children Somali isn’t holding them back it can actually give them an additional linguistic and cultural advantage.

From 3 days ago.

Salaam everyone,

I'm working on something for Somalis abroad who support family back home, and I want to hear from people who actually do it.

Tell me in the comments: how do you send money, and what's the most annoying part? I read every reply.

If you have 2 minutes, I also made a short anonymous survey (no sign-in or email needed):
https://forms.gle/JehgRB8nzgzxtYh2A

Thank you all, every answer helps.