The unknown history of the first Somali Americans.

[Kurobecky]

I’ve been researching my father’s family history and I came across an interesting article of the first wave of Somalis in America.

Harlem Roses: Tracing the Somali Histories of New York City

Some notes on my latest research project: a close narration of the archives of Somali seafarers in New York City.

hudahassan.substack.com

 

[Chaseyourdreamzz]

Yeah they also settled in buffalo Ny as well around ww2 era they had a community of a couple hundred I heard

 

[Keep it a boqol]

we were the first africans to settle in ny

 

[Chaseyourdreamzz]

Somalis used to own a bunch of stores in Harlem in the 80s believe it or not

 

[Kurobecky]

I learned that my paternal grandmother’s family were Tuareg and Rifian Berbers from mainly Morocco that immigrated during the 1900s.

But the actual first North African was a Moorish Haratin slave named Estebanico Al Azemmouri (also called Estevanico), a Muslim Moroccan of Gnawa descent , who participated in Pánfilo de Narváez's ill-fated expedition to colonize Florida and the Gulf Coast in 1527.


The infamous Dictionary of Races or Peoples, first published by the U.S. Immigration Commission in 1911, says nothing about Riffians and gives minimal (and incorrect) explanations on Berbers (Imazighen), save that "they are not known as immigrants."

 

[Kurobecky]

we were the first africans to settle in ny

I didn’t know that!!!

 

[Kurobecky]

The surname my Somali grandfather chose, Reed (means a person's complexion or hair being ruddy or red in Middle English) is a pun on the Somali word used to call their skintone maariin = reddish brown & Axumites’ word for themselves “qey’h” which in there language means Red.

The Song of The Reed the most quoted, studied and imbibed poetic verses in Muslim tradition.

 

[Kurobecky]

Yeah they also settled in buffalo Ny as well around ww2 era they had a community of a couple hundred I heard

The first job I had in Chicago was on Clark Street

 

[niggaibnh]

I’ve been researching my father’s family history and I came across an interesting article of the first wave of Somalis in America.

Harlem Roses: Tracing the Somali Histories of New York City

Some notes on my latest research project: a close narration of the archives of Somali seafarers in New York City.

hudahassan.substack.com

I’ve heard there was Somalis before 1900s

 

[Kurobecky]

I’ve heard there was Somalis before 1900s

I’ve heard that on an old African community forum about ten years ago. The craziest part is this all happened when Woodrow Wilson was in office!!!!