ABSTRACT
On March 3, 1993, Canadian soldiers shot two Somalis ultimately killing one. On March 16, 1993, Canadian peacekeepers stationed in Somalia tortured to death 16-year-old Shidane Abukar Arone. After graphic photographs, testimonies, and documentation of the violence committed by soldiers surfaced, the embarrassed federal government launched a national inquiry titled the Somalia Affair. Canada’s response to this scandal included a rapid resettlement of over 70,000 Somali refugees between 1993 and 1996 before the inquiry was controversially cut short. There are now approximately 150,000 Somalis in Canada making it the largest African diaspora community. While their arrival as refugees foregrounds a common experience, Somalis do not constitute a homogenous group. Though some scholars have attended to unequal clan and social relations, we have little understanding of how these histories are being remade in diasporic sites. This chapter discusses how Somali social stratifications from the ‘homeland’ materialize in new environments; how homeland hegemonic hierarchies and knowledge formations have been adopted in new Canadian contexts; and how knowledge is transmitted in Somali-Canadian diaspora communities. Taking inspiration from Benedict Anderson’s (1991) conceptualization of imagined nationalist sensibilities, I propose to explore the contemporary use of new technologies and oral communicative practices in the formation of Somali-Canadian imaginaries. By exploring whether persistent hegemonies are being reproduced in these new spaces, this chapter will examine diasporic oralities and their deployment in the reconfiguring of power/social boundaries.
