For Haji Adan, every Saturday morning is an investment in the future.
“We felt like we needed to do something for our children,” says Adan. He is talking about the Somali-Bantu Community Association’s effort in Syracuse to teach their children what they need to know to succeed in the United States. Adan is a survivor of civil war in Somalia, the literacy director for the Somali-Bantu Community Association and a student at Onondaga Community College.
He is also the father of five sons, two of whom — Abdirahman Addi, 5, and Bashal Addi, 7 — come with him to class every Saturday.
At the Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School on the South Side, Abdirahman and Bashal Adan and more than 100 Somali-Bantu children gather to receive help with their homework, learn study skills and nurture a centuries-old culture from their father and other elders.
“The program is very important for us to have because it really encourages, it really helps and it really reinforces our students to perform well at school,” their father, Haji Adan said.
Adan and his community are descendants of African people taken to Somalia by Arab slave traders in the 19th century from their homelands in what are now known as Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania. In Somalia, they eventually took the name of Bantu. They were considered outsiders and they were prevented from attending school, Adan recalls.
When civil war erupted in Somalia in 1991, the Bantu became a target. The Bantu were the main minority group, a group that had been forced into jobs as farmers on the fertile land between the Shebelle and Jubba rivers. Rival Somali clans raided Bantu farms, raped the women and killed many of the men. Survivors fled to refugee camps in Kenya and eventually some resettled in other countries.
In Syracuse, about 95 Somali-Bantu families — numbering more than 500 refugees — have settled in low-cost housing in the Central Village housing complex. The Somali-Bantu Association’s educational program survives on donations from the families and from the Syracuse community and with the help of a network of volunteers.
“We came together in the refugee camps, and now that we have come to a country where everyone speaks English, we have come together again in this community,” Adan said. “The community agreed that we need this organization and said let’s do it together.”
The Somali-Bantu community also has ties to Syracuse University. Robbi Farschman, the director of the Office of Engagement Programs at Hendricks Chapel, helps the Somali-Bantu classes with student volunteers and with fundraising advice. The group runs on a tight annual budget of approximately $63,000, said Farschman.
Much of the operating costs have been paid by community donations. For example, the Syracuse City School District provides the space at MLK Jr. Elementary School, a guard, and building maintenance services. That’s at an estimated value of $15,000, said Farschman. Other supporters, he said, include the Syracuse Junior League, Catholic Charities and the Boys and Girls Club.
Volunteers from among Syracuse University students and staff from Literacy Corps, the Office of Engagement at Hendricks Chapel and the African Student Union have been important assets to the program, said Abdullahi Ibrahim, the director of the Somali-Bantu Community Association.
“There are a lot of generous people out there who are willing to assist even with the bad economic situation,” Ibrahim said.
The elders of the community say they are eager to keep the program operating because they see a great improvement in the students’ Syracuse city schools report cards. Haji Adan keeps all the report cards of the students. He proudly shows off marked improvement, including that of his own eldest son, Bashal.
And Ibrahim, the association’s director, says for his community, nothing is more important than this kind of educational improvement.
“The Somali-Bantus historically didn’t have access to education or equal access to education” Ibrahim said. “We know education is very important. It is our key to the world.”
(Jason Tarr is a senior with triple majors in broadcast journalism, international relations and Spanish.)
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