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Somali Bantu Timeline

  • Bantus were taken from their native lands of northern Tanzania and Mozambique to be sold as slaves in Somalia in the 18th and 19th centuries

 

  • 1930: Slavery ends in Somalia, but the Italian colonial government sets up an exploitative system in which the Somali Bantu are forced to work as farm laborers

 

  • 1960: The Somali Bantu are freed but denied opportunities for land ownership, education, and political representation

 

  • Bantus held a low social status in Somalia for more than 200 years: no tribe membership, could perform only menial labor, were not allowed to marry non-Bantus

 

  • 1991: civil war broke out in Somalia, forcing about 12,000 Somali Bantus (and many others) to flee in order to escape clan militias who were stealing, burning, raping, murdering

 

  • 1992: Many refugees traveled from Somalia to Dadaab, a Kenyan UN refugee camp of 130,000 just across the border

 

  • After failed attempts by UNHCR to resettle Somalis in Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania, in 1991 US State Dept. agreed to begin to resettle some refugees in the US

 

  • Many Somali Bantus stayed in Kenyan camps for about ten years, still persecuted by other Somali clans: makeshift huts, long lines for limited food rations, constant danger of rape for women, little access to education (especially for girls)

 

  • 1999: US State Dept. identified Somali Bantus as “persecuted” and a slow immigration process was set in motion to Kakuma, a safer and more accessible refugee camp farther from the border: INS began screening and State dept. offered a limited literacy program and cultural orientation program

 

  • 2003: US resettlement began, family groups placed in 50 US cities and towns

 

  • Spring of 2004: Somali Bantu families began settling in Pittsburgh

 

  • On arrival, less than 5% spoke English. Community almost completely illiterate (in English and Somali)

 

  • There are now more than 200 Somali Bantu living in Pittsburgh and more than 14,000 nationwide

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