Demand for youth Somali-language literature is growing in Finland, as the majority of the 10,000 Somali-speaking inhabitants in Finland are children and youths. Experts say libraries should stock more Somali-language books that deal with everyday issues facing the Somali community, such as learning to live in a new culture.
Libraries in the greater Helsinki area say they currently have 150 Somali-language titles on their shelves for children and 262 for adults.
“It’s important that we as quickly as possible find new publishers of Somali-language books,” says Antti Mäkinen of Helsinki City’s Multilingual Library.
Mäkinen says libraries should recognise the important role they play in bringing a variety of issues to light through their choice of book orders.
”Collections should cover more than folklore. There is for example a demand for books about societal issues pertaining to integration and how Somali youths and adults adapt to new environments around the world," says Mäkinen.
Somali Culture Traces Roots to Poetry
While "standard Somali" was only introduced in 1972, Somali has been transliterated into other scripts―including Arabic― for centuries.
Poems are particularly popular among the Somali diaspora.
”We are a nation of poets. Poetry is the social fabric of the Somali community,” says Mohamed Sh Hassan, who manages the Scansom publishing house, which publishes Somali-language materials in Canada and Sweden.
Hassan says he expects demand for bilingual books to increase. Children’s Somali-language story books could include texts in Finnish, Swedish or English, according to Hassan.
Source: Yle.fi
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