"I am going to use the word Midgan," declared Yasmeen Maxamuud, an American-Somali writer.
The audience released an awkward, muffled laugh. Midgan is a derogatory reference for a Somali group seen by many as outcasts. Ms. Maxamuud let the insult linger in the air, allowing the audience to recognize how a word can divide people.
"You should feel uncomfortable with that word," said Ms. Maxamuud, author of Nomad Diaries, a novel telling individual stories of Somali refugees in the U.S., including a character considered to be an outcast.
She was speaking at Somali Week Festival in London, a city home to a large Somali diaspora. The annual event aims to give major issues affecting both the diaspora and Somalis back home a platform for discussion—through music, literature and general debate.
These days, the world's attention is more on Somalia's litany of woes, rather than its literature. In recent weeks, the president has ousted the prime minister, Islamic militants have pressed its battle to topple a weak government and Somali pirates have stepped up attacks on foreign ships following the monsoon rains.
But the troubles discussed at the festival were more social in nature.
The theme of this year's Somali Week was 'Tradition and Modernity.' In addition to young female writer Ms. Maxamuud, another participant was someone who many at the east London venue call their William Shakespeare, Somaliland-based poet Mahamed Ibrahim Warsame Hadraawi. The elderly Mr. Hadrawi was seen checking his cellphone, as young volunteers—some in headscarves—scampered around women in colorful Somali dresses.
The event will also be held in Somaliland, an unrecognized state in northwest Somalia, later in the year. The ties between London and Somaliland are strong. Many members of Somaliland's government are frequently in London in part to campaign for recognition as a state from the U.K. government. Somalis also have a strong history of sending remittances home.
"The event is about promoting tolerance and acceptance among Somali cultures and to really discuss issues that are important," said organizer Ayan Mahamoud. "As a Diaspora we are exposed to racism and Islamaphobia but we haven't dealt with our own racism," she said.
At the packed London community center, the audience got a good dose of these issues. During the aforementioned "Midgan" moment, people shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. Somalia has a group of people called the Gabooye, who are often referred to derisively as Midgan, the social equivalent to India's "untouchables" in the caste system.
"We have more information about what it is to be black in America than it is to be Gabooye," said Nadifa Mohamed, author of Black Mamba Boy, a novel based on the life of her father who started out on the streets of Aden.
Somalia is far away for many of the teenagers born and raised in the UK. But they are still faced with the issues of tribalism that affect family in Somalia.
"It happens in real life, it's realistic for Somalis in London," said Nawal Ibrahim, 16 years old, a volunteer at the event. "We know it happens to us."
Meanwhile, a play written and directed by Somali students focused on the resistance a young girl living in London faces when she wants to marry a boy from a tribe deemed lower than her own. At one point the boy, speaking in Somali peppered with British slang blurts: "We're the generation that has to change things!"
This time, the audience let out a cheer of agreement.
— Each week, Africa Dispatch takes a snapshot of a different African place, offering a ground-level view of change on the continent.
Write to Devon Maylie at devon.maylie@dowjones.com
Source: Wall Street Journal
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