Somali-Bantu Brochure

The information in this brochure is meant to help host families better acquaint their newly arrived guests with the food culture in Vermont. The information in this brochure was gathered during interviews with the four Somali-Bantu women pictured above.

Clockwise from left
Ismahan Somo, Nuriya Mahadey (both living in Burlington), Seyneb Ibrahem, Nuriyo Gedi (both living in Winooski).

Somali-Bantu women are often overwhelmed by the vast selection and size of Vermont supermarkets. This can make recognizing and choosing the right foods a very confusing task. Seyneb half-joked about getting lost inside the supermarket at first. Help you family locate foods that are familiar to them. Rice, corn meal, corn, oil, chicken, eggs, spaghetti, bread, onions, spinach, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, bananas, squash, and milk are some of the foods familiar to most Somali-Bantu. Seyneb said that the first meal she cooked in Vermont was spaghetti wile Nuriya reported cooking eggs and bread for her first meal. Nuriyo described the food situation in Vermont by exclaiming "which food are we going to eat today?" Nuriya said "I can find anything I need here."

According to Islamic law, Somali-Bantu are prohibited from eating any pork products, including pork lard. The women mentioned eating hallel goat, which means the goat must be slaughtered and prepared properly by Islamic law. This is a very important part of the Somali-Bantu diet. Seyneb said she buys hallel goat at the Global Market at 333 N. Winooski Ave in Burlington. There is also a farm in Milton, or as Nuriya calls it "the forest" as it is so far away, which has sold live goats to Somali-Bantu in the past.

In Africa the children normally only ate one meal a day. It is important to realize that the children and adults alike and might need some time to adjust to a higher calorie diet and three meals a day. The Somali-Bantu are also not accustomed to an auto-dependent lifestyle. In Africa, foot was their primary and often only mode of transportation. Keep in mind that this new, more sedentary American lifestyle is a big physical as well as emotional change.

Refugees mostly rely on food stamps to buy food and need to know how to properly budget their funds and learn to be comparative shoppers, especially with so many different brands available to them. Packaging can also be deceptive and hard to read. They are used to fresh produce or bulk type foods in sometimes-unmarked sacks or bags.

Using a stove for the first time was scary for Nuriyo. Cooking with new families instead of for new families is the best way to help them learn about a kitchen. Nuriya said she had never even dreamed of a stove. She also said that it is important to not let the children use the stove as they do not know they can be burned. Storing food properly in the kitchen can be confusing for newcomers. Refrigerators and freezers are for the most part a new concept for them and so emphasizing which foods go in the cupboard, the refrigerator, and freezer becomes useful.

Lastly, try introducing families to the African Market at the intersection of N. Winooski Ave and North Street where they can find African foods not available at the chain markets. City Market in Burlington offers a large selection of spices and dried herbs that families may be used in their cooking. Nuriya says she buys the curry. All the women said they were interested in shopping at Farmer's Markets, although this can be expensive. The women and their families are still adjusting to life in America. Seyneb tells her children that they have three parents; the mom, the dad, and the teacher. They are very thankful for all the support that Judy Scott and the volunteers give them and are very happy for their life here in Vermont.

While still in Somalia all four women subsistence farmed until violent civil war forced them off their land, out of Somalia, and into refugee camps in their neighboring southeast Kenya during the 1990's. Apparently the Somali-Bantu fell victim to brutality during the war as they had no affiliation with it and therefore no protection. In addition, they lived in the agriculturally rich Juba Valley of southern Somalia and the warring clans with food resources took advantage of the productive Somali-Bantu farms.

Before the war, Nuriya spoke of harvesting her crops and storing extra food in an underground hole to preserve it. Seyneb said that on her farm she grew corn and squash, and drank milk. When the war began, gun men stole food from her farm. Nuriyo, on the other hand, said that she grew beans and corn maize and ate porridge regularly. Nuriyo cited a time during the war when a gunman came to her farm, bound her with rope, and tromped on her before stealing her food.

Each woman came from a different camp and area of southern Somalia, but had similar stories of a difficult life struggling to keep their families together and alive. on several occasions the women spoke of being victim to physical abuse and rape.

In the UNHCR camps, the UN refugee egency typically distributes rations every 15 days in amount of 3,300g of wheat flour; 3,525g of whole maize corn; 375g of oil; 600g of corn soya blend; and 75g of salt per person. The women and each member of her family had a ration card that identified them as legitimate recipients of UN food and often the card was their only form of legal identification. The food provided by the UNHRC was never enough and the women often traded rations for meat, sugar, oil, and other essentials. A market exists outside the camp where Somalis and Kenyans alike buy food and goods like woven mats made in the camp can be sold. Also Seyneb said she would offer services like carrying water for wealthier people to earn money. Nuriya added that when she went out Fatuma, her now-eight-year-old daughter, would take care of the younger siblings while she was away.

The UN prodived tents, dishware and blankets, but these things were often stolen by gunmen. Seyneb would take her belongings each night to the refugee camp police station to seek refuge while the gunmen made their rounds. She suspected that the gunmen were either other Somalis or Kenyans who felt displaced by the camp. In any case, the Somali-Bantu were the most vulnerable group inside the camps. Seyneb was a community leader in her area of the refugee camp and was in charge of water distribution. She cleverly used run-off water to irrigate a small garden of beans, spinach, corn, tomatoes, and squash to help feed the community.

In the refugee camps, the women used what we think of as a campfire to cook their food. Seyneb described using three stones with a fire in the middle to cook food. Finding firewood was a difficult but necessary task. They talked of going in groups of twenty or thirty often taking six or seven hours to gather wood using axes. Gunmen would patrol the woods. Seyneb said that if she was confronted by a gunman and had nothing to give him, he would assault her, sometimes in front of her children. She added that she would do anything the gunmen told her to do, because if she didn't they would kill her and this would mean no firewood and no food for her family.

Although they greatly appreciate of all the help they get from volunteers, the Somali Bantu would like to be able to successfully perform food access tasks independently someday.

Some possible next steps that could help the Somali-Bantu function independently include:

• Developing community garden space at the Intervale for Somali-Bantu to farm.
• Forming an "African Food Coalition" geared towards bringing more African foods to the Burlington and Winooski marketplaces.
• Developing a CCTA bus program that enables large Somali-Bantu families to shop using public transportation.

Many thanks to Fatuma Bulle (left) for translating the women's stories, Judy Scott (right), volunteer coordinator at VRRP, and UVM Professor Diane Gayer for organizing and moderating the interviews. The photos were taken by Diane.

This brochure was designed and compiled by Robin Smith as part of a CDAE Community Design and Planning class at The University of Vermont Planning and Implementation CUPS grant.