I would say this interview was in my favor. Yahye and I had a great conversation in the interview. I was so impressed by how talkative he was. The interview went pretty well due to three important reasons.
First, he is a good talker. My anxiety of wondering how the interview would go was gone right away before the interview because I could see that he is so prepared. In the interview, he attentively answered all of the questions I asked and seemed to talk forever if I didn’t intentionally stop him sometimes; he was very open to talk about Somalia and Somalis; he used a lot of gestures demonstrating what he was trying to say.
Second, my fair knowledge on Somalia. Just a couple weeks ago, I wrote a country report on Somalia so in the interview what he told me made more sense. And I knowingly shared some knowledge on Somalia to induce him to talk more and he did.
Third, the atmosphere that we created. The spot we chose was just right. It was quite and comfortable. We sit in sofas, which make us feel relaxed. There was nobody passing by to distract us so we could focus on the interview.
Now, I am looking forwards to my third interview.
Reference
Somalia Country Profile
Overview
Somalia, officially the Republic of Somalia, is a country located in the east coast of Africa. Due to its special location, it was once an important trading center in the ancient. However, in the 19th century, Somalia was colonized by the European powers. Although Somalia gained independence back after 1960, it has been suffering serious civic unrests since then. Without a working government, its economy still functions well. Because of the close ties with the Arab World, Somali people share similar customs and traditions with Arab and other Islamic cultures.
History
Somalia’s early history traces back to the seventh century A.D. when the Somali state and an Arab sultanate were founded. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Portuguese and Turkish gained control of several coastal towns. Afterwards, and the sultans of Oman and Zanzibar took back the territory, and ruled the surrounding area.
Somalia’s modern history began in the 19th century. After British occupying Aden in 1839, the European powers subsequently began to established colonies in Somalia. In 1960, Italy granted independence to its colony and then Britain withdrew from its protectorate in Somalia. As a result, the Republic of Somalia was formed on July 1, 1960. Ten years later, Somalia experienced a civil war which lasted for 21 years.
Continuous fighting on territorial interest happened until 2004 when the transitional parliament was founded to somehow bring back regulations, laws, and order. Whereas, without an effective government, Somalis have a long way to go on resolving the chaos and corruption issues (Backgroud Note: Somalia) .
Government
During January 1991 and August 2000, Somalia had no functioning government. A weak parliamentary government was formed in 2000 but soon dissolved in 2003 because of its inability to normalize the administration. In 2004, a new transitional government, known as the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), was installed and a new president was elected (Somalia) .
Geography
Somalia, which is located on the east coast of Africa with the longest coastline on the continent, covers a land mass of 637,657 square kilometer. It borders on Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti. Somali terrain consists mainly of plains, highlands, and hills. Mogadishu is its capital (Backgroud Note: Somalia) .
Economy
Despite the lack of a working central government, Somali economy has surprisingly continued to keep healthy. The main types of industry supporting the economy are agriculture, livestock, limited financial services, textiles, transportation, telecommunications, and fishing. Agriculture which is the important sector, with livestock, makes up to about 40% of GDP and more than 50% of export earnings (Africa: Somalia) .
People
· Population
Somalia has a population of around 9,832,017. 45% of the population is under the age of 15 and 52.6% between the ages of 15 to 64. Years of civil war and unrest and its inability to deal with poverty and disease have caused up to one million people to die (Hare) .
· Religion
The constitution of Somalia defines Islam as the religion of the Somali Republic. With very few exceptions, 99.9% of the population are Muslims (Backgroud Note: Somalia) .
· Education
Somalia shares the same 8-4-4 education system with Kenya. Although the number of students enrolled and schools founded has increased since the transitional federal government was in power, due to various realities, inequalities on the quality of and access to primary education are still major problems in this country (Hare) . A majority of children in Somalia aren’t able to gain education opportunities. According to the CIA statics, only 37.8 percent of Somalis can read and write, males holding 49.7 percent of that, females 25.8 percent (Africa: Somalia) .
· Languages
The Somali language is the official language of Somalia. In addition, Arabic is also an official national language. Many Somalis speak Arabic because of their tight ties with the Arab World. English is also widely used and taught. Italian, once a major language, now has lost its influence because of the independence of Somalia (Language) .
· Customs
Somalis usually greet each other with handshakes, but it is disallowed to shake hands with the opposite sex. Common verbal greatings include Assalam Alaikum (Peace be upon you), Subah wanaagsan (Good morning), and Galab wanaagan (Good afternoon). Somalis like using various hand and arm gestures when talking. There are some specific gestures, for example, “a swift twist of the open hand means ‘nothing’ or ‘no’, snapping fingers may mean ‘long ago’ or and ‘so on’, and a thumb under the chin means ‘fullness’." On the marriage, clothing, family, food, and some other customs and traditions, Somalis has much in common with Arab and other Islamic cultures. However, in some parts of this country, there are still some local traditions that Somali practice every year. DABSHID (fire burning) is an annual festival in Low Shabelle region, which the local people burn a big fire and dance around it (The Customs of Somalia) .
· Food
Somali usually eat homemade bread which is called Injera, liver soup, toast, cereal or cornmeal for breakfast. For lunch which is the most important meal of the day, Somali people usually have meat with pasta or rice. For dinner, they eat a light meal or barely eat.
Somali eat all kinds of meat, except pork which is forbidden in the religion. Meats are the main dishes. There are also many ways cooking the meats. For example, goat, beef, lamb, camel, and chicken can be fried, grilled, or broiled. They are often spiced with turmeric, coriander, cumin, and curry, and eaten with basmati rice.
Vegetables are the side dishes. Often time, they can be combined with meat to make a stew. Green peppers, spinach, potatoes, carrots, and garlic are the vegetables most eaten. There is a large selection of fruits in Somalia. Bananas, dates, apples, oranges, pears, and grapes are the popular fruits. Some types of fruits are even made into fresh juices.
Somalis also like black tea with milk and sugar, sambusas which are stuffed triangular dumplings coming with all kinds of fillings, and so on.
Like all Muslims, in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Somalis fast from eating from dawn to sunset. One that is considered healthy over the age of 15 is required to fast. (The food of Somalia) .
Photo gallery
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Somali man (photo taken from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-552829/British-UN-aid-worker-kidnapped-Somalia-wounded-gun-battle.html)
Somali women greeting each other (photo taken from http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/CV001093.html)
Reference
"Africa: Somalia." 18 October 2010. World Factbook. CIA. 25 October 2010 <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/so.html>.
"Backgroud Note: Somalia." 14 May 2010. U.S. Department of State. 25 October 2010 <http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2863.htm>.
Hare, Harry. "ICT in Education in Somalia." December 2007. infoDev.org. 25 October 2010 <http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.428.html>.
Language. 25 October 2010 <http://countrystudies.us/somalia/51.htm>.
"Somalia." Infoplease. 25 October 2010 <http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107979.html>.
The Customs of Somalia. 25 October 2010 <http://www.somaliculture.net/customs/index.html>.
The food of Somalia. 26 October 201 <http://www.somaliculture.net/food/index.html>.
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