₦airaland Forum

GERALD710:
Of the top 10 Richest Kenyan families.
4 are from Kenya's largest tribe, the Kikuyu
2 are Kalenjin
3 are Asian
1 is European.
None is Somali!!!

Corruption. Addressed in the articles. Maybe you should read before you comment.

GERALD710:
I happen to live in Kenya, You are a mass liar let us see this 'Somali Capital' in Kenya.Eastleigh

I've quoted official sources, articles, studies. The facts don't lie.

Poor infrastructure and lack of proper sanitation only proves the failure of the government. The articles that I've quoted even mention this. You don't blame ordinary people and businesses for the government's neglect to do its job.

Somalis are also doing quite well in Uganda:

Yet, despite their shattered hopes back home, the Somali community in Uganda has taken the economic landscape by storm, enjoying a commendable share of the country’s fuel industry, among other sectors. DEVAPRIYO DAS looks at this business community.

Hassan Ahmed, a Ugandan Somali, and Director of the prominent Somali-owned City Oil franchise, hints at the secret behind Somalis’ success in business. “Somalis have always had links to many areas of the world”, he says.

“With that link, they are able to have very good sourcing. Every time you source well, it will result in benefitting the consumer, because you are able to bring the costs down.”

That strategy bodes well with Uganda’s consumers who depend heavily on imports but whose purchasing power is low. It also explains why Somali businesses have become an accepted part of Uganda’s commercial life, covering essential services like fuel stations, foreign exchange, money transfer, and supermarkets.

http://www.observer.ug/component/content/article?id=5042:-devastated-at-home-somali-businesses-thrive-in-uganda

You should be happy that an African community is finding success in your country. It's funny how some of you people never objected to the Asian and white communities that exploited your people but are quick to hate on other Africans. Personally speaking, I have never hated on the success of others. The success of others does not detract from the success of my people. Why did you get defensive over my post? As if it's an insult to your people that other Africans have managed to find success in Kenya. This is the kind of mentality that holds Africans back.

But East Africa’s South Asians had long ago learned the value of organised ethnic capital. It was the secret to their success. Now they were being challenged from an unlikely quarter: the Somali community of Eastleigh.

It is this rapid evolution and the constant re-deployments of Somali capital that has baffled many outsiders. When the Kenyan government recently announced that it was embarking on a property audit in Nairobi, the intent was obvious: to establish a link between piracy and the expansion of Somali capital. Ignorant and more than a little envious of the sudden growth of Somali businesses, the Kenyan establishment suspected that much of the money coming into Eastleigh and dispersing into Nairobi real estate, as well as other sectors, was laundered pirate money. None of the studies and investigations subsequently conducted has confirmed such a link.

There can be little doubt that a certain amount of proceeds of piracy have also been invested in Kenya and other places in East Africa. Any audit, however, will have a difficult time proving that piracy is the bedrock of Somali capital’s expansionism. By this year, piracy proceeds amounted to less than $100 million. This is a fraction of what is generated across the spectrum of Somali business activities in Kenya. Moreover, it simply cannot explain the expansion of Somali capital before the boom in piracy ransoms began last year.

More than anything, then, Somali capital flowing through the hawala system allows it to be more mobile than other forms of ethnic capital. And because it is communal, it can be quickly mobilised to take advantage of new investment and trading opportunities. Similarly, because Somalis rely on family networks for their labour, they are able to keep recurrent costs at a minimum while extending a trading network across the diaspora. Today, remittances to Somalia are estimated at $2 billion. This, more than anything else, explains the growth of commerce in Eastleigh.

None of the shopping malls in Eastleigh are individually owned, I am informed by the shopping mall manager. People, mostly in the diaspora, pool their resources and make an acquisition and share out the profits.

“Our people in the West now no longer feel obligated to support family in Somalia by constantly sending money,” says Osman Moalim. Instead, they have created investment vehicles in which relatives can make a legitimate living.

Moalim attributes the rise of Somali capital to a simple principle: “We are risk takers. We don’t fear new opportunities or new places.”

http://chimurengachronic.co.za/the-rise-of-somali-capital-2/

You seem like one of those people who are full of hate and envy. You actually sat down and wrote an essay on how terrible Somali people are lol. This is why people like you never succeed. Instead of building a legacy for yourself and your people, you would rather waste your time and energy on defecating on the success of others.

I love how you dismissed a thorough report on the rise of Somali capital in Kenya from an unbiased source because it's written by a South African ("the land of xenophobia" lol.

I also love how you managed to strip successful Kenyan-Somalis of their ethnic backgrounds as if they are "just' Kenyans. Fun fact: the business boom in places like Eastleigh is primarily driven by Somali refugees and not Kenyan citizens. Not that it makes any difference since we're talking about Somalis as an ethnic group. Most Somalis in Kenya arrived in the 90's.

Somalis are ancient traders and have been trading with foreign empires for thousands of years due to the strategic location of our country (look up the history of ancient cities like Mosylon, Opone, Mogadishu, Zeila and Berbera). We've always had trade connections with the far east, Persia, Rome, Greece, ancient Egypt etc.. Even today, Somali businessmen exploit good trade connections in the middle East and China which gives them an advantage over local traders. That and our clan system which allows us to pool our resources and make risky investments.

Let's see you squirm around these other articles and studies:

The neighbourhood is thought to reach $3m a day in black market currency trades alone. George says Somali traders also dominate soft commodity movements throughout the region, in everything from rice to sugar and flour.

“Most of this trade takes place off the radar, using a complex web of hawala lenders, local traders and businessmen. They operate in cash, outside the global banking system, channelling goods into east Africa and beyond,” says George. “Given the sheer volume of goods passing through Eastleigh, it is natural that commercial banks want to get involved in what is a very lucrative trade.”

https://next.ft.com/content/d4979b30-bf98-11e1-bb88-00144feabdc0

Abstract
Since the collapse of the Somali state, Nairobi's Eastleigh estate has played host to thousands of Somali refugees and developed from a quiet residential suburb to a major East African commercial hub. This article examines this transformation, arguing that it builds on pre-existing cross border trade networks, as well as diaspora and Kenyan sources of capital, and regional and global processes that intensified in the early 1990s. The Eastleigh story provides a lens through which we trace economic changes associated with Somalia's extended statelessness, in particular how connective fabric has been generated and sustained in this stateless period. However, the Eastleigh story is not just one of Somali statelessness, but also of interaction with other states. In particular, this article focuses on the ambiguous relationship of Eastleigh to the Kenyan state, suggesting that Somali business in Eastleigh, although born of a collapsed state and informality, is integrated in various ways into the formal state-regulated sector. Furthermore, Eastleigh businesspeople hope for more Kenyan state involvement in the estate to provide better security and infrastructure, while Somali businesspeople in general long for a viable Somali state that will allow them to invest their capital at home. -

See more at: http://www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk/somali-trade-networks-and-eastleigh-transformation#.dpuf

Eastleigh, a mass of crowds and color in the heart of Kenya’s capital, is like no other neighborhood in Nairobi.

Nicknamed “Little Mogadishu,” it has bloomed in the past decade into one of East Africa’s most vibrant commercial centers, built mostly by refugees from Somalia who came here after that country collapsed in the 1990s.

http://m.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2014/0617/How-Kenya-s-war-on-terror-disrupts-a-thriving-Nairobi-district

Somalis are probably the most entrepreneurial people in Africa. The success of Somali businesspeople in countries like South Africa is unparallelled:

This is apparent in Johannesburg’s “Little Mogadishu” where the city’s Somali entrepreneurs thrive in streets full of busy shops selling everything from underwear to internet services at very low prices.

Furaa has teamed with other Somali businesspeople in South Africa to start programs that pass on entrepreneurial skills to unemployed South African youth, especially in the informal sector.

http://www.groundup.org.za/article/how-south-africans-are-learning-somali-businesses_3281/

http://thoughtprint.usb.ac.za/Pages/What-can-Somalis-teach-South-Africans-about-business.aspx

A thread from 2010 that's dedicated to tracking Somali business activities across Africa:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1300633

Even in Somalia, despite the collapse of our country we have one of the strongest private sectors in Africa - especially in industries such as telecommunication,

http://www.economist.com/node/5328015

Fulaman198:
Yeah I have seen "Arabs" in Lebanon on videos abusing Ethiopian women. I could never allow that to happen to an African woman. From what I have seen personally, Somalis also respect their women and I admire that.

Somali women are very, VERY, outspoken and are used to having a great deal of freedom. Arabs and whites assume that they are submissive and docile and are then shocked when it turns out that they are far from that.

Actually come to think of it, all African women have a hot temper from what I've observed. They usually wear the pants when they marry whites unlike Asian women.

Fulaman198:
ROFLLL seconded on that one and vice versa. If a Fulani woman is going to marry out, I'd rather she marry another Muslim African like a Somali rather than a European or an Arab.

At least you know with a fellow African she will not experience racism. Plus Arabs have a serious problem called "domestic abuse". I know if so many cases where Somali women married Arabs who would beat them.

Wulfruna:
Look here, Nigerians have zero problems with Somalis. Nigerians won't be saying anything negative things about Somalia and its people if your brother wasn't here saying negative things about Nigerians and other Africans outside the Horn.

Frankly, I'm pissed off at the occasional 'pacifiers' such as yourself who come here to tell the victims of daily provocations from your countryman, the Somali troll that they shouldn't make fun of Somalis blah blah blah.

It's not us you should be giving this sermon to. Take it to your brother. He always starts the insults. That's the only reason he has one million nairaland accounts --- to insult West Africans and Bantus. I don't know why you want to come at people who only pay him back in his own coin. Would you rather we just sit quietly and take his insults?

Lol is everyone this rude here? I didn't give a "sermon'.

I've already told these trolls off. Maybe you haven't noticed. It's understandable that people will reply in kind to someone who keeps antagonizing them. But I would hope that most of you are mature enough to understand that by responding to these trolls, you are in fact "feeding" them. They want you to get angry and lose your cool. Why aren't they banned from this forum? Either ban them or ignore them, simple.

Let's be honest, both the Nigerian dudes and the women in those photos/videos are probably highly educated. I don't get why people would want to police what others do with their lives. If Ethiopian or Somali women want to marry Nigerian men, why should anybody care?

Me personally I prefer that people just stick with their own kind, but I am not going to impose my beliefs on others. Tbh I'd rather see Somali sisters marrying good Nigerian brothers rather than whites. We have far more in common with a Hausa or Fulani or any other Muslim West African than with whites or even Arabs.

But again, I am not going to force my opinions on others.

AbzDore:
We Somalis don't find Bantu big nose aka monkey attractive too

Waryaa why are you antagonizing Nigerian people on their own forum?? I don't know why there are so many Somali trolls here.

Have some self-respect and stop insulting people. It's idiots like you who embarrass the rest of us. And you have the nerve to make fun of God's creation!

So much ignorance in this thread:

1) FGM is prevalent all over Africa - including Nigeria. In fact, Nigeria has the highest number of women who have suffered FGM: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3507121/

FGM is practised by people from all religions in Africa as it predates both Christianity and Islam.

2) Poverty and disease are not exclusive to Somalia. If you haven't noticed, all of Africa is poor. You losers are arguing over which country is slightly less shitty than the other. Meanwhile, Europeans and Asians are laughing at you all. Pathetic.

3) people generally stereotype African males as being misogynistic and having little respect for women. The way you talk about women in this thread only confirms that stereotype.

4) there are plenty of successful Somalis in the diaspora - mainly in Africa and the middle East. Some of the wealthiest men and women in East Africa are Somali and Somalis have even begun to push Indians away from their neighborhoods in places like Kenya. They are currently buying up property like there is no tomorrow:

http://chimurengachronic.co.za/the-rise-of-somali-capital-2/

One of the wealthiest families in Kenya is Somali, I believe they are worth over a billion dollars.

Not to mention the successful Somali businessmen and women in South Africa.

Of course Nigeria is a wealthier country than Somalia because it's much more populous, has huge natural resources (that are tapped) and has had functioning governments for many decades. Somalis are doing quite OK for a people who come from a war-torn country. The Somali diaspora in the West needs to get its act together though.


Finally, don't let some troll anger you to a level where you begin to insult innocent, impoverished people. It makes you look like a classless degenerate. What would I gain by making fun of poor Nigerians? The things I've seen on this forum are quite outrageous. Africans making fun of starving Africans. Not even the worst white racist would stoop so low.

hmmph:
How do you know? You think y'all are better looking or something? No matter how much you bleach your skin Somalis for example will always call you ugly so believe me, looking down on others will get you no where. Plus she does not have a eig and tons of make up on do what? How mdny Nigerians can step outside and feel confident without those extra props? None

I'm Somali and I've seen plenty of attractive Nigerian women. I generally find West African women quite attractive. There's beauty everywhere.

pendo89:
OOOOOOOOOOH TAKE YOUR STINKING Bottom OUT OF THIS THREAD!! GET BACK HERE TO KENYA AND TAKE YOUR POOR PEOPLE BACK TO YOUR PATHETIC LAND!!
WHAT ECONOMY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT WOLALO DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE EA ECONOMY??
SOMALI KNOWS ONE ECONOMY! PIRACY AND KIDNAPPING FOR RANSOM.THE MOST ENTERPRISING SOMALI EXPORTS KHAT! The rest do black market.

Pendo, the Somali diaposra in Africa (especially Kenya) has accumulated plenty of wealth over the years. Some of the wealthiest people in East Africa are Somalis. I know why you are upset, but please do not take your frustrations out on all of us. Making fun of impoverished people in order to score a few cheap points is very disgraceful. All of Africa is dirt poor. Arguing over which country is less shitty than the other is just laughable. We're all in the same boat at the end of the day.

As for the Somali community in Kenya, read the following:

http://chimurengachronic.co.za/the-rise-of-somali-capital-2/

I came across this thread on google while searching for information about Somalis and I must say it's quite a disgraceful thread. I apologise in advance for reviving this old thread, but I had to get the following off my chest.

1) As I said, this thread is very disgraceful and very degrading to people from Somalia and Ethiopia. I've read some comments that reduced women from those countries to nothing more than pieces of meat.

2) That Ayanle douchebag is a loser and does not represent all Somalis. He clearly has some mental issues that he needs to deal with. Referring to his fellow Africans as "Slaves" etc. is quite pathetic. I've seen some people who have responded in kind and, frankly speaking, I don't blame them for going OTT as I can only imagine how hurtful and infuriating it is to deal with such an obnoxious troll. Slavery is nothing to be joked about.

3) There is beauty everywhere on earth and as a Somali male, I happen to believe that West African women are very beautiful. I don't get why some West African, AA and Caribbean men have this fetish for our women. Those same men tend to degrade and look down on their own women which really makes zero sense to me. The most natural thing for any man is to be attracted to his own women first and foremost. Who brainwashed you to believe that one beauty standard is above all other standards? These men drool over Latinas, mixed race women, Asian women... Horners are just the latest fetish. Have some respect for your women and stop reinforcing the notion that they can only become attractive if they dilute their natural features. I love West African women and I am not even West African! But I would never go to a Somali forum and then drool over pictures of attractive WA women out of respect for my own sisters.

4) To the Somalis who are posting pictures of random Somali women: Have some shame and stop sharing pictures of random women. Most of these pictures are from social websites like Facebook and most of these women have no idea that their pictures are being shared on some Nigerian forum.