1. Who Are the Somali Bantu and
How Can We Help Them Feel
Successful?
ENL Linguistics
by Linda DeJong

2. What experiences have you had in
working with Somali Bantu families who
speak the MaayMaay (MaiMai) language?

3. The Somali Bantu in Africa
 The Somali Bantu of Africa is one of the refugee groups most
represented
 Somali Bantu have had to face many hardships while in Africa:
slavery, being forced from their homes, enduring life in refugee
camps

4. While in refugee camps, the Somali Bantu
faced:
 Nighttime attacks by bandits
 Women were raped while gathering wood
 Stealing of food supplies
 Being forced into military fighting
 Watching family members be executed

5. What about the Somali Bantu children?
 Forced to fight in the military at young ages
 Forced to do physical labor
 Unable to receive education
 Watch family members die

6. If the children were fortunate enough to attend school in Somalia, a typical
school would look like: (double click box to view video)
 170 students taught by four teachers
 School ending by 10:30 a.m. so that children could earn money for their families by doing physical
labor or shining shoes
 Learning Somali and Arabic languages
 Outdoor or indoor classrooms could be made of mud and twigs
 Today, approximately 11% of elementary age children can attend formal education-one of the
lowest rates in the world

7. What type of refugees are the Somali Bantu?
The Somali Bantu could be either:
 Anticipatory Refugees
-fled their country when they could see problems rising
-May have had an opportunity to learn some language of the country they
were fleeing to
 Acute Refugees
-Fled immediately with nothing
-no preparation of language
-lacked education, job skills, and finances

8. Somali Bantu in South Dakota
 The number of Somali Bantu in SD make us 3rd ranked in the nation per capita
 During the years 2000-2004, 173 Somali Bantu came to SD with the majority resettling in
Sioux Falls
 More than 600 live in SD
#1 Minnesota: 116.798 per 100,000 people
#2 Vermont: 23.433 per 100,000 people
#3 South Dakota: 22.296 per 100,000 people
# 4 Utah: 20.813 per 100,000 people

9. Language of the Somali Bantu
 Africa contains more languages than any other continent
 over 2000 languages spoken by 480 people
 Africa is a land of Lingua Franca: a communication system for people
who speak different 1st languages
 The Somalian mother tongue could be 5000 years old
 Exact number of speakers in unknown: estimated 7.78 million speakers
in Somalia, 12.56 million speakers globally
 Several Somali dialects with AF Maay (Mai Mai) and Af Maxaa most
common
 AF Maay of Mai Mai is the dialect most spoken by refugees in Sioux Falls

10. AF Maay or MaiMai dialect
(pronounced my my)
alef ( ba ( ta ( ja ( xa ( kha ( deel
( ra ( sa ( shiin( dha ( or cayn ( ga
( fa ( qaaf ( kaaf ( laan ( miim ( nun
( waw ( ha ( ya ( a, e, i, o, u.
 Based on Cushitic
 Uses Latin alphabet, containing 24 consonants and 5
vowels, with 15 of the consonants pronounced almost as
in English: b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, sh, t, w, y
 Contains 3 consonant digraphs: DH, KH, SH
 Ieh-common ending in nouns and verbs
 Long vowels are made by doubling them: aa, ee, etc.

11. Can you match the days of the
week in MaiMai to English
(Use pen with Smartboard)
MaiMai English
 Ehed  Sunday
 Sabtih  Monday
 Telaadih  Tuesday
 Isniin  Wednesday
 Kamiis  Thursday
 Arbaa  Friday
 Jumaa  Saturday

12. How did you do?
 Ehed=Sunday
 Isniing=Monday
 Telaadih=Tuesday
 Arbaa=Wednesday
 Kamiis=Thursday
 Jumaa=Friday
 Sabtih=Saturday

13. Somali Lanuguages:
 Use euphemisms, indirect words and phrases (meanings
different than literal meanings)
 Speak heavily in proverbs and poems
 Use SVO (subjectverbobject) and SOV
(subjectobjectverb) forms of sentences
 Use complex verb forms-showing morphology with
suffixes
 Use prefixes to show negation

14. Stages of learning English as a new
language for the Somali Bantu
 Stage 1: First 3-6 months-”withdrawl stage”
-children may fear being abandoned
-feelings on insecurity
 Stage 2: Next 6-9 months-”despondency stage”
-feelings of inadequacy, low self-esteem, dejection
-may describe self as “stupid”
-may be aggressive at school
 Stage 3: between 12-16 months-”adaptation phase”
-view themselves comfortable with new language
-may refuse to speak native language to fit in
 Stage 4: next 2-3 years-”integrating language phase
-refugee students may move forward /backward in these stages as
they aquire new language

15. Some things to keep in mind as
refugees struggle to acculturate
 Trauma can cause behavioral issues in students-aggression
 Living space may be overcrowded in homes-high noise levels-unable to do school
work with organization
 Come to school already behind peers-never had experience with writing or reading
 Somalis have the lowest performance when compared to other ethnic groups
 “Khat” or “qat” may have been used in Somalia by older students or parents to deal
with life’s problems. Khat is a shrub in Somalia whose leaves are chewed and spit the
same as tobacco. The chemical cathinone is released and is like that of
amphetamine. Khat can cause hallucinations and its use is beginning to surface in
America

16. Other problems refugees may face
 -Lack of parental support due to language barrier
 -Socially deprived due to racism or stereotyping
 -Feeling invisible, not having their own identity
 -Young refugee children may be responsible for making financial
decisions, interpret for parents
 -Children may have learned to manipulate parents with controlling
language
 -Males may lack respect for female authority figures
 -Males may be involved in gang activity due to feeling inferior to females
as females become career oriented
 -Females may feel inferior to their peers due to circumcision that was
preformed before coming to America (female circumcision is done
between ages 5-10 as a way to show purity and right of passage
 -Females may have difficulty adjusting to the rules of society with
clothing-wear “hijab” to cover all of their bodies but face hands and feet.
Fashions in America bare more skin

17. Description from one girl as she was
learning to live in her new home:
“Living here is like being a turtle: you have to learn to live
on both land land and water-at home and at school!”

18. So what can Sioux Falls teachers
do to help?
 Remember that language acquisition can’t be rushed-may take more than 5 years to
acquire a new language
 Educator need to know student’s language proficiency levels to know where to begin
and facilitate progress
 Know where they are in the BICS and CALP scales
 Know the cultures their students are from–let students share their culture with
others
 Connect cultures to classroom activities: play music. Read books, have speakers
from other countries
 Provide cooperative learning opportunities to help them feel more comfortable in
sharing
 Let them be “naturally curious”-give them opportunities to explore

19. Teachers can also:
 Use the WIDA “can do” descriptors to pinpoint language
skills to be dropped at the students levels
 Use writing as a tool to promote language development
by aligning writing assignments to the students’
language needs to build language skills, let students
paint, draw, write, or act out experiences
 Use TUCKER sign, SIOP strategies, TPR, realia, hands-on
materials, pictures and other visuals, technology to keep
learning activities meaningful
 Use varied vocabulary activities throughout the day

20. Stay connected to native cultures
(double click in box to view video)

21. Literature to help students stay
connected to their culture:
 Tumblebooks- currently17 stories about various cultures
including: Bintou’s Braids, Moishe’s Miracle, One is a
Drummer: A Book Of Numbers, etc.
 Amazon.com lists children’s literature by country or
continent includes: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s
Ears, Anansi the Spider, Mama Panya’s Pancakes, Africa
is Not a Country, and many many more
 District Portaportal.com lists catergories for ELL
students, and teachers

22. Our Challenge: “To educate and prepare each student
to succeed in a changing world.”
 “America as the melting pot of the modern world, needs to facilitate the
success of all her children, as they are the ingredients that will influence
the future or a constantly evolving American culture.”
 Quoted from the psychiatry story: “Growing Up Whole”
 Could our mission statement for the Sioux Falls School District include
any of these words: cultures, global, world, international?
 What do you think?

23. Did you learn anything new?
 Please give a score of 1-5 on the following criterion:
(1=low, 5=high, no thumbs down
 Information was interesting
 Information was clear and easy to understand
 Information was useful