She is not a big woman. Some might say slender. I think she is steely. Strong. Smiling, not overly loud, but definitely strong. Minnesota winter strong. Surviving war ravaged East Africa strong. Somali. Yeah, say it: strong. K’naan probably got a song for her strong.
Long before she was born October 4, 1981 in Mogadishu, Somalia, I remember being in a marketplace in Tanzania at the 6th Pan African Congress in Dar es Salaam the summer of 1974. Looking around, I fit in long as I didn’t open my mouth. There was the hum that you hear in buying, selling, and bartering places up and down the motherland. And then it suddenly got quiet. I looked up. Three very tall men were walking through the throng. Not saying a word. If I remember correctly, one of them may have had a spear, or was it a heavy walking stick? Masai. Much respect. They didn’t have to say a word. Well, Ilhan is strong, commands respect like those men.
English is not her first language. She will make her share of linguistic flubs, mistakes, inexactitudes (i.e. words that do not fully express what she means to say); not often, and definitely not repeatedly. She is better at a language foreign to her, than any of her states-side critics are fluent in her mother tongue. Plus, she dances better than any of the dunces who complain about her being anti-this or anti-that. When really she is a pro–pro-freedom, pro-black, pro-humanity!
And she won’t back down.
So, salud. We should. We must. Stand with Ilhan!
NPR radio on Ilhan.
> Trevor Noah interview with Ilhan Omar
