I can see her fading...

Fading deep into the highlands of history leaving fond memories for her previous inheritants to speak about, whilst little effort has been made to keep her alive. Their children grow up smiling with an expressionless face everytime they hear her story, the contribution she made to history, since they struggle to relate. Who am I talking about? The Somali language. The language that has thus far allowed the existence of Somali culture and heritage but whose usage is decreasing by the day. I find solace in the internet world when I scroll through Somali websites written in Somali language and listen to Somali radio but on the streets it's a different story.

Young Somali children are growing up developing a mother-tongue distantly removed from their Somali language. They grow up speaking fluent English, Swedish, Dutch, Norwegian relating to the cultures of the countries that speak those languages. So what happens when the older generation dies and these youngsters become thriving adults who barely speak Somali? Can you see the death of a culture?

I once met an aspiring, talented Somali RnB singer who sang beautiful ballads and funky love songs. I asked him who he felt inspired by. He said he looked up to old-skoolers like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Anita Baker and James Brown. He didn't like the 'late-comers', as he called them." They didn't sing from the soul", he said. I asked him if he ever listened to the old-skool Somali singers like Hassan Aden Samatar, Hibo Nura and Omar Dhule. He looked at me with a baffled look. Then the penny dropped; "Oh you mean duqooshinka (meaning old people). My mum listens to them all the time." I was intrigued by the fact that he didn't consider Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder old, he considered them legends, role models. This is the reality of today's Somali societies.

Somalis have fled a country torn by civil war to the security of western nations. But as they continue to live and raise their children, the children grow up with a minute knowledge of the Somali language merely spoken at home and an identity dominated by the culture of the country they were brought up in. As a result the world will see the decline of the use of the Somali language and consequently the practice of the Somali culture.