Mohamed Maigag was born in Hargeisa, Somalia, in 1967. He left Somalia in 1978 after his father, a civil servant, was made redundant for his involvement in political activities against the dictatorial regime of Siyad Barre. He is the director of the Haringey Somali Community and Cultural Association and is also a keen footballer, musician and an advisor to the Mayor of London on refugee integration.
At the same time I also regard myself as a British Somali and I need also to take the good from the British culture, because this is where I am living. I associate myself more with this country than I associate myself with Somalia for example, because I've been living here for 21 years almost. I've been only living in Somalia for nine years, so the bulk of my life I lived in this country, probably my children, will--, strongly, much stronger than me, associate themselves with Britain, so this our country as far as I'm concerned.
But that doesn't mean many people, for example, who have got prejudice against Islam and all that, don't tell you what--, you need to assimilate. You are here, we gave you this and that, we gave you nationality and this, assimilate, I don't want assimilate. I wanna retain my culture and our identity and religion and all that. But I've also got the same pride as anybody else.
I want to integrate which is different from assimilation. I want to be part of the society, I want to contribute, I want to be accepted for what I am, see what I mean? But not to assimilate, not to forsake my culture and religion.
No I don't wanna do that. That's the difference, this with young people you can understand, you need to be proud of your culture and religious our identity. But sometimes when you only see bad image of your culture, when you see negative image of your religion all the time, sometimes you want to run away from it, because nothing good is projected, see what I mean and that's the challenge.
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