美国国家公共电台 NPR Somali Refugee Abdi Nor Iftin: 'I Am Here To Make America Great'

Somali Refugee Abdi Nor Iftin: 'I Am Here To Make America Great'

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

What does it take to become an American? In 2015, This American Life told the story of a Somali refugee who was finally issued a visa to come and live in the United States.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

ABDI NOR IFTIN: This big smile was on my face. I've never, ever had such a big smile. Never, ever, ever, ever.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Abdi Nor Iftin's long road to the United States began when he was only a child in Mogadishu, watching American movies and teaching himself English while unimaginable brutality 1 and war raged around him. In his new memoir 2 "Call Me American," he tells his story from the beginning. And he joins us now from Portland, Maine, where he now lives. Welcome to the program.

IFTIN: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I'd like to take you back to the beginning where this book begins and your family's story, your parents, who were nomads 3. And they describe a sort of Somali life that I've really never heard about, of lush fields and a peaceful pastoral life.

IFTIN: It is. It is. My mother had - you know, her entire world was just her nomadic 4 life - you know? - the animals, her family. And she had no idea that the country that she was living in was called Somalia. She had always told me, you know, Abdi, there's only two days - the day that you're born and then the day that you die. Everything else in the middle is just grazing and hanging out with the animals. And, you know, how easy life had been to my parents before the disaster had hit and wiped out all their animals.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And that disaster, of course, was the famine and the drought. And your life was marked very early on by war. What was your earliest memory of the conflict?

IFTIN: I was 6 years old when the civil war started, militias 5 started, you know, pouring into the city and death and killings 6 and torture. And I described the smell of Mogadishu. It was just, you know, the smell of gunpowder 7. And that had been sticking with me forever.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. I mean, there's just these scenes where people are being dragged out of the back of trucks and shot on the streets and chaos 8, essentially 9. Everything that you'd known sort of suddenly wiped away.

IFTIN: I think this is the most, you know, touching 10 memory that I can remember, to have our youngest sister die. And we said, good. That is so easy for her. And then I was jealous. I was jealous because that was the time when our feet were swollen 11, our bellies 12 were empty. There was a feeling that you could die anytime.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You were starving.

IFTIN: I was - yeah. We were all starving. And I looked at my other sister, and she was just eating sand. And I think that's the stories that people don't hear about.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Your first contact with America and that American dream was with U.S. Marines who came to Somalia. There was a lot of opposition 13 to them being there - and Americans, of course, are familiar with this story because of "Black Hawk 14 Down," when a helicopter was downed by insurgents 15, and Americans were killed. But that was the first time that you sort of saw a different America.

IFTIN: Yes. I still say they stole my heart because it was the very first time that I saw people with guns. And the guns were pointed 16 up in the air, not in my face, you know? Then they were coming and giving us, you know, sweets. And I wanted these people to stick around. I wanted these people to be part of my life.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And you've become obsessed 17 with America. And you get a nickname, right?

IFTIN: Yes. Abdi the American. Yes, that was my nickname...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Because you were watching American movies, and you learned English from watching American movies.

IFTIN: Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Then come the Islamists. And you were a target because you were called Abdi the American. And you were whipped on the beach for being with a girl in public. And the fighting groups were trying to recruit young men to be suicide bombers 18 and fighters. And you didn't want anything to do with it, and you became a refugee.

IFTIN: I did. Unfortunately, I still believe that Islamists are - were born out of the American involvement somewhere in the Middle East. And the phrases that they had used to attract young men of my age to be recruited was just America. They said they are the enemies of Islam. They are attacking everywhere and - all of then. And, surprisingly, I was out on the streets, defending President Bush. I don't even know why I did that, you know? But I was defending him and blaming Osama bin 19 Laden 20 for all the - but I thought - to me, it was just expressing myself. But then it got me into trouble. And I received a phone call saying, you've got to stop and drop that nickname, or we're going to kill you.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: This American Life then tells the story of the whole next part of the saga 21, how you got that visa. And what struck me from your account in the book is not only how much luck you needed, how much help, how much perseverance 22 - I mean, it literally 23 took a village to get your American dream. Do you think Americans know how hard it is?

IFTIN: I don't think they do. You know, Americans take so many things for granted. For example, I came to the U.S. through the diversity immigrant, you know, visa lottery 24...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: The visa lottery, which President Trump 25 would like to cancel.

IFTIN: Which he would like to cancel. But if it was not the diversity lottery, I would have never come to America. Never. I had been an American, you know, since I saw those Marines. And my nickname is going to be my nationality very soon. It's going to be my passport.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: When are you going to become an American?

IFTIN: A year from now.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So what do you think now - if the visa lottery ends, what do you think about that door closing?

IFTIN: Well, first of all, I - you know, when I wake up in the morning, I say, oh, I'm so lucky. I've arrived here before America had turned its back against the rest of the world. If this had happened when I was hiding myself from the Islamic terrorists, just trying to get to America and become an American and all that, it would be a disappointment. It would a betrayal, you know, by the United States because the way I understand is that America is open to the rest of the world. It's a hope. It's a dream. It's an idea that everyone has out there. And I'm here to make America great. I did not come here to take anything. I came here to contribute and to offer and to give.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Abdi Nor Iftin's memoir is "Call Me American." Thank you very much.

IFTIN: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF KHRUANGBIN'S "THE MAN WHO TOOK MY SUNGLASSES")