Courtesy of The Line
Henna artist Sabrina Seyf at work in Suugda Karmel.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
The Somali community in Minneapolis experienced a lot of firsts in 2013. Abdi Warsame was elected to the City Council and took office in December. Barkhad Abdi earned Oscar buzz, in his inaugural acting and film role as a pirate in “Captain Phillips,” for going head to head with Tom Hanks. And Osman Ali founded the first Somali art museum in North America in the Plaza Verde building at 1516 E. Lake Street.The Somali Artifact and Cultural Museum is
a 700-piece collection amassed by Ali, who owns Sanaag Coffee and
Restaurant and is a Somali community leader. The collection encompasses a
wide range of objects that document Somalia’s traditional nomadic way
of life: camel bells and woven milk “jars,” drums and clothing, jewelry
and spears, vessels and prayer mats.
Mogadishu was formerly home to the world’s only Somali cultural
museum. But over the past two decades, the museum’s contents have been
scattered across the world. While the nation has been engaged in civil
war, with many formerly nomadic citizens moving into the cities or
living in diaspora, immigrants like Ali have worried that many traditional art forms have been destroyed or vanished.
Ali
started compiling the artifacts four years ago after re-visiting his
native country. His collection, he says, is a platform through which
Somali immigrants “can educate younger generations that don’t know about
their culture of origin.” In addition, the museum gives Minneapolis’
large Somali immigrant community — some estimates put the population at
more than 75,000 — a viable presence and a voice.
The museum is
also a portal through which Ali can expose Minnesotans to the cultural
and social relevance of Somali art and artifacts, and explore and teach
Somali traditions — whether or not visitors are of African heritage. And
the museum doesn’t exist within a vacuum. The growing Somali immigrant
community has transformed the Twin Cities into an area rich with 3,500
Somali-owned businesses,
which offer traditions from authentic cuisine to the ancient, artistic
form of expression known as henna. For Somali artists, Ali says, the
desire to create “runs in the blood.”
Preserving a disappearing culture
Since gaining independence from Great Britain
in 1960, Somalia has been attempting to unify its five sections as
represented on its flag by a five-pointed star. After civil war broke
out in 1991, about 30,000 Somalis fled to the United States. One third
of that population currently resides in Minnesota. In the past two
decades, according to the 2011 U.S. Census, the community has doubled in
size.
Only by chance did Ali and his collection end up in the
land of 10,000 lakes. Born in Somalia, Ali moved with his family to
Yemen while he was young. As an adult, he returned to Somalia, but
eventually settled in the United Arab Emirates. After spending seven
years in Dubai, he received a visa by lottery. With his wife and five
children, Ali moved to New York. They later joined family members in
Houston, but then decided to settle in Minneapolis.
“Here is the
right place,” Ali says, beaming, as he stands in the doorway of his
museum. Minneapolis’ strong Somali community provided his family with an
instant sense of belonging. In 2009, Ali returned to Somalia for the
first time since leaving and gained a new perspective on the everyday
objects of the country’s nomadic people.
He noticed more people
were migrating to modern metropolises and enjoying the conveniences of
city living. Consequently, the creation of their traditional art and
artifacts was declining. Ali began collecting anything he could get his
hands on, in an effort to sustain remnants of the quickly disappearing
culture.
The desire to collect and preserve aspects of his culture
“is something in my blood,” he says. “I see that the art is something
that the ancestors used as a way to survive, the art gave them life. You
get proud of the art. If you collect it, you keep this history for
life.”
For Ali, maintaining Somalia’s ancestral traditions is in
itself a form of art. “I am an artist also,” he says, with the museum as
his crowning achievement.
A living art
Among
Somalia’s artistic traditions are storytelling (which revolves around
music and poetry), weaving, pottery and woodcarving. Many of these arts,
and their artifacts, are represented in the Somali Artifact and
Cultural Museum. One art that isn’t in the museum, but can be found in
Minneapolis’ “Somali malls,” is henna. While more than 100 Somali henna
artists call Minnesota home, none may be as well known, or as sought
after, as Sabrina Seyf.
Visiting Suugda Karmel on
29th and Pillsbury, Minneapolis’ largest Somali mall, is like stepping
into a Mogadishu street market. Long narrow hallways are lined with
clothing shops and cafés. Stall number 110 is draped, floor to ceiling,
in jewel-toned kaftans. The dresses’ crystal-encrusted necklines gleam
against the black-painted walls. Behind those walls is the henna studio.
Laughter
billows from the tiny space as women chatter and wave arms freshly
painted with ornate patterns. “Drying is the worst part,” says Hani
Farah, a bride-to-be who drove 10 hours for Seyf’s distinctive
pictorialization. Seyf’s intricate designs — which feature tiny flowers,
circles, and dots — are coveted for their drama and elegance.
Seyf,
who is 22, has already developed a cult-like following. Devotees fly in
from as far away as Atlanta to get tattooed for their wedding days.
While henna is traditionally for brides, and done at women’s parties,
henna fanatics find any excuse to have Seyf embellish their bodies with
her creations.
Courtesy of The Line
Seyf’s intricate designs — which feature tiny flowers, circles, and dots — are coveted for their drama and elegance.
A
fourth-generation henna artist, Seyf was born and raised in
Minneapolis. She grew up watching her grandmother and mother henna their
clients in the family home. Seven years ago, the women realized their
clientele had grown too large to accommodate at home. So they opened the
studio in Suugda Karmel and Seyf tattooed her first Somali bride.
“When
it comes to other arts, I can’t draw at all,” she says. “But with
henna, the designs just come to me. I consider myself an artist.”
Henna
is a 5,000-year-old tradition rooted in India, Africa and the Middle
East. The crushed leaves of the henna plant are mixed with water to form
an amber-brown or black paste. After the mixture reaches a
toothpaste-like consistency, Seyf puts the paste into a cone-shaped bag
with a slender opening, squeezes the bag, and draws her designs. After
drying for 30 minutes, the hardened paste is scraped off, leaving a
design that can last for two weeks.
“Henna is the Somali version
of a manicure and pedicure,” Seyf says, laughing. “We get it done all
the time.” Somali women stick to feet, hands and arms. But non-Somali
women are also embracing henna, and during the summer months ask for
designs that may appear on their legs or backs. Seyf attributes the
increase in non-Somali clients to their interest in the culture, but her
reputation and style are her own doing.
Pride and preservation
Like
Ali, Seyf takes tremendous pride in the traditional arts of Somalia and
sustaining their existence for future generations. Plans are already in
place for Ali to expand his museum, in order to include a life-size
replica of a nomadic hut. Soon, he and co-founder Sarah Larsson will
offer classes in Somali poetry, weaving, dancing and language. Seyf is a
new mother and looking forward to training her daughter as a
fifth-generation henna artist.
By keeping their artistic
traditions alive, Ali, Seyf and other Somalis are creating new lives in
the Twin Cities while benefiting and enriching the lives of others, and
our whole community.
Alexandra N. Katz is a Twin Cities-based freelance writer.