Recently, Ojullu was asked by Will Kiley, member of the CCM Drama Dadaab Theater Project team, on what he would like to express to a group of Cincinnati theatergoers. This is his answer: "I want to say that everyone should hear these stories of...
After performing for the first time for UNHCR Korea and tasting chocolate for the first time in his life, Ojullu (member of the Dadaab Theater Project) wrote this poem in response to the experience of what it felt like to perform in front of an...
Well, I could write novels to you based on the past two months of living in Dadaab, Kenya, but I won't. I'm learning that silence is often times better than sound...
After seeing a piece of theater devised by Michael and Julianna, participants of the Dadaab Theater Project were asked to write a response to the work based on the following writing prompts: What did you feel? What did you see? What did...
There is a myth I have been telling myself that I'm not strong enough. (To endure pain. To carry these people stories. To be an artist.) I remember stepping off the UN plane and already wanting to turn around. I shield my eyes from the...
Seasons pass without notice, the apple spring in full blossom, the nesting autumn, the football summer, All in a presence without a share, except the harsh winter in the dark continent. Only accosted, accosted by despair, Life is struggle, struggle of exhaustion. Suffering becomes a crack of doom, Calling on an abyss of...
by: Abdi Abdullahi Mohamed I was exactly in my first ages of life, I had a burning curiosity for everything. I enjoyed the wide expanse of the Indian Ocean and felt its breeze and inquisitively looked up the blue flag flapping above me. It was really...
By: Kowsar (16 years old, Somali refugee) Ssh! Listen Do you hear that? That is the voice of a girl child A child who is a future teacher A future doctor and a future pilot If only my dreams are not shattered I think of myself as a star With my own passion...
BY: MOULID IFTIN HUJALE One day we had to run away from our homeland to save our lives from deadly killings and persecution. It was a country that hosted people of the same origin and culture with common language and religion-that was Somalia of one Somali...
The Somali Bantus are considered the lower class of the Somalis, the “slaves” of their society. We’ve spoken to Somali Bantu youth here and they have expressed how they are marginalized and discriminated against in their communities. Actually, I have been learning more and more...