Author talk with Catherine Besteman

Colby College Anthropology Professor Catherine Besteman will be presenting a talk on her most recent book, Making Refuge: Somali Bantu Refugees and Lewiston, Maine, in LPL’s Callahan Hall on Tues. evening, April 26th at 6:30 p.m. The program will also include a conversation about the work between the author and two leaders from our local Somali Bantu community, Muhidin Libah and Rilwan Osman. The event will conclude with a Q&A and a book sale and signing.

In 1987-88 Professor Besteman conducted fieldwork in southern Somalia, never imaging that her life might once again intersect (20 years later and half a world away) with these same individuals and their children. In her new book Catherine follows the trajectory of Somali Bantus from their homes in Somalia before the onset in 1991 of Somalia’s civil war, to their displacement in Kenyan refugee camps, to their relocation in cities across the United States, and finally to their settlement right here in Lewiston.

As Lewiston’s refugees and locals negotiate new landscapes, they find that assimilation goes both ways. This new story contains old refrains from past waves of American and New England immigration and demonstrates a new effort of diverse people finding ways to live together and create community. Besteman’s account illuminates the contemporary debates about economic and moral responsibility, security, and community that immigration provokes.

 

Catherine will be joined for this presentation by Muhidin Libah and Rilwan Osman. Muhidin is the Executive Director and the Somali Bantu Community Association of Maine and Rilwan serves as the Executive Director of Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services. Both of their organizations are based here in Lewiston.

Copies of Making Refuge will be available for sale at the event and a book signing will follow the program. For more information, contact the LPL Adult & Teen Services desk at 513-3135 or LPLReference@Gmail.com