I went back when I was thirty three or thirty two - something like that. And when I was out there I got married. We were introduced through family and we met a couple of times and we chatted, discussed things, just to check if we saw things similarly. And then the marriage was kind of agreed, and we went ahead and the marriage was concluded fairly quickly. I was there for a further month and a bit and then I came back.
Initially, I didn't go out there to get married. My mother hadn't been back home for years and it was even longer for us. Marriage only came about when we got there. There wasn't a pre-planned decision to go and marry this particular person. But I was already thinking about the idea and so I was constantly keeping my options open.
The day was interesting. You know you're getting married and it's a big thing for an individual. You know you are meeting a new family - you've got a new family all of a sudden. It was an exciting time.
My wife obviously knew I was from Newport. I would have to come back, and she would be expected to join me. There was a whole lot of issues that we needed to sort out before that could happen. There's lots of paperwork, and embassies to be contacted. From that angle, it's not an easy thing to do. It takes about a year to try to get someone into the country.
But from another angle, it's a good thing to do. Lots of people who are second generation Somalis, or even from the other minorities like Pakistanis or Bangladeshis, whatever community they are from, make a conscious choice that they want to marry from their homeland. It guarantees a stronger link with their home in terms of culture, language, religion, which are the key aspects of someone's identity. It's another way of trying to increase a bond home. If you're just a generation continuously removed from something, you become far more distant from it.
© Omar Ali 2004
This story was recorded as part of
Community Memories - an oral history project run by Newport Museums and Heritage Service and funded by Cymorth.
