America Made Me a Black Man: Author Boyah Farah's Journey from Somalia to America
Photos by Susan Fried
Author Boyah Farah, joined host Trae Holiday recently on The Day with Trae Holiday to talk about his memoir America Made Me a Black Man.
Originally from Somalia, Farah has seen war, he has seen refugee camps, and he came to this country getting chased by war. He landed in a small Boston-suburb, the only African there. For Farah there are two Americas. The America that Farah watched on TV while he was at a refugee camp, this America, Farah looked at as a metaphorical heaven.
“When I entered heaven, metaphorically, that's how I looked at it, then America revealed itself to me,” Farah said. “I got to learn and the more I learned, the more I felt pain. But I recognize that pain is energy. Love’s energy is what you do with it that matters in the end. So I wanted to write something that could add value to this America that's still learning, still growing.”
Farah was born in a valley in Somalia, the nation of poets he referred to. There his father was a guerrilla fighter, and he prepared Farah to be a warrior, to look people in the eyes, respect them, and receive respect. He looks to the work of Malcom X or Tupac, individuals he hopes to honor in his book.
“I didn't come in with ideas about what's happening in America, and hate or nothing,” Farah said. “I came to this country, because I love this country. It's America that taught me when I became a Black man. God made me Black, but the package, the hurt, the trauma, all the stuff that comes with being Black in America, is the America that taught me.”
This is the message that Farah narrates in his memoir.
“I come in and out of my voice, entering heaven, realizing that there's something in there and that people will complain forever,” Farah said. “I want to be authentic, be real, be truthful, to tell America, ‘dear America, the immigrants love you without immigrants this country means nothing. Dear America, Black people love you, reciprocate the love.”
In writing the book Farah felt he had to detach himself to be honest. He wanted to write the book and release it into the universe.
“I wrote this book for the land of living to improve,” Farah said. “I gotta be able to go out there and tell the community, and bridge the divide between immigrants that are coming in, who know nothing about America. For a black person to live in this country the struggle is real, it is America who teaches you the struggle.
The book has gone to become a NAACP Image Award Nominee, and the NPR Best Book of 2022. Farah’s book, America Made Me a Black Man, is available in stores and online wherever books are sold.
To hear more from authors like Farah, tune into Trae every weekday at 11 a.m. on all Converge Media platforms and The Day With Trae YouTube Channel.
