By Ibrahim Hirsi, MinnPost
Coming of age in Edina, Karsten Potts learned about Somali culture, language and history though a group of Somali-American friends.
He left Minnesota to study at Occidental College in Los Angeles. But his interest in learning about Somalia never faded. Indeed, Potts focused on the region as his special area of interest throughout his college years.
And when he graduated, Potts accepted an internship post with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, working seven months in Djibouti, a small country that borders Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and later spent some time in Somalia and Kenya.
In recent years, the region has suffered a number of attacks by terrorists as well as episodes of hostage-taking and kidnapping that target foreigners. Recently, MinnPost sat down with Potts, who returned to Minnesota in April, for an interview about his experience in the region.
MinnPost: What motivated you to pursue an internship in Africa?
Karsten Potts: I had a lot of friends in high school who are from Somalia. What I knew of the conflict in Somali was related to “Black Hawk Down.” I knew that my friends were here because of the conflict. But I didn’t know whether the conflict was over, why it started and the dynamic. So I started to know more about it. I got more and more interested in the topic and ended up focusing on East Africa for my thesis in college.
MP: You lived in Djibouti for seven months. What surprised you the most about your stay there?
KP: How safe it was to walk around. From everything I’ve heard about Africa, especially, ‘If you’re a westerner, you have to be careful and you pretty much can’t walk around alone in a city.’ That was not the case in Djibouti. You can walk around until 11 o’clock at night — and there would be no threat or physical violence. People might ask you for money, but nobody got mugged.
MP: You said people would ask you for money. Tell me more.
KP: Yeah, pretty routinely. It’s the result of sailors that are there because they don’t have to pay for their house or for their food usually. French sailors would go to downtown and just blow their paychecks. If someone was begging, they would give money a lot easier.
One time, I knew where the bank was and some guy asked me, ‘Hey where are you going?’ I said, ‘To the bank.’ He said, ‘Oh, I’ll show you.’ I said, ‘No, I know where it is.’ He follows me to the bank. I go in. I get my money. I come out. He says, OK, $5. I did not pay him.
MP: So, the locals think that Westerners casually give money to anybody?
KP: Yeah. And especially, as an American, they felt that all Americans were millionaires, essentially.
MP: How were you treated and did you feel like a stranger?
KP: I definitely stood out. Everybody knew that I wasn’t from Djibouti. They usually thought I was a French soldier because those are the only people walking around downtown. But once you’re further away from downtown, you’re still a foreigner, but people would treat you a lot more fairly.
MP: Did you feel like Americans are respected there? Or was it dangerous for Americans in particular because of the U.S. foreign policy and the war on terror?
KP: People love Americans. Even if they disagree with the American policies, they love American people and all of them want to go to America. I didn’t meet one person who didn’t want to go to America. A lot of them actually have families in the Twin Cities, Canada, England or France.
MP: Did you know much about Africa before this trip?
KP: Yeah. I studied Africa — East Africa, specifically. I didn’t know much about West Africa. I knew about the politics. The history. Which countries were safe. I was still surprised how safe Djibouti was. … I’ve been to the developing world and sort of knew what to expect: No hot showers. Somewhat unreliable electricity and running water. A lack of infrastructure.
MP: Did you feel you might be targeted because you’re an American?
KP: No. I was more worried about the taxis and getting hit by a car or something. Even though there was a terrorist attack in Djibouti, the chances of something bad happening to me specifically was so small. All the time in Africa, I’d be more worried about violence, like mugging, over terrorism. And people did like Americans.
Source: MINNPOST
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