Story: Somali men and women have been here for centuries but this is one of our earliest stories in Sheffield. A small book found in the Local Studies Library about a Somali woman’s working life, having arrived in England in 1956. Our only tangible glimpse of Halima dictated by her to poet Seni Seniviratne in 1986.
“All the factories have closed and I blame Mrs Thatcher”
The recovery: Halima’s book survives and we are grateful. Reaching for the oral tradition of their Somali backgrounds, Asma and Najma have committed the sound of her life to audio.
In the archives of Sheffield Central Library, we found a remarkable ten-page short story by a Somali woman named Halima, written with the help of Seni Severinate and illustrated by Lynn Tyler as part of a community project in 1985.
Halima's narrative takes us through her life. The struggles she faced as a young girl, her journey and arrival to England in 1956, and her life working in Sheffield's steel factories.
We believe her to be one of the earliest Somali woman to live and work in Sheffield. It is incredibly rare to find a record like this. As many women who migrated in the post-war era from what was known then as ‘British Somaliland’, were more likely to travel to the UK to reunite with their partners who arrived earlier to work in British industries. Or if they did come alone, their experiences are not recorded in a first person account such as this storybook. Sadly, Halima passed away during the late 2000’s and this story remains one of few records about her life.
The last page in the storybook captures the essence of Halima’s solitary experience, it ends on a sombre note.
“The places where I worked after that are demolished now.
Now I have no job to do.
All the factories have closed and I blame Mrs Thatcher.
I have no parents, relatives or children and now I am very lonely.
A job would give me something to do but I cannot get a job.”
The last page touched us deeply, and set us off on the journey of finding out as much as we could about Halima. Through this journey and conversations with our community elders we have learnt some of what life was like in Sheffield for Somali steel workers in the 1950s and 60s. We are grateful to them for sharing their stories with us and helping us to understand and visualise what life was like for them in the 1950’s and help us to understand Halima’s life more.
Inspired by Halima's unique story, we have crafted a fictional audio story.
