http://www.sundaycircle.com/2014/06/ajourneyofathousandmiles/
June 9, 2014 by
Philip Leone-Ganado
At 18 years of age, Somali refugee Farah Abdi has experienced more than some people do in an entire lifetime. He tells Philip Leone-Ganado about fleeing his homeland, coming to terms with his sexuality, and why he believes integration is the only option
In November 2012, a small dinghy carrying 77 migrants arrived in Malta after a three-day journey from Libya. Farah Abdullah Abdi, then just 16 years old, was one of those on board. Nine months earlier, Farah had fled his home in Kenya and set off on a perilous journey into the unknown. In the months that followed, he would be locked up and beaten in South Sudan, cross the Sahara Desert in a pick-up truck, and find himself imprisoned five times while attempting the crossing from Libya.
Arriving in Malta and applying for asylum was the end of that danger for Farah, but it was also the start of another journey: coming to terms with himself and his sexuality, the reason for his flight from family and home, where homosexuality remains illegal, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. “When I arrived, one of the women who helped me realised my difference and said I needed therapy,” he recalls. “I danced around the matter with my psychologist for hours without saying the word.” Even now, it takes him a second to enunciate it. “I am…gay. It doesn’t define me, but it’s part of who I am.”
