Mahmoud Brasab
Leaving Somalia and coming to England (1993) Mahmoud came to England in 1993, when he was 10 years old. Having gone to secondary school here, he is now finishing a degree course in business and engineering. © Carl Rose Mahmoud came to England in 1993, when he was 10 years old. Having gone to secondary school here, he is now finishing a degree course in business and engineering. "The journey from Somalia was very long, what I can remember of it. We left Somaliland and came through Ethiopia, where we stayed for a bit. Then we came on a plane to England. It was probably the first flight I'd been on. And we arrived in Heathrow, the largest airport in the world! From there we came directly to Sheffield. When I first came to the UK, I found it very interesting, in terms of culture, food and people. It was a bit difficult to get used to the food at first. And it took some time to get used to the atmosphere here. Obviously I didn't speak much English and the schools were different, so I had to try and learn as much as I could. One of the things that I found quite fascinating was the snow. You don't get any snow in Somalia. When we came, it was Christmas time and it started to snow. That was good! I used to find it quite shocking to see people in winter time wearing T shirts, whereas I had been wearing big jackets! It takes a bit of time to get used to it. That's fun!" Extract from an interview with Mahmoud Brasab recorded by Tesfay Sengal for the Burngreave Voices oral history project, December 2004. |