Talk:Amina Mohamed

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amina mohamed[edit]

amina mohamed is current kenya's foreign secretary — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.144.152.159 (talk) 23:32, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Minor Edit & rearrangement[edit]

I think the article previously unnecessarily emphasised her ethnicity over the arguably more important fact that she is Kenya's foreign secretary. As can be seen from other similar biographies (see Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and John Kerry, and also Jean Ping), ethnicity is secondary, as they are included not because of their ethnicity, but because of the positions they occupy. I have edited the article to reflect this. There were two unsupported claims in the article - that she speaks Somali, and that she married "a fellow Somali".

Considering that her own biography (at http://www.aminamohamed.org/about.html) only mentions English, Russian, Swahili and French, and that she was born and brought up in the non-Somali-speaking Western Kenya town of Kakamega, I think it is not appropriate to make the first claim without any supporting evidence (esp since her own biography specifically doesn't mention it).

The second claim that she married "a fellow Somali" is completely unsupported - the fact that her husband has a Muslim name alone is not enough proof of this, beside the fact that it seems more than a little pointless - in similar articles (eg Hilary Clinton or Madeleine Albright) this overt emphasis on the ethnicity of the person and their spouse is not deemed important enough to include. I see no reason why this article should be any different. RantingMrP (talk) 06:17, 24 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Inapt analogy. Unlike Amina, Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright are not ethnic minorities in the United States, much less the children of first generation immigrants. Amina's parents are immigrants from northern Somalia, the SSC/Khatumo region to be exact. Her father arrived as a worker in the British Kenya Colony, and it was during that period when she was born. Amina's ethnicity and native language (Somali) obviously supercede whatever passport she happens to carry today. This is because that is her actual ancestry and mother tongue. It will also continue to be her ethnic and linguistic heritage when she retires from her latest post. Her husband, Khalid Ahmed, is likewise Somali. One has to follow the Somali language press to know all this (e.g. [1]). Middayexpress (talk) 15:19, 24 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
This is the English Wikipedia, not the Somali one. Amina was born in Kenya, self-identifies as a Kenyan, and in her biography doesn't mention Somali as as language she speaks. As with Philipp Rösler - who is an ethnic minority minister in Germany - and indeed Mo Farah (who is listed as "a Somali-born BRITISH athlete..."), it is what she is and how she got there that is of import, not primarily her ethnicity. At any rate, her ethnicity is well-acknowledged in the article - repeat, the article is not here because she is Somali, but because she is a Kenyan notable. And Albright is a first-generation immigrant, FYI, and belongs to an ethnic minority in the US - Jews.
There is no evidence of the ethnicity of her husband. If you have English sources, please provide them.
Being of Somali ethnicity doesnt mean she necessarily speaks the Somali language, esp given that she was born, educated and grew up in a region that doesnt count Somali among its languages. If you have evidence of her Somali-language skills, please provide it: her own biography doesnt mention it.
RantingMrP (talk) 20:27, 25 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, it's stated quite plainly in both Mo Farah's and Philipp Rösler's ledes that they are of immigrant background because that's their actual ancestry. There's no escaping that. Amina Mohamed's ancestry is similarly Somali, not Kenyan. She wasn't even born a Kenyan subject. This is not emphasized on that webpage (which she did not personally write) obviously because it goes without saying. This is all clear in the Somali language media, which actually is allowed per WP:NONENG ("citations to non-English sources are allowed"); English languages sources are just preferred. Middayexpress (talk) 14:35, 26 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Being born of Somali ancestry in Kenya before independence does not make Amina an immigrant. At any rate, Amina was born in Kenya, is a citizen of Kenya, and appears on Wikipedia as foreign secretary of Kenya, not as a Somali primarily.

RantingMrP (talk) 16:09, 27 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Amina was born in 1961 in the British Kenya Colony to first-generation ethnic Somali immigrant parents from northern Somalia. Kenyan citizenship didn't exist back then. The fact that she is the first Somali Assistant Secretary-General of UNEP and now the first Somali to be appointed to a ministerial position in Kenya makes her ethnicity all the more relevant to her notability. Middayexpress (talk) 13:34, 28 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Languages + Use of Arabic[edit]

This article claims that Amina speaks Somali, Russian, English and Swahili, with a working knowledge of French. However, Amina's personal profile at Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (of which she is the boss) does not mention the Somali language. Her CV as a candidate for the WTO from some years back also doesn't mention Somali language skills. The source linked in the article (http://www.aminamohamed.org/about.html) doesn't exist. With this in mind, I think the reference to her speaking the Somali language is unreliable, unsourced, and inaccurate - especially since she was born and brought up in Kakamega, Kenya - a region where the predominant languages are Luyia and Swahili. I am therefore editing the article to remove the claim that she speaks the Somali language.

Additionally: Arabic is not used as a day-to-day language in naming kids in Kenya, and certainly not in Western Kenya. Kenya uses English and Swahili, and the transliteration of Amina's name into Arabic is therefore superfluous and pointless (unless a reason can be provided). I notice that this has been done for most ethnic Somali notables on Wikipedia - is there a standard that mandates this? I am removing the Arabic transliteration unless someone can provide a justification. Wikilehrer (talk) 05:07, 6 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Amina Mohamed is an ethnic Somali. It is therefore hardly surprising that she speaks her own mother tongue [2]. Also, the Arabic text is there presumably because the param coding stipulates that the native name infobox parameter is reserved for the person's name in their own language. That would be Somali, which is written using both Latin and Arabic scripts. Soupforone (talk) 05:31, 6 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Her Somali-language skills have been sourced by the link provided, which is as should be. Is there any reason she is referred to as a "somali-Kenyan lawyer"? There is, as far as I can tell, no such adjective in use anywhere (Somali-Kenyan). As can be seen in virtually all other cases, the intro for political or prominent personalities is by nationality, and then a mention their ethnicity if it is notable. Examples abound on Wikipedia - Obama, for example, is not introduced as "a Kenyan-American politician", and Sadiq Khan is not introduced as "a Pakistani-British politician", Mo Farah is not introduced as a "somali-British" athlete - why does Amina have the "somali-Kenyan" label applied to her, creating this inconsistency? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikilehrer (talk • contribs) 03:52, 7 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Kenyan Somali is an official ethnic status for this foreign-rooted population, like Kenyan Arab, Kenyan Asian and Kenyan European (see knbs [3]). Soupforone (talk) 05:03, 7 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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