Single Somali-Bantu Mothers Farm in Maine (Extended Version) from Amy Brown

When many Somali-Bantu families resettle in the United States, men in polygamous marriages must choose one wife, due to U.S. marriage laws. This means second and third wives are left struggling to support their children in a new country where they have few marketable skills.

In a resettlement community in Lewiston, Maine, a community of single mothers with as many as ten children supplement their meager income by farming the rural land.

This 13 minute film premiered at Frontier Screening Room last Monday.

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Maine Watch with Jennifer Rooks revisits Lewiston’s Somali refugee community ten years after the arrival of the first immigrants.

Fatuma Hussein, a leader in the Somali community as well as mom joins Jennifer in the studio along with Stephen Wessler, who is Executive Director of the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence and Phil Nadeau, Deputy City Administrator for the City of Lewiston.

They discuss what’s been learned, what still needs to happen and what can Lewiston teach other communities with large refugee populations.

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Susan Sharon revisits Lewiston, Maine’s Somali refugee community ten years after the arrival of the first immigrants.

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