Iman burhan's biography

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"The epigraph that began this chapter was my friend Burhan’s title for an Eastleighwood event he wanted to host in Eastleigh, a promotional evening where businesses and their proprietors could be promoted, and the reputation of Eastleigh enhanced by showcasing its commerce and success, as opposed to its standard portrayal in the media as a place of dubious money and terrorists. This event was not to be as Burhan became sidetracked by other projects, but the idea behind it neatly introduces entrepreneurial identity and values evident in Eastleigh. Whether computer literate graduates with business diplomas like Burhan or the likes of Yasmin of Garissa Lodge fame with little or no formal training in business, Eastleigh’s businesspeople are seen by many as embodying the entrepreneurial spirit.

Burhan himself certainly embodies such a spirit, as his many different initiatives demonstrate: a man of great energy, I would often tease him that whenever I met him he had a new business. After studying for a diploma course, Burhan worked at a Forex Bureau in central Nairobi, before his mother – who lives in California – helped him with the capital to start up an electronics shop in Jamia Mall, the Somali-owned mall next to Jamia Mosque, also in the city centre. After that enterprise, he started both a cybercafé andIman e-Business in Eastleigh, renting a shop on Jam Street for the former, and an office in Garissa Lodge for the latter. The two businesses had a symbiosis, as Iman e-Business made use of the cybercafé for printing promotional material, and for establishing and maintaining its website.

While running Iman eBusiness, Burhan also established a media company called Waaberi Media Limited, which produced a number of magazines designed especially for the Somali diaspora: Burhan and his team of Somali youth told me they hoped the magazine would prove popular from ‘Mogadishu to Minneapolis’. The articles in the magazine very much had a Kenyan focus, however: the first issue including an interview with the founder of the Eastleigh Business Association on the history of Eastleigh. At Garissa Lodge, Burhan found his office becoming something of a social club for a number of young Somalis, including some talented singers. This led to Burhan and his entourage developing the idea for Eastleighwood, the youth group which aims to harness these talents through music, films and Eastleighwood Youth Forum, a non-profit spin off registered as an NGO in Kenya.

In fashionable terminology, Burhan would probably be classed as a ‘social entrepreneur’ in his Eastleighwood initiative, as while it has given him the chance to establish himself as an impresario for Eastleigh talents, and as an events manager, the organisation does fulfil a drive to do some good derived from his uncle’s legacy. His uncle – Ali Sharmarke – was a Canadian Somali who returned to Mogadishu from Ottawa to co-found HornAfrik, a radio station in Mogadishu which was targeted by Islamists, leading to the murder of Sharmarke in 2007. This family link to someone so touched by conflict in Somalia has left a strong mark on Burhan, especially as he respected his uncle greatly. Burhan often speaks of securing his ‘legacy’, and that he sold up his businesses in 2011 – after the eviction of Al Shabaab from Mogadishu – to move temporarily to Somalia to establish an Eastleighwood office there is testament to his bravery. Upon his return, Burhan and his team have secured international backers for Eastleighwood, receiving funding and equipment, now used on a number of productions, while they continue to organise anti-radicalisation events in the estate.

It is interesting to trace Burhan’s entrepreneurial influences, which resemble those of many other Somalis and Kenyans operating in the Eastleigh economy and beyond. Burhan tells of how key aspects of what he sees as essential ingredients of business success – risk-taking and hard work – are values emphasised strongly by Somali culture. Indeed, he told me of a Somali saying nin aan shaqeeysan shaah macabo meaning ‘a man who does not work will not drink tea’, suggesting that work is needed to enjoy life. A young friend of Burhan’s – a Kenyan Somali from Mandera and fellow Eastleighwood pioneer – told me how his father – now in Sweden – instilled a work ethic in him, demanding he succeed in school. While his father used to send him money from Sweden, he now insists his son works hard in Nairobi to contribute to his family’s well-being in Mandera. This work ethic is not uniform in Eastleigh, however, and there exists a strong stereotype of the Somali – and Oromo – who receives money from kin abroad and spends time not working but chewing khat and relaxing. Indeed, the image of the lazy chewer dependent on the hard work of others is a common Somali trope in Eastleigh, and those seen as not working hard are criticised for not meeting obligations.

Much of Burhan’s inspiration comes from beyond Somali culture, however. He is very fond of quotations drawn from his heroes from the world of business including Bill Gates and Robert Kiyosaki, the American self-help author whose work includes the Rich Dad series of books. There is a quotation from Kiyosaki that he has posted on the Eastleighwood website that resonates with Somali business values and the praise of risk and inda adheeg: ‘Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning’. The work of Kiyosaki graces many a bookshop and roadside textbook traders’ stall in Kenya, as the promise such books offer of riches draws in many would-be entrepreneurs. Of course, such books are not limited to East Africa, but are common throughout the world. Indeed, the spread of such self-help books in Kenya mirrors the growth in self-help magazines in the post-Soviet world designed to help people become neoliberal subjects and thrive in the new economy.[1]

Burhan and a colleague at Eastleighwood were especially fond of Kiyosaki’s ‘cashflow quadrant’,[2] whereby employees and small businesspeople are contrasted with investors and large scale businesspeople. While the former two seek security, true freedom and wealth comes for the latter who allow their money to work for them. Burhan compared this with what he described as a Somali dislike of working for others: Somalis always wants to be her or his own boss. As another Somali put it: ‘The main problem with Somalis is that they all want to give orders but none want to follow’. Burhan reckoned even some of his own Somali employees resented him for having power over them and curtailing their freedom. There is cultural depth to such notions, and Simons describes how the pastoralist heritage of Somalis has made them contemptuous of ‘dirty’ work such as agricultural labour, giving them a ‘preference for management over production or hands-on maintenance’.[3]"