'Somalia lives with me'

This book examines Somalis who live in Finland through their memories. These memories are interpreted as subjective experiences emphasizing the significance of the past and religion in these memories. On the other hand, these memories are understood as a part of collective social memory of Somalis. This study also constructs a comparative perspective for practising Islam in Somalia and Finland. The methodological framework is based on theories of social memory, oral history and narrative analysis. The empirical data is collected by interviewing Somalis living in Finland. The interviews were conducted by using the method of half-structured thematic interview. The data consists of seven interviews. The interviewees are in the focus of this study since their experiences are considered as the main sources of information for this study. The book is targeted at everyone who is interested in Islam, especially from the perspective of Somalis, and the role of the religion in the everyday life of Finnish Somalis.

Autorentext

Kaija-Mari Johtela (MA) has graduated from the University of Helsinki in 2011. She has studied in multidisciplinary Master Degree Programme in Intercultural Encounters. She has written this work as Master's thesis for Comparative Religion.