What I learned about identity and the Somali diaspora after I went viral for not making proper use of a banana while eating a Somali meal.
Somali millennials around the world were laughing at me (definitely not with me) for failing Somali Cuisine 101. I received a steady stream of replies about the banana for the next couple of days. Humbling as it was, it taught me about how food — and the Internet — bring people in the Somali diaspora together.
The people in my mentions were from Minnesota, Canada, Great Britain and beyond. And here they were, together, talking about the idiot who didn't know what to do with the banana.
Their families were among the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Somalia's civil war. As is the case for many first- and second-generation immigrants, the idea of home can be complicated. And if you're not Somali, now you know: You eat the banana with the rice.