This book is a product of the Somali Documentary Project, which seeks to document the lives of Somalis in the diaspora. It consists of six essays that introduce Somali refugees and immigrants to their American fellow-citizens, and approximately 130 black-and-white photographs that document the former's daily lives. The book's organization is compelling. It organizes the chapters as stages in a refugee community's journey towards active citizenship – that is to say, from ‘dependence’ on assistance of various kinds to ‘preparation’ for, and then active ‘participation’ in, life in the USA in all its facets. Chapter 1 begins with Rutledge and Roble's visit to the UNHCR refugee camps of Dadaab in Kenya, about 50 miles from the Somali border. This camp (and others like it) represents the first place of refuge for many Somalis who fled southern and central Somalia at the time of state collapse in January 1991, as well as the harsh location from which they were resettled in the USA. Chapter 2 presents the stage of ‘dependence’ and follows one particular family from Dadaab, first to their official resettlement site in California and then, because the latter is too expensive, to a Somali community in Maine.

Chapter 3, representing the stage of ‘preparation’, documents the Somali community of Columbus, Ohio. Here the majority of Somalis are relatively recent arrivals, fully engaged in laying the foundations for a new life, especially in the areas of education, wage-labor and entrepreneurship of all kinds. Chapter 4 represents the stage of ‘participation’ and focuses on Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the community includes many Somalis who were either better educated before they fled Somalia or already in the USA (for example as students) when the war broke out. This community is well established, includes many professionals, academics and businessmen, and actively participates in all aspects of civic life, including elections. The range of Somali lives documented here is thus truly impressive.

In the essays, Rutledge positions himself as an ‘intimate outsider’ to the Somali community who intends to help ordinary Americans with limited knowledge of Somalis to understand the latter better. Given the harassment many Somalis suffered after 9/11, it is not surprising, perhaps, that his tone is at times somewhat apologetic: thus he presents the Somalis as grateful and appreciative immigrants, even if they pursue their own life strategies and goals, which include both succeeding in their new environment and remaining true to their religion and aspects of their culture.

The highlights of these written pieces are the small, intimate vignettes of individuals and families, as well as the stories of bigger incidents of the recent past that made news headlines. The latter include the tragic and unnecessary shooting by police of a mentally ill man in Columbus; the refusal by Somali cab-drivers at Minneapolis airport to transport passengers carrying duty-free alcohol; the way in which Somali families in Minnesota trek to the Mall of the Americas every year to celebrate the Feast of Fast-breaking at the end of Ramadan there; and the occasion on which Somalis who had been resented for always ‘hanging out’ in front of a bank actually received benches as tokens of appreciation after preventing bank robbers from getting away with their loot.

It is a notable (and welcome) aspect of this book that it avoids reference to ‘clan’ or ‘racial’ differences among the Somalis. It is almost impossible to do justice to this divisive and volatile topic in an introduction to Somalis in the US society like this, and a facile simplification would fly in the face of the efforts at creating solidarity by the very Somali community leaders whose voices are such an important part of this book. However, this also means that Rutledge sometimes represents a too one-dimensionally positive picture of the Somalis. He underplays the competition between Somali men in the community organizations and makes no reference to the tensions resulting from the fact that perpetrators and victims of the war back home now walk the same streets and have their children in the same schools. The communities are also beset by Islamist politics, as fundamentalisms of different kinds and degrees, also connected to the fighting inside Somalia, have become strategies for exercising power that can make or break community solidarity. Rutledge tries to distance Somalis from any association with fundamentalist Islam, apparently out of fear that Americans will immediately associate them with al-Qaeda. However, this means that he misses important nuances. For example, why would Somali cab-drivers suddenly refuse to transport passengers carrying alcohol? Does this not represent a victory of a particular paradigm and the people pushing it?

As for Abdi Roble's photographs, these truly bring the experiences of Somalis in the USA to life, in all their extraordinary ordinariness. Roble shows the communities at work, play, rest, and prayer, in the market and at school. He shows Somali men as barbers, pharmacists, car mechanics, small businessmen, government employees, teachers and professors. He shows Somali women as mothers, students, entrepreneurs, basketball-players, turkey-plant workers, political activists and citizens exercising their right to vote and demonstrating for their union. The photographer succeeds in appearing to make himself invisible to those he photographs and thus in allowing his viewers a casual glimpse of Somalis as they move from ‘dependence’ through ‘preparation’ to full ‘participation’ in American public life. This approach is very different from that of two other impressive photographic art and documentation projects: Fazal Sheikh's A Camel for the Son (2001), with portraits of Somali women and women-with-children in Kenya's refugee camps (including Dadaab), and Glenn Jordan's Somali Elders: Portraits from Wales (2004), which has resulted from the Butetown History and Art Project and consists of portraits of Somali elders in Cardiff. However, it is equally valid and superbly suited to this subject-matter.

While this book was not primarily written for a scholarly audience such as the readership of this journal, it is an exceptionally worthwhile introduction to the Somali diaspora in the USA.