For years after his first Olympic triumph, Sir Mohamed Farah lied about his heritage. Farah insisted that his father was a UK citizen named Muktar, who grew up in London and worked as an IT consultant. Muktar allegedly moved to Mogadishu and met Mo Farah’s mother. The family moved to the UK when the Somali civil war worsened.
Sir Mo spoke about his true origin in a BBC documentary from mid-June 2022. In a nutshell, Farah said that he was trafficked to the UK when he was nine years old to work as a slave.
Contents
- 1 Mo’s father was killed while herding cattle during the Somali civil war.
- 2 Farah suspects that one of her family members helped smuggle it into the UK.
- 3 A Somali woman named Kinsi posed as Farah’s aunt and took him in.
- 4 Mo reunited with his mother and twin brother after decades of separation
- 5 A relative of the abusive woman who trafficked Mo denied Mo’s story
Mo’s father was killed while herding cattle during the Somali civil war.
Mo Farah and her mother Aisha | Photo by Ahmed Fais/BBC/PA
Mo Farah was born as Hussein Abdi Kahin to Abdi and Aisha on March 23, 1983 in the Somali Democratic Republic. “The true story is that I was born in Somaliland, in northern Somalia, as Hussein Abdi Kahin,” Mo said. “Despite what I have said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK.”
Abdi passed away when Mo was four years old. He was caught in the crosshairs of a battle between warring factions and killed by bazooka fire. Sir Mo said that he doesn’t remember his father’s face:
“There was a massive bazooka shot. He hit the ground and he was blown to pieces and a piece hit him on the head and right on the head there. For me, the most difficult thing is that, to this day, I don’t even know what he was like.”
Aisha sent Mo to neighboring Djibouti for his safety. “We all thought we were dying,” Aisha said. “’Boom, boom, boom’ was all we heard. I sent you away because of the war.
Mo’s mother was supposed to travel with him, but woke up to find the future Olympian gone. “I was wondering why they left me behind that night,” he said.
Farah suspects that one of her family members helped smuggle it into the UK.
“The hardest thing is admitting to myself that someone in my own family may have been involved in trafficking,” Mo said.
Sir Mo spent some time in Djibouti before a mysterious woman, probably with the help of one of Mo’s relatives, trafficked him to the UK as one of her children. Hussein Abdi Kahin was now Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah. “I was brought to the UK illegally under the name of another boy named Mohamed Farah,” Sir Mo said.
Farah said she thought she would move to Europe to live with relatives. He had the contact details of the relatives he would meet with, but the lady who helped him disguise himself destroyed the documents. Farah continued:
“I had all my relative’s contact information and once we got to his house, the lady took it from me and right in front of me tore it up and threw it in the trash and at that moment I knew I was in trouble. ”
Sir Mo said that he had to clean and cook for the lady’s children if he wanted food. He kept Mo quiet by informing him that the authorities would be transporting him back to the war zone. Sir Mo managed to run. He explained:
“So she told you not to talk about anything, otherwise I’d be in big trouble and I think the only thing I could do, under my control, was run away from this, get out there and run.”
A Somali woman named Kinsi posed as Farah’s aunt and took him in.
Farah finally plucked up her courage and talked to her teachers about the situation. Social services intervened and located him at the home of a Somali woman named Kinsi, who posed as Mo Farah’s aunt.
Kinsi was the aunt of the real Mo Farah, but she sympathized with Sir Mo and decided to raise him. She said:
“You weren’t happy. You’re crying. So I tried to find out what’s wrong with you. The lady, she always forces you to do the housework, have the children, give them milk, change their nappies and all those things. ‘
Kinsi said that the mysterious dealer did not see Mo as a human being. She and Mo’s former physical education teacher, Alan Watkinson, helped him obtain British citizenship. Alan said the process took longer than expected due to questions about Farah’s immigration status. Alan Watkinson said:
“So, we started that process of getting British citizenship like Mohamed Farah. Getting Mo to the point where you knew he had British citizenship was quite a long process.”
Sir Mo and Kinsi contacted the real Mohamed Farah; the Olympian told Farah that he thought of him every day:
“I can’t believe I’m talking to you. I carry your name and for many, many years I have carried it with me and I’m proud that you know what I’ve accomplished. But as a person I always wonder where Mohamed is, is he okay, what would he have been like? life for him? I think about you all the time.”
Mohamed said that he would love to travel to the UK to meet the Olympic champion.
Mo reunited with his mother and twin brother after decades of separation
Mo Farah and his twin brother | Photo by News Group Newspapers Ltd
Mo learned that his mother was still alive from a customer at a Somali restaurant where she worked. The client showed Mo a photo of her mother and gave her a cassette with recordings made by her mother.
“I would listen to it for days, weeks,” Mo said. “The side of the tape had a number on it and it said, ‘If this is a bother or a problem for you, just leave it. You don’t have to contact me. And I said, ‘Of course I want to contact you.’ That’s when I called my mom for the first time.”
Aisha said that she felt immeasurable joy when Mo contacted her. The couple met in her hometown and visited Abdi’s grave.
“I never thought in my life that I would see you or your children alive,” Aisha told Mo. “We lived in a place with nothing, no cattle, and destroyed land.”
Mo was also reunited with his twin brother, Hassan, who remained in Djibouti when Mo left for the UK. Farah said that she feels a strong connection to Hassan and that he often feels it when something is wrong. Sir Mo said on the Joe Wicks podcast:
“When he’s going through a rough patch or when he’s thinking about something, I can feel it. I ask him what happened and he will tell you, because I can feel it. It was difficult. I also have twins and I couldn’t separate them.
A relative of the abusive woman who trafficked Mo denied Mo’s story
Sir Mo told Amol Rajan the bbc radio 4 that the production team tried to involve the woman who was trafficking him, but she did not want to be involved in the story. “I am not in contact with her and I don’t want to,” Sir Mo added.
The Telegraph he tried to locate Nimco Farah, the woman who trafficked and enslaved Farah, but was unable to find her. The outlet spoke to a person who claimed to be related to her and said that Mo had not been trafficked.
“In Somaliland, there is nothing called child trafficking or child abuse or anything like that,” the man said. Mukhtar Farah, Nimco’s ex-husband, said he was unwell to participate in an interview. He said: “I’m not ready for an interview. Maybe next time. I don’t feel well.”
By speaking out about his heritage, Sir Farah risked having his UK citizenship stripped. However, the Home Office said it would “take no action” against him.
During his interview with Amol, Farah thanked his wife for giving him the courage and strength to speak out about his identity. He said:
“It was always my story. I didn’t even feel comfortable enough to talk about it with my family. I couldn’t talk about it publicly. It took me a long time to get to this, but I’m glad I made this documentary to show people the reality of what really happened to me as a child.”
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn