Earlier than I turned an American citizen, I knew America.
I bear in mind sitting beneath Mogadishu’s blue sky, beneath the skeleton of an acacia tree, watching pigeons soar high and low as boys chased a ball, their laughter carried by the wind whereas mud rose and danced above their heads. Somalia’s civil struggle had not but begun, and the world nonetheless made sense. Voice of America was my favourite radio station, the voice of a beloved, numerous nation.
Within the late Eighties, earlier than struggle marched into our lives and destroyed all the things, my older sister was obsessive about Michael Jackson’s tune “Thriller.” Voice of America performed it repeatedly, and although I secretly loved the tune, I wouldn’t dare let her catch me nodding alongside as a result of I used to be a boy: She liked music, singing and dancing, whereas I admired army males in inexperienced uniforms. However Voice of America broke by means of all that, and we realized one other story was attainable.
Years later, after I turned a pupil on the College of Massachusetts in Lowell, that voice of publicly supported media adopted me: Nationwide Public Radio turned my favourite radio station. Serving to me refine my accent and deepen my understanding of the language, it helped me be taught not solely the language, but in addition the rhythm of American thought, its debates, its heartache, its humor.
Public media has lengthy been America’s biggest superpower, and its affect lengthy the envy of different nations. However the Trump administration has now surrendered to America’s enemies, killing off public media and letting Russia and China take over.
In 2024, I met a rich man in Somalia — a person blessed with two homes, two wives and youngsters.
As I stepped into his home with him, I remarked: “That is nice. You’re dwelling your greatest life.”
“I’ve one other similar home with my youthful spouse,” he added, delight swelling in his voice. As he spoke, I famous the Toyota Land Cruiser, my favourite automobile, parked within the courtyard of his residence. “Phrase,” I responded, absorbing the sight. No man like him lives in Boston, the place I spent most of my life. We wrestle with 9-to-5 jobs, and for a lot of within the U.S., even getting married and shopping for a house is a stretch, a lot much less imagining two marriages and two properties supported by one breadwinner.
As we sat exterior within the heat Somali solar, he turned to me.
“Do you suppose I can go to America?” he requested me. “I’d prefer to go to California. I’ve heard a lot about it on Voice of America after I was rising up studying English.”
That’s the ability that the U.S. used to undertaking: persuading folks around the globe that the U.S. had all the things found out, even promoting the American dream to individuals who have been dwelling profitable lives elsewhere. The radio community reached 300 million folks globally.
As the person talked of making an attempt to improve his spectacular life to an much more lavish one within the U.S., I judged him. Right here he was dwelling in wealth and luxury, however believing in America as a beacon of hope, a land of alternative, the place magnificence and prosperity dance collectively beneath the American flag, fluttering in pristine air over manicured inexperienced lawns.
Voice of America is a part of this grand storytelling machine. Affect is extra highly effective than struggle. Warfare destroys, breeds enmity and stirs resentment, however storytelling exerts lasting management by altering how folks suppose. That’s what made America so engaging and influential.
However America’s standing has been in decline, by means of a long time of feckless overseas coverage. Eliminating establishments like Voice of America and the Public Broadcasting Service will solely speed up this downfall. Essentially the most lovely nation on the earth doesn’t thrive on its struggle machine; it thrives on the ability of its story.
Now, in 2025, as America beneath President Trump threatens to dismantle the very media that tells its story to the world, I really feel one thing unusual transferring in my stomach. As soon as public radio is murdered, a lot of America’s storytelling dies with it. And when that occurs, the dream — the one which compels girls and boys from all around the world to danger all the things simply to come back to America — dies too. America will really feel that loss, and a era of expertise will flock to rival nations as an alternative.
Boyah J. Farah, writer of “America Made Me a Black Man: A Memoir,” is constructing a science and expertise institute in Garowe, Somalia.
