Lul Gelani

Stay in school and help all your family members. Don’t ever betray your mom. Never forget where you grew up and never forget who raised you.

Lul Gelani

My name is Lul Gelani. I was born in Shangani, Somalia on the continent of Africa. I was born in 1957. I started singing at the age of eleven. A producer in Somalia by the name of Ahmed Nagi recorded me. It was hard growing up where I lived.

I lived with family members. Everyone put their money together to live in a nice house by the ocean. I could see dolphins and whales. I could go fishing and swimming. It was a beautiful place to live.

When I was young I would travel and sing. I sang in big hotels in Somalia and Italy. I went to a religious school and everyday I would get whooped. They would separate the boys and girls in school. School started at seven in the morning. I had to walk to school in the hot sun. I liked playing hopscotch at recess.

The war started in Somalia in 1991. Millions of people fled from Somalia to Kenya. The road was full. Thousands of people driving in cars and walking filled the roads into Kenya. There was a war and you would get killed if you stayed in Somalia, but in Kenya you would get your stuff stolen. I don’t like to think of those times.

In 1996, on the 18th day of September I found out I could come to the United States of America. It was a big door that opened, and I came. I flew to France and then to Atlanta, Georgia. It was beautiful looking out the plane window on America.

A month later someone told me I could go to Minnesota and sing in a Minneapolis hotel. I liked it here. There was a lot of snow that first night and it was beautiful. I brought the whole family to Minnesota.

I now work for Minnesota Quality Care. I care for people because they cared for me. I did homecare for my mother; my mother was a giving person. If someone needs something, help them because everything you do for other people will come back to you. Treat others the way you want to be treated.

People are nice to me because I am a singer. Somali people like me. They give me respect because I sing. When people ask my son, “Who is your mom?” and he says, “Lul Gelani,” people treat him good.