Deqa Dhalac

Dhalac was born in the capital city of Mogadishu, the middle child with two brothers. Her father, a petroleum engineer, was very politically outspoken. Dhalac described her father as a feminist because he believed in the importance of girls' education and their important role in the family unit. He died in 1989. She learned English as a child as part of her education.[1]

Due to the precipitating events leading to the Somali Civil War, Dhalac fled in 1990, to Rome on a flight intended to head to Libya. Because there were no more embassy services available on the precipice of war, she planned to apply for asylum. Unfortunately 17 other people had the same idea, so they were held at the airport for over a month. She was released to the care of her cousin who lived in Italy. Dhalac then moved to England, and to Toronto in 1991.[1]

In 1992, she married Abdi Farah, a Somali businessman from Atlanta, whose family had been close with her own, and began activism to get immigrants to become citizens and register to vote. She worked as a cashier in a parking garage. With her accounting degree, she received an accounts receivable job in a hotel a few months later. Because she had known English as a second language, it was easier for her to excel in her career in the United States.

In 2005, she moved to Lewiston, Maine, with her family but without her husband, who stayed to take care of his business in Atlanta but visits them frequently.

Dhalac became an interpreter for Catholic Charities Maine before opening her own interpreting service, and earned two masters' degrees in policy and social work from the University of New Hampshire and the University of New England.[1]

Dhalac made national headlines when she became the first black mayor by unanimous vote of the relatively small city of South Portland, Maine, due to the demographics of the city being 90% white.[3]