Awa, Titina, Ndongo, & Abdoulaye

And we think we know so much...

Awa and Titina are 24 and 22 years old respectively. They work in banks and insurance agencies, while working on further graduate degrees. Ndongo is in his twenties, one of ten children with both parents deceased, and works in a call center. Abdoulaye, my first and closest Senegalese friend, is 31 years old, with a college degree, and works in the warehouse of a supermarket unloading produce 50 hours a week. Abdoulaye is one of six children who migrated to the city from a small village in order to help support his family. His father is disabled and no longer works, he has one brother trying to make it through university, and the rest of his siblings survive in the village with no real work available to them. Abdoulaye makes about $200/month.

What each of these four young people have imparted upon me is their thirst for knowledge. Each has already acquired and cultivated an intellect that would embarass most Americans of a similar age and university experience. Yet, they want more. These four want to work, want to study, want to change their environment and society. They believe in themselves, are proud of their African identity. They want to show that, when given the tools, they can realize the same dreams and aspirations that we in the west or “developed” world have. What they do not want is our pity, our charity, our culture, our food, our language. They have a proud history in which they are well-versed; they already know our language and culture better than most of us. My conversations with them on American politics have been humbling for me. What they want, and what they deserve, is a level playing field. They do not want to be denied opportunities to learn (rejected student visas to the west) because they are black or muslim. They want companies that provide them with job opportunities that recognize their educational preparation and achievement. They want jobs that pay them a decent wage and do not exploit their labor, so that foreign entrepreneurs and corporations can increase their bottom line and pay higher stock dividends to their shareholders. They want trade policies that allow African farmers to sell their products to western markets, instead of blocking them while forcing the countries to accept western products. They’re not asking for the extraordinary, just the ordinary. Who among us, doesn’t want our children to have a fair chance to prove themselves?

Yes, they are just some of the voices I have heard, and they may not reflect the reality of all here. But I quote one of many favorite songs, “The more I learn, the more I realize the less I know.” The time is at hand where we need to appreciate that learning never ends, and if only we’d listen to the ones we so often dismiss, we’d find out that they too have much to teach us.