Uploaded on: 06/24/2007
Community is essential to Africans living in the Twin Cities
By Terry Kolb
The Catholic Spirit
The St. Olaf African choir performs at a recent African Mass. |
It takes a village to raise a child in Africa, according to Eugenia Anah, a native of Nigeria who has settled in the Twin Cities and sings in the African choir at St. Olaf in Minneapolis.
“When children are not in school, they spend time at home, in community with an extended family,” Anah said. “The child is raised by the whole village and the extended family of parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Teachers also have permission to take over for the parents during school.”
This idea of community is a key value for immigrants from the African nations who settle in Minnesota. For the most part, these immigrants come to Minnesota from Liberia, Nigeria, Camaroon, Ivory Coast, Togo, Senegal, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ghana.
These Minnesotans of African descent were born in Africa, or born to parents who emigrated from Africa, in the United States. They are culturally, racially and ethnically distinct from African Americans because they were not brought to America involuntarily as slave labor. Also, their cultural characteristics reflect their African heritage, not a combination of African and European heritages.
Nortu Japah, chairman of the Pan-African Network and a member of St. Alphonsus in Brooklyn Center, said today’s Africans emigrate from their homelands for many reasons. Some come as refugees to be resettled. Others seek political asylum. Still others come to join family members who have settled and found jobs here.
The Pan-African Network, located on St. Alphonsus property, was organized by a Redemptorist priest who ministered at the parish, to meet the needs of the parish’s growing African population. The network has administrative offices and offers space for emigrants to gather in community.
The ideal of community is a value that immigrants from African nations work hard to preserve, said Father Ben Oleket, a priest from Kenya who is in residence at St. Olaf.
“They believe in celebrating life,” he said. “Christ’s presence makes a difference. Our people want to celebrate and bond as a family.”
St. Olaf’s African Choir in Minneapolis embodies the values of community and joyful celebration. Members are intergenerational, and young children often accompany parents to practice. Choir members sing in harmony and move rhythmically, arms moving with the music. Different kinds of percussion instruments provide a lively beat.
Choir director Lora Loahr, a member of St. Paul in Ham Lake, said she loves working with the St. Olaf group. The music is charismatic, and members sing in different languages, including Vietnamese, Swahili, French, Filipino and Spanish.
Percussionist Koku Logovi fled Togo and sought political asylum in the United States two years ago. He just graduated as a nursing assistant, and once he takes the state’s required tests he hopes to get a job in the Twin Cities.
“I miss living in community. In my country, I was always welcome at people’s homes,” he said. “I find community in this choir. I also meet with others [from Africa] every month. We have a meal and talk about how to take care of ourselves in a new culture with different values.”
Education also is important to people from the African nations.
Nadege Quevi also came to Minnesota from Togo. She just graduated from Southwest High School in Minneapolis, will attend college in Minneapolis and hopes to go to medical school.
Quevi said she notices that many young people in America do not take life seriously and do not have a plan for the future. This is very different from what she learned at home, she said. Another difference is that younger Americans are “bold,” they do not show respect for their elders, she said.
“I try to maintain the values I learned at home,” she said. “My mother taught me not to copy what friends do — and even some of my friends in my country are like American kids — but to keep my values.”
The idea of community extends to lending a helping hand to strangers, said Florence Iketalu, who came to Minnesota from Nigeria eight years ago, to care for her mother who had had a stroke.
“I find that same value here at St. Olaf, where the people welcome us,” she said. In Nigeria, where there is no food, the villagers help and care for one another. It is the same here, where people cooperate.”
Theresa Alada, who loves the diversity at St. Olaf, has a unique opportunity to teach American children about the values and culture of people from African nations. Alada, who emigrated from Nigeria five years ago, teaches pre-school. She brought in African music for the children to hear and showed a video of a wedding in Nigeria.
That’s what it’s all about for recent immigrants from the African nations — sharing our culture with our new neighbors — Japah said, and added that one of the goals of the Pan-African Network is to promote the cultural heritage of people from African nations.
“Our culture can be seen through what we do, our interaction with people, what we wear and a traditional handshake,” he said. “It is popular to say ‘Good morning’ to people and ask, ‘How are you and how is your family?’ Our people don’t mean that to be nosey.”
He said he encourages African families to cook traditional foods from their homeland and invite people from other cultures to share the meal. The network is planning to host an African night, where members will welcome Twin Citians from all cultures. “We want to show that we have love for one another,” he said.
In addition to promoting the cultural heritage of African people, the network works with Catholic Charities to help African immigrants resolve immigration issues. The network also encourages participation in St. Alphonsus ministries and organizations, and helps them feel a part of the community, Japah said.
However, the majority of immigrants must learn how to deal with values that are important to Americans. To this end, the network has received a grant from the Minneapolis Council of Churches, to teach African people about the American culture and what they can do to fit in.
Information about the importance of being on time, bus services and health education are other issues the grant will address.
African immigrants want to be educated and become productive members of society because that is part of their cultural heritage, Japah said. But another part of their culture is community.
“All that we ask in return is acceptance — that you welcome the stranger — employment and respectability,” he said.