ALMA

The African Immigrant Voices Project (AIV)

On this page:

• Purpose
• History
• Sponsorship
• Background Essay
• AIV Interview
• AIV Interviewees

Purpose

To promote African language literacy and to serve the interests of African language readers throughout the world.

History

The AIV project began in 2006 with a suggestion from Alex Zito, then a Boston University graduate student researching West African language literacy. He thought that first-person stories about the experiences of Africans in the diaspora might inform and interest African readers and make Africans want to read these stories in their own languages.

The idea of the project was to produce African literature in African languages capturing the plight and the lives of African diaspora emigrés. He and his professor John Hutchison began inviting African friends and acquaintances to become part of the project. The results were 12 interviews which are presented here.

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The AIV Project is sponsored by the West African Research Association (WARA) and its African Language Materials Archive (ALMA) Project.

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Background essay

The recent history of African education has been marked by a plethora of efforts in the non-formal realm that have fallen under the rubric of adult education and (maternal language) literacy programs. The universally touted wisdom, magnanimity and experience of an organization like UNESCO in this domain are accepted unquestionably, and UNESCO is lauded for its efforts. However, have such organizations, in fact, discovered the formula necessary for encouraging widespread literacy, particularly in maternal languages? In all but a few exceptional cases, adult literacy programs have failed to produce a print-rich, literate environment and a culture of reading. Whether providing instruction in the colonial language or in local African languages, the non-formal sector has yet to succeed in improving literacy rates in Africa. Today there are NGOs that are succeeding at literacy perhaps more than the national literacy services.

This project identifies and proposes other efforts linked to emerging “literatures” which, given their timely and topical nature, offer great promise and linguistic and cultural continuity in spite of the chaotic turmoil of our globalized planet. Here, are collected, oral narratives, produced by those who have for one reason or another been displaced in today’s world, in their own languages. For this kind of narrative, which is compelling for a broad range of stakeholders, the voices are of those who for educational, environmental or political reasons have been obliged to abandon their traditional homelands, who have been drawn to a capital city or other metropolis, perhaps for employment and economic reasons. It includes those who for one reason or another have given up their country and emigrated to another country with greater employment and income opportunities.

Alex Zito suggests that the topics of urbanization and emigration could foster a literature and spawn a readership in Africa. That suggestion constitutes the foundation of AIV. Though in its infancy, it has already proven extremely compelling and moving.

Alex Zito and John Hutchison have done research on the evolution of literate environments and the history of literacy. They have come to realize that literacy programs and efforts in Africa could benefit from a greater awareness of how new generations of readers have been spawned elsewhere in relatively short periods of time. Zito is a doctoral candidate in Boston University’s University Professors Program doing an interdisciplinary doctorate on the form and practice of publishing in African languages in West Africa.

Read Why immigrant narratives? by Alex Zito. (pdf)

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The AIV Interview

The AIV interview typically takes a little over an hour. We normally begin by asking the subject to speak in English or French giving an autobioraphical account of their lives both in Africa and in the diaspora, for not more than 10 minutes. Drawing from that autobiography, we then agree upon a subject to discuss in depth in the subject’s first African language, and ask the interviewee to speak up to 20 to 30 minutes on that subject if possible. A second and third theme are then selected for this treatment, in keeping with the time limit constraints. The video recordings are then transcribed in the African language and translated into English. AIV interviewees sign a release form giving us authorization to use the recorded material for non-lucrative educational purposes only. They are also given a remuneration as a gesture of gratitude.

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African Immigrant Voices Interviewees

Abel Djassi, Cape Verde, (English, Kriolu di Santiago) 14 November 2006

(see video 1: English intro) (see video 2: interview) (transcript pdf)

Abel Djassi Amado is a Cape Verdean immigrant to the United States. His name, Abel Djassi was given to him in honor of Amilcar Cabral, whose nom de guerre was the same. He left the islands in 1993 to pursue his college education in Portugal where he studied International Relations. He came to the USA in 1999. He served in the Army in Iraq, and has resumed his studies now. He is studying Political Science at Boston University and intends to do his doctoral dissertation research on Lusophone Africa. His interview is presented in English and his first language, Kriolu.

Lamine Sawadogo, Republic of Mali (English, Bamanankan) 21 November 2006

(see video 1: English intro) (see video 2: interview) (transcript pdf)

Lamine Sawadogo is a Malian immigrant to the US who was born and raised in Bamako, Republic of Mali. After completing his secondary school studies and passing his Baccalaureat exam in Mali, through his own resourcefulness and completely self-financed, he succeeded in coming to the US in 1978, and began to study Business Administration at the University of Massachusetts-Boston while working in the evenings to support himself. Today he is an American citizen and has his own successful business which focuses on exporting critically needed equipment to African countries. His interview is presented in English and his first language, Bamanankan.

Jessica Mushi-Evans, Kenya (English, Kiswahili) 28 November 2006

(see video 1: English intro) (see video 2: interview) (transcript pdf)

Jessica Mushi-Evans was born and raised in Tanzania, where she did her primary school, secondary school and university studies, finishing the latter at the University of Dar-es-Salaam in 2002. In 2003 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to come to Ohio University in Athens Ohio. She has taught her first language, Swahili, at Ohio University-Athens, Boston University and Harvard University. She is presently a graduate student at Ohio University-Athens studying for her master’s degree in Applied-Linguistics and will graduate in June 2008. Her interview is in Swahili.

Joh Camara, Republic of Mali (English, Bamanankan) 5 December 2006

(see video 1: English intro) (see video 2: interview) (transcript pdf)

Sidi Mohamed Camara, known better as Joh Camara, grew up in Bamako Kura, a quartier of Bamako, Republic of Mali. His mother’s side of the family were bards, and he grew up exposed to their artistry and learned dancing and drum playing from a very young age. While becoming skilled in the cultural arts, he also studied at ECICA, the Central School for Industry, Commerce and Administration. He spent some time in France and also got an opportunity to come to the US to the Boston area in the late 1990s, and discovered that his artistic skills in music and dance were in demand. He now lives in Roxbury and has his own music and dance group known as the Troupe Sewa which is well known in the Boston area. He and his group perform throughout New England. He also teaches Malian drumming and dance at Harvard University, Boston University, and Tufts University, among others. His interview is presented in Bamanankan, his first language.

Ada Luntu, Republic of Niger (Hausa, Fulfulde) 5 December 2006

(see video 1: Hausa intro) (see video 2: interview)

Ada Luntu is a Fulani artisan from the Republic of Niger. His interview is in Fulfulde and Hausa.

Ayan Dirir, Somalia (English, Somali) 6 March 2007

(see video 1: English intro) (see video 2: interview)

Ayan Dirir is from Somalia. She was an undergraduate at Boston University at the time of her interview. Her interview is in English and Somali.

Barema Diawara, Republic of Mali (English, Bamanankan) 6 March 2007

(see video 1: English intro) (see video 2: interview) (transcript pdf)

Barema Diawara was born in Mopti, on the Niger River, in the Republic of Mali. He came to the US in 1989 and began his life here in Washington, D.C. Today he lives with his family in Malden, Massachusetts and works as an entrepreneur. His interview is in English and in his first language, Bamanankan.

Masse Ndiaye (English, Wolof) 10 April 2007

(see video 1: English intro) (see video 2: interview) (transcript pdf)

Masse Ndiaye was born in Thies in Senegal. He was chosen to receive a scholarship by his department at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar to travel to the US to teach French at a high school in Meridian, Idaho, near Boise. Today he has nearly completed his PhD in the Department of Political Science at Boston University where he focused his dissertation research on the political situation in Senegal. His interview is in English, and in Wolof, his first language.

Akalpa John Akaligaung, Ghana (English, Mbuli, Hausa) 20 September 2007

(see video 1: English intro) (see video 2: interview) (English intro transcript pdf) (Buli transcript pdf) (Hausa transcript pdf)

Akalpa John Akaligaung is from Ghana. He is a graduate student in the School of Public Health at Boston University. His interview is in English, Mbuli, and Hausa.

Zoliswa Mali, South Africa (English, Xhosa) 27 September 2007

(see video 1: English intro) (see video 2: interview) (transcript pdf)

Zoliswa Mali is from the city of East London on the Eastern Cape of South Africa. She completed her primary, secondary and university studies in South Africa, and completed her Master’s Degree at Stellenbosch University. She then came to the US and did her PhD at the University of Iowa, before being hired as an Associate Professor of African Languages and Linguistics at Boston University where she is responsible for instruction in Southern African languages. Her interview is in IsiZulu and in IsiXhosa.

Fatimata Coulibaly Sanogo, Republic of Mali, (English, Bamanankan) 3 October 2007

(see video 1: English intro) (see video 2: interview) (transcript pdf)

Fatimata Coulibaly Sanogo was born in Sikasso in the Republic of Mali. She completed her secondary school studies in Bamako, and then continued her higher education at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, a college for teacher training. She taught English for fourteen years in a secondary school before becoming a high school principal and then Inspector of English at the Ministry of Education. She spent the year 2006-07 at Boston University as a fellow in the Hubert Humphrey Fellowship Program. Her interview is in English and in her first language, Bamanankan.

Kapya (John) Kaoma, Zambia, (English, Bemba) 13 December 2007

(see video 1: English intro) (see video 2: interview) (transcript pdf)

John Kapya Kaoma was born in Mwense District, in Luapula Province of Zambia. He studied at the Theological College of Central Africa in Ndola, Zambia. He won a scholarship to go to the UK and completed a Master’s Degree at the University of Bristol. He became a priest in the Anglican Church. He later came to the Boston area to study at the Episcopal Divinity School and also in the School of Theology at Boston University. His interview is in English and in Chibemba.

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