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T
he first step toward a
better understanding
of
George Ngugi
and
Chiamaka Akaraiwe
, two
African students at Grand
Canyon University, requires
a world map.
Go get one. (They’ll wait.)
Now, find Africa. You know, the world’s second-
largest
continent
, which includes 54
countries
.
Ngugi, who is from Kenya, and Akaraiwe, from
Nigeria, are amused when Americans refer to
Africa as a
country
.
Furthermore, they’re not exactly neighbors back
home. Their respective cities of Nairobi and
Lagos are more than 2,300 miles apart.
Anyone for a little Geography 101?
“It gets ridiculous sometimes,” says a smiling
Ngugi, 37, a sociology major who is a senior in
more ways than one on a campus of students in
their late teens and early 20s. “Most (Americans)
have seen Africa through National Geographic
magazine or the Discovery Channel.”
Akaraiwe, 31, a physical therapist who is working
toward her MBA with an emphasis in health
systems management, speaks several Nigerian
languages. But English is her first language, and it
is her country’s official language. No one should
be surprised, then, that she speaks it perfectly.
“People think we live in huts, and that’s the only
thing they have in their mind,” Akaraiwe says.
“The war-torn areas aren’t a picture of Africa.”
The image that the two students carry around
with them, thousands of miles from home, is
much less monochromatic. And both freely
admit that they have had to put to rest their own
preconceived notions about Americans.
Ngugi, a world traveler, was stunned the first time
he saw a white man begging on the streets in the
United States because he never had seen a poor
white man in Africa. Akaraiwe says that a person
with a tattoo would be viewed as “irresponsible”
in Nigeria and had to change her perception.
“People are just people,” she says. “I had to start
looking at them from the inside out. (A tattoo) is
just an idiosyncrasy, and I had to learn that.”
Dr. Moronke Oke
, an associate professor in
GCU’s Ken Blanchard College of Business, is
a native of Nigeria who has lived on three
continents. She says cultural differences
shouldn’t be underestimated as a challenge for
international students.
“In my culture, when you respect someone, you
don’t
look them in the eye – you just listen,” she
says. “There is a lot of respect for authority.
You do not overtly challenge those in authority,
because of deference in the culture. Back home,
as a student I could never challenge a grade. …
“When I was a graduate student in England, class
participation and the ability to challenge a grade
were new to me. There was an adjustment, and
I had to actually step outside my comfort zone.”
Oke, who goes back to Nigeria every other
year with her husband (also Nigerian) and their
two sons, says it’s important for international
students to know there are people on campus
who understand them.
“If you lose your culture,” she says, “you’ve lost
everything. My default is my African culture.
My values come from that, and I adapt to other
cultures. … My children take pride in their
cultural heritage and sense of identity.”
Ngugi, whose hearty laugh draws people to him
like a magnet in his part-time job at the campus
mail center, also tries to keep his homeland close.
He is a self-described “news addict” who makes
it a point to keep up on world events.
When nearly 70 people were killed in a
September raid by militants on a Nairobi
shopping mall, it reminded him of the bombing
of the U.S. embassy 15 years ago in the same city,
which killed more than 200 civilians.
“You’re apprehensive,” he says of such times,
“wondering when will the call come saying
someone was lost (from your family)?”
He has found a kindred spirit in Akaraiwe,
another deep thinker who ponders the
worldwide implications of events in the United
States. The two of them recently had a lively
discussion about the monetary policies of the
Federal Reserve Bank.
“Everything is global,” Akaraiwe says. “What
happens here affects what goes on back home.”
She says that someday she plans to go back to
stay, although friends and family apparently
refuse to take her seriously.
“They laugh and say I’ll never come back,” she
says. “You kind of taste this life (in America) and it
makes you comfortable. You pay for things here,
but at least you have them. Back there, you don’t
have them.”
She is outspoken about racial inequality in
Nigeria, saying it is difficult for blacks to get
ahead because of a mindset from colonial
times that sets them back – and that they
help perpetuate.
The result, Akaraiwe says, is a culture of racially
based discrimination. “This is us doing it to
ourselves, so people don’t want to go back (to
Nigeria). It’s sad, and it needs to change.”
Ngugi, a devout Christian who plans to earn a
master’s degree, says he’s not sure what God has
in mind for his future, although he is interested
in policymaking. For now, he appreciates the
experience of working and studying on an
American college campus.
“Nowhere have the cultures melded as well as
they have here,” he says of the United States. “I’ll
give America that. Whatever America does, it
does well.”
■
P9
December 2013
INTERNATIONAL
STUDENTS AT GCU
GCU’s campus is home to students from
63 countries. Here are the top non-U.S.
countries represented, with the number of
student visas:
Canada:
28
India:
16
Vietnam:
13
United Kingdom:
12
South Korea:
10
Jamaica:
9
France:
7
Japan and Ukraine:
6
Croatia and China:
5
Source: GCU Center for International Education