When the Ethiopian-American author and motivational speaker, Mawi Asgedom, spoke on September 26 at the Evanston Public Library, 170 people were hooked to his every word. It is not every day that you get the opportunity to see an African refugee who graduated from Harvard University and tours the U.S. to tell people to live against all odds.
Dressed in blue jeans and a traditional Ethiopian beige shirt, 30-year-old Mawi was very down to earth, saying hello to everyone and shaking hands with several kids and parents before his presentation. The crowd of middle-school students, teenagers and parents quickly took to him; many sat on the floor at his feet.
Twenty-four years ago, Mawi came to the United States as a refugee with his parents and siblings. He and his family had fled the civil war in Ethiopia by walking hundreds of miles to neighboring Sudan. He shared his refugee story with the audience.
“[My mother] chewed food and then gave it to the baby,” said Mawi, whose mother’s milk had dried up during their flight. “Raise your hand if you would do the same thing to save your brother and sister?”
Most of the children in the room raised their hands without hesitation. “We’re not as different as we might think we are,” he added.
He vividly described the experience of living through a 30-year-long civil war.
“Imagine the war starts today in 2007 and you all 8th graders can’t be in school. [Soldiers come and say] ‘Hey, join my army or I’ll kill all of your family right now’,” said Mawi, bringing the story home to his American audience. “By the time the war ends, you would be 43 or 44 years old.”
The children were silent as the storyteller’s words resonated in the room. The speaker had skillfully managed to show the loss that an entire generation experienced in East Africa.
However, the children were not always pensive, especially when the charismatic speaker asked for their opinion.
“What do you think was the best thing about the States for us [refugees]?” asked Mawi whose best-selling memoir, Of Beetles and Angels, is being read in hundreds of schools.
The room became electrified as children yelled: Clothes! Shoes! Basketball! Cell phones!
“Cell phones? Even people in America didn’t have cell phones in 1983,” said Mawi. When the laughter in the room quieted down, he added softly: “The best part of coming to the U.S. was peace, knowing that no one will come after you with a gun.”
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Mawi II: Feeling Invisible in America
However, when Mawi he arrived in Wheaton, Ill. as a six-years-old refugee, he felt invisible in the American society.
“Imagine everybody around you excited to see each other, but you were not part of it? That’s how I felt when I came to this country,” said Mawi. One of the greatest moments in his life was when out of the 30 kids in his class; one invited him to his birthday party. “That’s the greatest thing I experienced: people who had unconditional love for me no matter how I looked.”
He encourages kids to reach out to those who may look different from them, who may have a different accent or smell differently because of the food they eat.
Thirteen-year-old Jernome Smith plans to follow Mawi’s advice.
“I learned that we shouldn’t mistreat people of other cultures because of how they talk,” said Smith, who is a 7th grader at Chute Middle School in Evanston. “We should open doors of our lifetime to meet new people and their culture.”
“Imagine everybody around you excited to see each other, but you were not part of it? That’s how I felt when I came to this country,” said Mawi. One of the greatest moments in his life was when out of the 30 kids in his class; one invited him to his birthday party. “That’s the greatest thing I experienced: people who had unconditional love for me no matter how I looked.”
He encourages kids to reach out to those who may look different from them, who may have a different accent or smell differently because of the food they eat.
Thirteen-year-old Jernome Smith plans to follow Mawi’s advice.
“I learned that we shouldn’t mistreat people of other cultures because of how they talk,” said Smith, who is a 7th grader at Chute Middle School in Evanston. “We should open doors of our lifetime to meet new people and their culture.”
Mawi III: Against All Odds
At times, Mawi felt like giving up though.
“I had a lot of bad things happen in my life. My older brother was killed by a drunk driver,” he said. “But nobody can ever stop you from having goals. You’re the one who chooses what you want in life.”
Mawi was in high school, when his brother was killed. He had to make a decision whether to drop out of school because of the pain and anger or honor his brother’s memory by studying hard.
“When things are so dark, you have to have faith and hope that you will see the light, one day,” said Mawi, who decided to work even harder.
Mawi filled out his college applications himself (just like he filled out his family’s welfare paperwork). On top of the application, he added a letter, asking the universities to accept his application even though he did not have the required 50-dollar fee. He ended up being accepted at Harvard University with a full-tuition scholarship.
Mawi graduated cum laude from Harvard and created a speaking business, which has taken him to more than a thousand schools.
The inspirational talk ended with the audience putting their hands over each other’s shoulders and repeating Ethiopian blessing in the language of Tygrinia.
“May you have the brilliance and power of one thousand people.”
“I had a lot of bad things happen in my life. My older brother was killed by a drunk driver,” he said. “But nobody can ever stop you from having goals. You’re the one who chooses what you want in life.”
Mawi was in high school, when his brother was killed. He had to make a decision whether to drop out of school because of the pain and anger or honor his brother’s memory by studying hard.
“When things are so dark, you have to have faith and hope that you will see the light, one day,” said Mawi, who decided to work even harder.
Mawi filled out his college applications himself (just like he filled out his family’s welfare paperwork). On top of the application, he added a letter, asking the universities to accept his application even though he did not have the required 50-dollar fee. He ended up being accepted at Harvard University with a full-tuition scholarship.
Mawi graduated cum laude from Harvard and created a speaking business, which has taken him to more than a thousand schools.
The inspirational talk ended with the audience putting their hands over each other’s shoulders and repeating Ethiopian blessing in the language of Tygrinia.
“May you have the brilliance and power of one thousand people.”
Monday, September 24, 2007
Responding to the Annoying Question
“I am an American. I was born and raised here,” says a vendor at a health food store in Evanston, IL. “Now, where is your home?”
I looked at the man who had been kind enough to search through the entire store for some biodegradable products for me. His question jolted me out of my familiar environment. I have barely been back home a month and already the irritating question, “You have a cute accent. Where are you from?”
Yes I have an unusual accent; not quite Midwest American, not quite British, mixed with strong French intonations. But then again, everybody has a peculiar accent; whether you’re from New England or Georgia.
The United States is my home. It’s annoying to have to remind fellow Americans about it. It seems that the only Americans who get it right are the immigration officers at the airport. They say, “Welcome home!” when I present my green card. I love hearing it, because, after hours of traveling, I am exhausted and look forward to getting home and putting my feet up.
I look at the nice vendor in Evanston. He is still waiting for me to tell him. Today, I am in no mood to be playful and turn his question into a geography game. Maybe I should just tell him the truth…
My Dad is Canadian, my mother is dead and my siblings’ nationalities run the gamut across the world. I have been living in the Chicagoland area all my adult life. Having sought asylum in the U.S., I technically have no citizenship.
In a couple of years, I will apply for a new citizenship. Maybe it will make things easier to reply to the nice vendor:
“I am an American like you. Born and raised in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Saturday, September 8, 2007
SHARE YOUR IMMIGRATION STORY
GET YOUR OPINION HEARD
You are invited to anonymously contribute your immigration experience to a group art project. Your experience can be a hope, desire, belief, fear, trauma, confession, secret or humiliation as an immigrant. Tell anything you want - as long as it is true.
Here is how:
- Create your artwork out of any material.
- If you want to share two or more experiences, use multiple postcards or pages.
- Put your complete immigration experience and image on one side of the postcard or page.
Tips:
- Use few words.
- Write big, clear and bold letters
- Be creative (Express yourself with art, photos, anything).
The purpose of this project is to get immigrants’ opinions heard. Your identity remains a secret.
Mail your immigration experience to:
Immig Art
P.O. Box 6192
Evanston, IL 60204
Se an Immigration Story on www.immig-art.blogspot.com
Immig-Art is a project of Kabuika Kamunga, Inc.
Legal Notice
By submitting information to Immig Art, you grant Immig Art a perpetual, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, distribute, and otherwise exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to that information at its sole discretion, including storing it on Immig Art servers and incorporating it in other works in any media now known or later developed including without limitation published books.
If you do not wish to grant Immig Art these rights, it is suggested that you do not submit information to Immig Art. Immig Art reserves the right to select, edit and arrange submissions, and to remove information from the Immig Art website at any time at its sole discretion.
No image from this site may be used for any purpose without expressed written authorization, with one exception; you may post one image as a link to this site.
GET YOUR OPINION HEARD
You are invited to anonymously contribute your immigration experience to a group art project. Your experience can be a hope, desire, belief, fear, trauma, confession, secret or humiliation as an immigrant. Tell anything you want - as long as it is true.
Here is how:
- Create your artwork out of any material.
- If you want to share two or more experiences, use multiple postcards or pages.
- Put your complete immigration experience and image on one side of the postcard or page.
Tips:
- Use few words.
- Write big, clear and bold letters
- Be creative (Express yourself with art, photos, anything).
The purpose of this project is to get immigrants’ opinions heard. Your identity remains a secret.
Mail your immigration experience to:
Immig Art
P.O. Box 6192
Evanston, IL 60204
Se an Immigration Story on www.immig-art.blogspot.com
Immig-Art is a project of Kabuika Kamunga, Inc.
Legal Notice
By submitting information to Immig Art, you grant Immig Art a perpetual, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, distribute, and otherwise exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to that information at its sole discretion, including storing it on Immig Art servers and incorporating it in other works in any media now known or later developed including without limitation published books.
If you do not wish to grant Immig Art these rights, it is suggested that you do not submit information to Immig Art. Immig Art reserves the right to select, edit and arrange submissions, and to remove information from the Immig Art website at any time at its sole discretion.
No image from this site may be used for any purpose without expressed written authorization, with one exception; you may post one image as a link to this site.
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