Kyle: Is it ok if I record this conversation?
Qweeni: Yes.
Kyle: Thank you. First off, what is your name?
Qweeni: Qweeni Ieuoku, if I remember right.
Kyle: Where are you from?
Qweeni: Nigeria.
Kyle: Where is Nigeria?
Qweeni: There’s the north south east and west, it is in the western part of Africa.
Kyle: Like the north western part?
Qweeni: Yeah pretty much. It’s where you have the Atlantic Ocean.
Kyle: Alright, to start off with the interview questions, what do you miss from your native country?
Qweeni: My family (chuckles).
Kyle: Anything else?
Qweeni: The fun stuff, and the nature, and uh, pretty much everything.
Kyle: Everything?
Qweeni: Most everything.
Kyle: Is there anything you don’t miss?
Qweeni: A little of the violence.
Kyle: Violence?
Qweeni: Yeah. The fighting, and…
Kyle: Who does the fighting?
Qweeni: It’s not a religious fight, it’s a political fight, pretty much because the submission of political militants. They go around terrorizing one or two people once in a while, and then everyone runs hetter-scetter.
Kyle: Have you ever seen this happen?
Qweeni: Yeah, actually I did see it happen. I went to a navy school, so they once attacked my school, where it was like a battle, and shootout, and everything.
Kyle: That sounds pretty scary.
Qweeni: Na, not really, just fun.
Kyle: Being in a shootout wasn’t scary at all?
Qweeni: Na, not if you’ve been in the military.
Kyle: Alright, what was the hardest part about transitioning to the US?
Qweeni: The food, the language. Even-though I speak English, the language is quite different. The English I speak is quite different from the ones you guys speak. And acceptance. Pretty much just food, language, and acceptance.
Kyle: When you were in Nigeria, were you able to get food from many different cultures like you can here?
Qweeni: We have Nigerian foods, like pretty much Nigerian food, and we have other people’s food, like we have mostly Asian food too. So the reason why when I came here pretty much the first food I could adapt to was Chinese. It is because I pretty much eat asian food back at home but more often you eat your own cultural food. Once in a while you eat something different. They do open people to other foods in Nigeria too because they have other people in our country.
Kyle: Does Nigeria have an FDA?
Qweeni: What is an FDA?
Kyle: FDA in America is the Food and Drug Administration. They make sure all the fast food joints are sanitary.
Qweeni: Yeah we have, I’ve forgotten the name, but we do have one and its very strict. Mostly when it comes to importing drugs, toothpaste, food and canned food. Last time I was there the lady in charge of that sector was really strict about it. Like every single day you hear on the news people’s stuff is being burned because they’re not totally registered in the sector. I think its called NASDAQ.
Kyle: Why did you decide to come to St. Cloud State University instead of studying in your own country?
Qweeni: Well the question is “who wouldn’t?” America has been one of the good countries to have a good education from and you know if you school in a place with a higher advantage and a good reputation you’re gonna have a higher advantage when it comes to job acceptance in other countries.
Kyle: So it looks better for a job?
Qweeni: No, apart from that, the other reason is like in Nigeria, we do have good educations in Nigeria but then it comes the next standard by the political aspect comes and holds with the educational sector because the government doesn’t want to pay the teachers and then they all go on strike and then the students stay back and wait and it takes the student like seven years to finish a part of their studying. So that’s the bad thing about it. So I was trying to skip all that drama.
Kyle: So you’re skipping that so you can get done with your schooling in four years. Alright, what is something unique to where you are from?
Qweeni: Like Nigeria? We love dancing. We love dancing and we’re known for hospitality. We pretty much accept anybody.
Kyle: Have you felt any hospitality since you came here?
Qweeni: Sometimes yes sometimes no. I don’t know how to wait because I didn’t really care.
Kyle: How does the climate in your home country compare to here?
Qweeni: Much Better! Ok, we have just two seasons in Nigeria; we have the rainy season and the dry season. Just think about that, that’s fun right? Yeah. The rainy season is pretty much wet most times, just rain falling because we are like at the equator. Nigeria is situated at the equator, so we have rainy and dry seasons; a mix of both sides. It’s the best weather actually, one gets sunny and super hot, and one gets cold. It’s a nice weather. In comparison to this one, winter sucks, and summer is too hot.
Kyle: Summer’s too hot here?
Qweeni: Yeah! I think so. Ok, Nigeria is hot but you’re used to it, right? I’m used to it because I was born in the hot weather; and then the rain comes and cools stuff down. But here is kind of different. It gets super cold, and gets super hot, so why? I don’t get it. There is nothing in between.
Kyle: What about fall and spring?
Qweeni: Fall and spring in this stuff is still freezing.
Kyle: So how does the growing season work then?
Qweeni: In my place you can grow stuff anytime but it depends on the plant. The plants we have over there are totally different to the ones you have here. Like I could ask you a question right now. Do you know what po po is? Because you don’t know it but it is a very, very good stuff to eat. It depends because during the dry season we have plants we grow and during the rainy season we also have plants we grow. Because back in Nigeria some plants don’t grow during the rainy season, and some plants don’t grow during the dry season.
Kyle: So you can grow all year round then?
Qweeni: Yeah, you can grow all year round.
Kyle: So is Nigeria big into farming then, since they can grow all year round?
Qweeni: We do export many food crops. Cocoa, oil, palm oil, granite oil, olive oil, blah-blah oil, whatever you want to call it, and uh, plant things. We do export many food crops to other countries that need it. Bananas, oranges, we’re really good at that. And then, yeah pretty much. Cotton, a little of it, wait let me think, am I right? Yeah I think so. Rice, yeah we do export rice. Rice has been growing in the north part of Nigeria not in south part of Nigeria.
Kyle: What are some cultural differences between your country and here?
Qweeni: Uh question, does America have a culture?
Kyle: American.
Qweeni: You sure?
Kyle: Yeah, I feel like America has a certain culture.
Qweeni: Hmmm, I don’t think so. It’s all mixed up.
Kyle: Well America takes things from many different cultures.
Qweeni: So how does it make a culture of its own; from many different cultures?
Kyle: I would say so. If an American was to go to Europe, they would be able to say, “You’re American, I can tell by the way you act.” Because in Germany most households take their shoes off at the door, but in America some people just have their shoes on all the time.
Qweeni: Yeah, you take your shoes off in my house. Ok I actually just like yeah, Nigeria we have like our culture from like way from the beginning and we still continue it till now. Yeah there are like some kind of defenses when you come here. People pretty much wanna do whatever they wanna do. They have pretty much freedom of right. They’re not controlled if they wanna do stuffs. But in Nigeria like there are certain rules, you know? Rules being brought out from morals. Social guidelines and morals and you have just two religions. Culturally dressing is totally different. We wear our cultural dresses once in a while. Sometimes we try to be American or we try to be foreign or we try to be European so we wear some of those clothes. But over here you wear your clothes and everything else. Food wise we got our own foods. We eat most times vegetables and cow, goats, sheep.
Kyle: Who takes care of the finances in your family?
Qweeni: Now that’s a good cultural aspect I forgot to say. The dad takes care of the children until they all grow up, get done with school, get done with college, and then they have their own family. Then they’re good to go. Things have changed presently though a little, just like a little change. But back then the mom usually, it’s more like the responsibility is being shared. Not actually the husband controls the wife but it’s more like the responsibility is being shared. The husband takes care of the finances and the wife does the household stuff.
Kyle: What if the husband can’t take care of the finances?
Qweeni: Then it’s gonna be bad…
Kyle: Then he’s just like a bad husband?
Qweeni: No, not actually, sometimes they can compromise. Sometimes the wife will help the husband. That’s sort of marriage or what the family is for. The wife takes care of the household stuff even though the wife is working and the husband is working too she would pretty much contribute so much to the finances. Maybe once in a while when the husband is broke. The husband’s responsibility is to make sure the family is intact.
Kyle: In America, most households have both parents working, does that happen in Nigeria?
Qweeni: Mom and dad working? Yeah.
Kyle: Are there any cases where just the mom is working and the dad is a stay at home dad?
Qweeni: There are few cases like that because the men don’t usually want to sit down around the house, and just sit down and wait for the wife to do something. We’ve been taking our responsibility to take care of the family. If he doesn’t have a job he will probably go and look for a small scale job. And try as much as possible to contribute to the family.
Kyle: So do the children ever get jobs to help pay for college or anything?
Qweeni: Nah. Not actually, except they need to, except they really need to. If they really need to then the go outside and start selling. Or what they do is this, the parents make a small scale job like selling stuff and the children work there and make money for the family.
Kyle: Is it easier to start a small scale business like that in Nigeria?
Qweeni: Yeah it’s very easy.
Kyle: Oh so if you go there and build a building you can just start selling stuff there?
Qweeni: Yeah but you have to be registered with the government.
Kyle: Is it hard to get the licensure for that?
Qweeni: Not really to hard but the payment is kind of frustrating because once in a while the government agencies come around either they close the shop if you can’t pay or you pay them, like tax collectors.
Kyle: At what age to men and women spend private time? And at what age do they consider marriage?
Qweeni: I don’t know about that. I didn’t stay there for that long to know when people marry. Pretty much during the period of my parents when they were kind of younger, uh my dad got married when he age twenty and my mom got married when she was nineteen. That was early, right?
Kyle: Is that early for their culture?
Qweeni: Mmm that was early for you right? Well that’s not really early for them because he could handle it. It depends on if you have enough money to take care of a family and you feel you can do it. They give you, like over here you gain so much respect when you’re eighteen. But at eighteen in Nigeria you’re still a kid. Sometimes even at 21. So it depends on how responsible and how grown up and mature you are actually.
Kyle: So they treat you with respect based on maturity and not your age?
Qweeni: Yeah, maturity and not your age actually. Over here so you know when someone is around 22 even though you don’t really mature your somewhat respected at 22, maybe your brains getting bigger or something more or less.
Kyle: In America sometimes kids get emancipated when they are 16 and they live on their own, does that ever happen in Nigeria?
Qweeni: Nigeria, if you leave your house at 18 they pretty much assume you’re a stubborn kid. Because at the age of 18 your still meant to be in your parents’ house, you’re still meant to be taken care of. Your parents leave you when they feel you are mature enough to leave alone.
Kyle: Around what age does that usually happen?
Qweeni: I can’t approximate. Pretty much when you’re done with college and when you get a job, what age could that be?
Kyle: Well if you have to wait the seven years to get done with college, it would be like 24?
Qweeni: 24, 25, 26, pretty much.
Kyle: How old are you when you can date?
Qweeni: Oh, old enough to date? That’s one thing I never knew, I was secretly dating.
Kyle: Did your parents ever tell you that you can’t date until a certain age?
Qweeni: My mom doesn’t still know I have a girlfriend yet. And my dad doesn’t and I’m not sure I’m gonna tell them right now. Maybe it’s just me, maybe it’s just them scared of it or what but I’m still under their support. When they hear you have a girlfriend, they think you’re actually diverting from what you’re actually meant to do, like study and do your classes and one or two stuffs.
Kyle: So if your dad just showed up and knocked on your door when your girlfriend’s over,
Qweeni: I’m, I’m fucked. Haha.
Kyle: What are your personal experiences with racism since coming to the US?
Qweeni: I had some occasions, yeah. I actually did things like, the US, ok I didn’t really know much about racism.
Kyle: So you didn’t even know about racism till you came here?
Qweeni: Yeah, like I didn’t even know much about it. I just thought like, I was like joking to the foreigner stuff. I watched the making movies. I was all like America! America this, America that, and I was like ok. I was also blind, you know? The paradise I saw in the movies is the paradise I had in my head. Like the African-Americans here are gangster and they can shoot you, one thing or the other. And then when I came over here I saw that I was part of it. I was a part of the people they were putting aside. And then I started thinking from a different perspective. I experienced racism; I went to parties where I was kicked out. I had judgments sometimes by people just stop and scream out shit from their windows or from their cars and once in a while you see people just don’t want to talk to you or don’t want to speak to you. Sometimes you have classes and you get so pissed because people say I’ve never ever done something racist. And you’re like I’m black and a racist and you are white and you’re a racist too. So just shut the fuck up.
Kyle: What were your preconceptions about the US before coming here and how have they changed?
Qweeni: I thought it was heaven I thought it was beautiful ‘cuz I thought it was everything just goes on processing fine. Like you just snap your fingers and everything is there. I thought it was really perfect. The living conditions I thought maybe you wouldn’t really see a lot of poor people here. Where people don’t starve to death, where people don’t go out shooting people in the head but yeah you still have one or two stuffs going on here.
Kyle: Where you have like the homeless person on the corner,
Qweeni: Yeah the homeless person with the sign and stuff. I wasn’t really expecting to see all that.
Kyle: When you saw that, what did you think?
Qweeni: I was like, Wow! It happens here too? It’s pretty much more organized than Nigeria is, doesn’t mean Nigeria’s not a civilized place. Pretty much I’ll say the US is growing faster in development than Nigeria is right now. ‘Cuz that’s pretty much why I picked studying in the US than in Nigeria.
Kyle: What do you think of people who like could apply for food stamps and stuff but choose not to?
Qweeni: If they don’t how do they live? Wouldn’t they die?
Kyle: They only get what they can afford and like sometimes they can’t afford to feed their kids.
Qweeni: Wait you need food stamps right?
Kyle: Yeah but they have a pride thing and wont get any.
Qweeni: So how would they live? How would they survive?
Kyle: They just get by,
Qweeni: I think that’s weird, they have a chance to eat. I don’t really care like if I’m hungry and I have a chance to eat, the government gives me a chance to eat I’m defiantly gunna take it. Nigeria you don’t really have a chance to have a food stamp like that. The reason Nigerian government does support the poor people, like people who are poor, but then not really with food stamps and everything. We do have many beggers on the road begging and one or two stuffs like that. But the government is pretty much organizing programs, what they do is this they organize programs that let you get jobs, small scale jobs that can help you support yourself. So they make opportunities like make uh shops for tailors for people to sew clothes so people can come buy them and they can make money for themselves. Jobs for one or two stuffs uh jobs for technicians uh jobs for many stuffs, like just fishing, this that, they use the resources we have and create jobs for the small scale jobs for people who don’t have money so they can work and feed themselves. And then from there they can get up, that’s what they do. In Nigeria they give you the job. You use hands, more like they don’t give you the fish, they give you the hook to fish.
Kyle: What if people can’t get a job?
Qweeni: The case is like that people do complain, complain about unemployment saying you don’t have jobs because you got done from school or you’ve been out of school for five years and you don’t still have jobs. You know. But like here not everyone gets a job, right? Exactly, some people wait for a long time too. Same thing happens over there. Sometimes people even switch from what they actually went to school for and get into some other job they have no idea about. Cuz of the unemployment rates. It’s kind of higher there, but at the same time people get jobs there too.
Kyle: Is religion more open where you’re from?
Qweeni: Do you have a religion where you kill people? I’m not sure they would accept in Nigeria. But yeah, pretty much the two accepted religions in Nigeria, like widely accepted religions in Nigeria they are Christianity and Islamic. And uh other religions play parts like come in or out once in a while but I could remember in my school there was some other guy who was doing who was in some other stuff I’d never even knew about. Well he wasn’t actually socially accepted because he was in some other religion like no one, I, like people thought it was like a bad religion. People thought it was like magic and stuff like that, if you’re a witch in Nigeria they’ll probably kill you, haha, I’m just kidding. But yeah uh, they probly just take you as a weird person. Socially they won’t really accept you like that. But then most of them just hide in a cupboard. They don’t come out. They just don’t reveal it.
Kyle: If Hmong people moved to Nigeria and wanted to build a worship center would the government allow it? Or do they have a say in it?
Qweeni: I don’t really have any idea about that level like that’s the government and their acceptance. I do feel like on that level the government does allow I think they allow some cases as long as your religion doesn’t hurt people like you don’t sacrifice humans to the gods.
Kyle: So basically you have a freedom of religion?
Qweeni: We do have a freedom of religion. But we don’t have, its not that free when it comes to social acceptability.
Kyle: So is there sort of racism in that aspect?
Qweeni: Racism based on religion? Actually, yeah.
Kyle: So it’s harder to get a job?
Qweeni: No, it doesn’t go that way. They won’t ask you about their religion if you’re getting a job. It doesn’t go that way. Your job acceptance is based on other stuff. It’s pretty much based on your credentials and school. And um, volunteering like the US does.
Kyle: On like a job application do they have like a box where you check your race or ethnicity?
Qweeni: Like what? I don’t get it.
Kyle: If I were to apply for a job I would pick up a job application.
Qweeni: It asks if your black, white or? I have not seen a job application. I’ve not been in Nigeria for three years. When I was in Nigeria there was no need for applying for a job yet. So I don’t know much about it but if I should assume, I would say, most of the white people who come over already have jobs. They either sponsored by a company or one or two higher authorities. So, they just come for one or two sole purposes, and they do what they have to do some of them end up staying and still working in their higher authorities. But we do have other races too in Nigeria. Sometimes they mix up sometimes they don’t. but then I don’t really have so much idea of what a job application comes with right. But maybe by now there should be at least more diversity in their applications.
Kyle: Getting back on track now, How long have you been here and how long do you plan on staying?
Qweeni: Uh, I’ve been here for three years. How long do I plan on staying? I don’t know, I’m still confused. Like I wanna go back to Nigeria you know and help my country out you know but then at same time the good conditions here pretty much hold you back and try to make you change my mind and not go back. At same time it’s something you have to weigh when you get there. You have to weigh it when the time comes. If you want to stay or if you want to go back.
Kyle: Are you more interested in having your family come here?
Qweeni: My family come here? I miss everything about Nigeria I want o go see it. It gets frustrating sometimes but my family can move if they want to.
Kyle: Do they have the resources to move?
Qweeni: I don’t generally emphasize on that. I just believe they can move if they want to. Even though I might need to help them in one way or the other, but yeah. If they really want to move they can move. And uh, actually like you go to France, let’s say you go to France and live there for three years, wouldn’t you want to come back? You’d want to come back yeah? You’d want to see what the US looks like. Exactly that’s what I have, the same thing happening over here. More like you miss everything about it, you have friends there, you have ties, if you have.
Kyle: Do you think you’re going to move back to Nigeria?
Qweeni: That’s what I don’t still know. I’ve not decided.
Kyle: What’s your favorite food or meal, not commonly found in America?
Qweeni: It’s called garri. G-a-r-r-i. Its made from catsava. And catsava is a root crop, a root crop. And uh, should I tell you the process, how they make it? Uh, you have the root crop and you take the root out, cut it up. And ferment it and dry it, grind it a little until it’s in small particles and dry it. And then it becomes as smooth as that and then you can pretty much make It in hot water and stirring it around until its thick enough to be solid. And then you eat it. With soup.
Kyle: Alright, how is living here similar or different to where you are from?
Qweeni: The way you guys build houses here to the way we build houses back in Nigeria. Architecture, the materials you used, we pretty much use more cement. You guys pretty much use more wood. Shape of the houses and everything. The roads, some roads over in Nigeria are not really paved.
Kyle: Have you ever been on a gravel road here?
Qweeni: No. like here most of the roads are all paved. Like some roads in Nigeria are like really good and like paved and they’re best to drive on. But not every single place there looks like that. Some places are not very drivable. Yeah and uh, lifestyle, Americans love to party, Nigeria it’s not really like that. Not really the party stuff.
Kyle: But they love to dance.
Qweeni: They love dancing cultural dances. More like you guys love clubbing. Right? Every single Friday I see a bunch of people going down town, exactly. Exactly.
Kyle: What kind of foods do you eat where you’re from?
Qweeni: Like I said, pretty much more vegetables and fruits, yeah it’s more of the healthy stuff.
Kyle: Do you guys have big dairy farms?
Qweeni: Yeah. Pretty much it’s not like as organized and developed as it is over here. But we have big markets where we sell, like we just have large ass markets where you just go through them and you see what people sell. It’s more like business and Nigerians love business. Like it helps them. that’s a major place Nigerians go with. That’s on the low scale but on the high scale you have people go for medicine, have people go for business sales, haha, pretty much the higher business.
Kyle: Well, that’s all the questions I have, do you have any questions for me? Or anything you want to tell me?
Qweeni: I just want to tell you, go screw yourself, haha, so I can fucking get out of this room, haha, just kidding. No I’m good, but thanks for the pop.
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