Edited version
(There was some small talk before I began recording)
Kyle: Is it okay if I record this?
Kyle: Is it okay if I record this?
Kwaku: Oh yeah, no problem.
Kyle: So where are you from?
Kwaku: Ghana in West Africa. Ah Ghana is a small country about the size of North Dakota. But were very rich, well were luck that way
Kyle: small but populated
Kwaku: very very very
Kyle: and how do you spell your full name
Kwaku: K-W-A-K-A A-M-O-A-H
Kyle: Okay, to get started with the questions here; what do you miss from your native country? What don’t you miss?
Kwaku: Uh, I definitely miss my family of course and I definitely miss bonding with friends and playing soccer and just growing up there. You know I lived with my grandparents and they took me farming every weekend. So I kinda miss those experiences and I just miss causing trouble.
Kyle: What don’t you miss?
Kwaku: What don’t I miss? I definitely don’t miss poverty. Just health wise and just growing up there as a young kid it’s very difficult because you don’t get the best water or food. And I’m very fortunate to be in America to get the opportunity to get the best of everything.
Kyle: Did you ever get sick from the water?
Kwaku: It affected me, but not so much. Parents try to get the best water for you before they get whats good for themselves but at the same time it wasn’t. It was the best of the best but compared to here it’s not even close.
Kyle: What was the hardest thing about transitioning to the U.S.?
Kwaku: The hardest thing um… overall the hardest thing is defiantly being away from my parents. My dad is still at home and my grandparents as well. and just climate wise, environment wise its all beneficial but it’s something you have to get adjusted to. I just feel fortunate; it wasn’t easy at first, different weather, different culture. I had to learn English, I didn’t know any English. If anything I would say learning English because yeah.
Kyle: Why did you decide to come to SCSU instead of studying or working in your own country?
Kwaku: I came to SCSU because they have a great business program as far as school. And eventually I’d like to get a business degree and eventually go back to home and open some type of business to help my people and help them out that way. So I feel like SCSU gives me the best opportunity for that. And I just love the campus I love the environment it’s not too big or too small. So it’s the best place for me. And it’s affordable so that’s the reason why I’m here.
Kyle: What is something unique to where you are from?
Kwaku: Specifically where I come from people literally make their own clothes. You hardly see people going and buying clothes. They weave it themselves; I thought that was pretty cool. There’s culture clothes people make that from scratch and that’s pretty cool to me. That’s just one thing that sticks out, I’m sure there’s many. I mean something unique, obviously soccer is big back there and people are huge soccer fans, so that’s unique how everyone loved the same game and I know it’s not so popular here in the U.S.
Kyle: How does the climate in your home country compare to here?
Kwaku: The climate here is very different. I know here we have winter, summer, spring and fall. In Ghana we have two seasons there’s dry season and there’s rainy season. I mean its defiantly hot back there. The average temperature is about 98 every day. But it’s not hot to a point where it’s humid and sticky. Its 98 buts its cool enough where you won’t die by any means but it defiantly gets hot. In your home everyone pretty much has a fan or an air conditioner at all times. Here, I defiantly like the weather here just because of the different seasons and also just different opportunities. In Minnesota in general you can go out and do winter activities. And it’s just unique to see the different colors as far as when its fall you can see the nice trees and the trees change colors and such and when its winter there’s snow and ice. I love snow but not too much of it, I think it makes the day look very nice as far as image wise I just like it.
Kyle: Which would you prefer?
Kwaku: I defiantly prefer Minnesota weather just because it’s good to get used to all types of weathers. When it’s hot all the time, like here it’s been snowing a while and people are sick of it, back home when it’s hot most of the year at some point you get sick of it. We all like changes sometimes and I’m no exception.
Kyle: What are some cultural differences between your country and here?
Kwaku: uh.. back home I’ll say there’s a lot of cultural differences. First of all if you want to talk about marriage there’s a lot of cultural differences it’s almost like India where a lot of the marriages are arranged. It’s not as strict but a mom will introduce you to a nice young lady, for example, and they will encourage you, they will almost marry her for you just because they feel like that family is a good family and every parent wants the best for their son or daughter. Most people have the opportunity to choose who they want to get married to and then marry who they truly love instead of parents picking it out. Uh, obviously the food we eat is different. We eat a lot of rice, a lot of spicy food. Uh I’ll say, we have kings and queens in every city, we have a president but every city has a king or queen and they’re kind of like the governor of that city, they control that certain city and everyone respects them in that aspect. But that’s something that we don’t have here. No one really worships here, we have a right to vote for who we want in office and it’s not really like that. With kings and queens it’s like a family business where one might be a king and when they get to old they’ll give it to a son or a cousin and vice versa with girls so I’d say that’s a cultural difference.
Kyle: Who takes care of finances in your family?
Kwaku: well obviously the man is always responsible for looking over the family the kids and wife is always looking up to the man to go out and find work and work hard and at the end of the day come home with something. So I would say my dad was in charge of the family I mean he worked the hardest and he always wants what’s best for the family and he’s willing to do what it takes to feed the family weather its washing cars and getting paid very minimum but defiantly my dad. But if you say here, I live with my aunt and uncle here because my parents are not here, as you know how the American system works the wife and husband both work to support the family and so I’d defiantly say that’s different because back home women are more stay at home moms and the husband always advise the women to stay home and take care of the kids so he can go out and support the family because he feel that that’s his job and so here its different because both work and just because you gotta pay your rent and it’s not like that back home.
Kyle: At what age do men and women spend private time and at what age do they consider marriage?
Kwaku: well I’ll say anytime from 20, 23 going that’s when most parents are comfortable letting their kids go out experiencing as far as relationships, especially the women, a lot of families try to keep the women at home. They just want them to feel secure and there just pretty much scared. Just like any dad they don’t want their little girl to go out and get hurt. So at 23 going that’s when parents feel comfortable letting their daughter go out and experience other people. And at that age parents are already looking for a girl or guy to marry their son or daughter. And its defiantly different from here because at 18 you’re off on your own, your off to college, your independent and its defiantly not like that back at home, your parents want to keep your forever because their scared of the real world because their suffering and they don’t want their kids to go through the same thing.
Kyle: What are your personal experiences with racism since coming to the US?
Kwaku: well uh, I went to middle school here and the first school I went to was about 98% Caucasian and it was very difficult because I experienced things such as eating by myself at lunch or playing alone in gym class or no one wanting to play basketball with me because they were scared of me because they’ve never seen a black person before or simply accusing me of something I haven’t done. That continued throughout middle school and a little in high school. In high school people ignore you just little things like that, I’ve been called the n-word before. That same person didn’t like me because I was a better athlete and the same person said, you nigger you should go back to your country, we don’t want you here. So it was hard but, I don’t regret coming here. I’ve experienced racism and it’s defiantly made me a better person.
Kyle: What were your preconceptions about the U.S. before coming here and how have they changed?
Kwaku: You hear people talk about the U.S. as if it was heaven just because it was a rich country and it’s a land of opportunity and defiantly just coming here I didn’t expect racism with it being a free country I thought maybe you were accepted regardless skin color or where you’re from but that defiantly changed and I realized that’s not necessarily true when I came here. Um, as far as simple things just food wise, everything that’s not the same, weather wise that’s not the same and just getting accustomed to different cultures. And honestly I’d never seen a Caucasian person until I came here so I thought that was pretty cool.
Kyle: is religion more open where you’re from?
Kwaku: oh yeah, it’s allowed in school. Kids are allowed to bring bibles in school and in their down time they can read their bibles. Teachers put emphasize on being a Christian and teachers talk about god being the only one that can solve all your problems. The country its self is very religious. I’d say 90% of the country are Christians and the other are Muslim or whatever. Yeah, they’re more open.
Kyle: How long have you been here? How long are you planning on staying?
Kwaku: well let’s see, I came here when I was nine and now I’m nineteen so ten years. Uh I plan on graduating from college and hopefully go to graduate school; I just want to finish all of my whole education here before going back home and when I say go back home I mean eventually I want to go back for good but at the same time when I’m done with college I want to travel to other African countries and just travel back and forth. I just plan on going back home and coming back because I also plan on having a family here and raising kids here and I don’t plan on taking all my kids home. I came here for education so what sense would it make to bring my kids back there to go to school there.
Kyle: What is the education system like in your native country?
Kwaku: It was similar to here, there’s elementary, middle school and high school. There’s not really pre-school. The requirements for classes, like what you need to graduate, it’s just like here. You have to take a test to graduate. So it’s similar to here but we don’t have the same technology and the same resources to teach our kids as America here so that’s a disadvantage. There’s a University, Ghana University but there’s no such thing as financial aid. So you have to pay your whole way through college so that’s different than here.
Kyle: what is your favorite food/mean that you wouldn’t commonly find in America?
Kwaku: fufu, sounds funny right? But it’s like mashed potato and you eat it with soup and just like any culture we have different foods, I can list them off but what I like about this country is you find a lot of cultural grocery stores so you can enjoy your food from home but you won’t find it in Americanized grocery stores because most of the population will not buy it. But fufu is the main dish, it’s like hot dog and pizza here. It’s never the same here because it’s not homemade its secondary here.
Kyle: How is living here similar/different to where you are from?
Kwaku: Ghana as a whole isn’t that different if you have money, there are hotels, pools, there are restaurants. You know people think of Africa they get the idea of animals like tigers or whatever but Ghana specifically isn’t that different if you take out the food and music and obvious cultural stuff it’s not that much different in living standards if you have money to spend.
Kyle: what kind of foods do you eat where you’re from?
Kwaku: Rice, a lot of rice and chicken really. There’s apple, bananas and strawberries and what not but um, rice is different and fufu is different because people grow that stuff, like corn. There’s a lot of farms back home people farm a lot. Yeah I know there’s stuff here that were from farms but there’s a lot of secondary stuff that’s not homemade.
Kyle: Well were getting to the end of the interview, do you have any questions for me?
Kwaku: Would you ever want to go visit in African countries?
Kyle: Yeah I’d be very interested in it, I’m big on seeing the differences in culture and food and stuff. I’d defiantly like to taste the world.
Kwaku: yeah I’d definitely advise that and I’d advise Ghana, although I share negatives there are many positives, were a rich county in the whole of Africa. We just recently found oil. And I don’t know if you remember but when Obama first became president Ghana was the first county he visited. It’s known as the gold coast, because there’s a lot of gold in the country. If you get the chance, maybe not just Ghana but I’d defiantly travel to different countries in Africa.
Kyle: Yeah, alright well thank you for the interview and I’ll see you around.
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