About this author: I am a Single African lady, who first arrived in the United States in January of 1987. I attended university in Boston Massachusetts, at Northeastern University, where I studied both Business Management and Economics. I am currently living in Cotati, California.

Done

by Njeri Gakunju
January 2006

Nothing could have prepared me for what lay ahead, not even my mothers soothing words, saying ?remember my child, education will open doors of opportunity for you, no one can steal it from you? equipped with those words of wisdom, I embarked on a journey that would not only change my life, but the lives of those in, my parents little village in the eastern part of Africa. I never once thought that a young girl like me would pioneer the college education of our clan. I had heard the history of American slavery taught to me in our local school and watched the lives of our former enslaved people, on television and read about them in various publications. Most of what I had heard about them was that they were lazy, drug dealers and extremely violent. They blamed everyone but themselves for their failures.
This not only disappointed me, but made me sad and afraid. Here I was heading to the unknown, America, the land of the free. Would I be in a position to blend, and let them know that we too were faced with similar challenges, when the colonists invaded our country? Would they detest me? All these questions and more taunted my mind. After all, as a result of no choice that I had personally made, I landed from a plane as opposed to a boat; I arrived with freedom and opportunity in my mind as opposed to chains. My goal and that of my family was to combat the fear of poverty, through education.

Excited with the possibilities of meeting people of diverse culture, it was no wonder I was very excited when I first saw someone who had the same pigmentation as myself. I walked over to them and said , ? Hi , my name is Njeri, I am from Africa? And the response that she gave me nearly knocked me over, sneeringly she said, ?so how did you get here, Nubian queen?? I said ?what do you mean by that?? she retorted ?where?s your banana boat girl?? followed by a laughter like none that was lined with sarcasm. Not quite expecting that very response ,I looked at her in shock and for a brief moment didn?t know if I should call her ignorant or simply cruel, but determined to show her I understood what she was trying to do, I told her ? oh, I left it in Florida? shockingly she stared at me, her smile had now vanished from her face.

We stared at each other for a moment, for a brief minute I thought , either this girl will catch on, or she will believe my story( thinking , how ignorant can people be and how rude?. She walked away, I hang around wondering if she would ever talk to me again, or she would stop her harassment, whatever the case, it would have been nice to break the barrier. My classes soon ended for that day and as I had feared I found a group of people of color waiting outside the gate and I was gripped with fear. Visions of stories about the violence told to me back in Africa begun to pass through my very eyes. For a brief moment, I thought of running back and taking a different route, then I stopped for a moment and recalled a story of the lion that my grand mother once told me, she said ? if you ever encounter a lion, do not run away, Lions can sense fear and then they will attack. Do not allow the Lion to attack you, stand brave? so I took those words of wisdom, not that I would have taken my grandmothers advice, but I kept matching with my head held hi.As I drew closer ,the surprise was on me, my dear friend run over, put her arm around my shoulders and said ? yo guys, here?s our sister from the motherland, where did you say you left your boat,?? I said sheepishly,? Florida?? they all let out an array of laughter, she then said to me,? but honey, you in America now, get rid of them shoes? I walked away thinking, what was that?

Years have now passed since I saw Vanessa, but I do remember her and wonder to myself how many people of color from both sides (African and American) walk around with misconstrued ideas of each other, what would it take to bridge the gap, do the people that came on the boat realize that we who came on the plane know as a result of them paving the way, we are able to get these opportunities in America, and do they know that a large group are sorry that our ancestors sold them as slaves, when will the healing begin?