andrew interview

African immigrants in the Washington, D.C., Maryland area struggle with adapting to American food and miss the food from their homeland. It is difficult for them to feel connected to their native culture and identity when the food they eat reminds them that they are far away. One immigrant, Donald, found comfort and happiness when eating his native food. Food plays a crucial role in preserving their identity. Access to their preferred food in local grocery stores would greatly help them. Supporting African immigrants in the community is also important. Hi, Andrew. Take it away. Perfect. So, for me, my experience is based on a quote that I read in Gloria Anzaluda's landmark novel, How to Tame a Wild Tongue. And in it, she says that, for me, food and certain smells are tied to my identity, to my homeland. And today, I'm going to be sharing a story about how I noticed that food was really tied to these African immigrants' identity and to their homeland. So, like I said, I lived in the Washington, D.C., Maryland area for a bit of time, and I would often get to work with these immigrants from West Africa that didn't speak English, they only spoke French, and they were brand new here and didn't know anyone. And, you know, they often struggled a lot with food, which might sound surprising, but they would miss the food from the homeland, and they would really struggle with American food. And we, as Americans, kind of have this stereotype built up that, you know, our food's greasy, it's sugary, it's super salty, not very healthy. And we kind of laugh at this, and we're like, no, that can't be true. But these African immigrants would look you in the eye, and they would tell you that it is absolutely truth, 100% without a doubt. And it was really hard for them, because, I mean, no matter who you are, you have to eat. If the food that you're eating reminds you that you're so far away from your native culture and from your homeland, that's really difficult for these people. And I noticed it. I remember this one friend, his name was – we can just call him Donald. He really struggled with this. He, like I said, said that our food was just too salty, too sugary, and I remember he wouldn't even eat tortilla chips because it was too much for him, or even canned peaches he refused to because it was too sugary. And you could always tell it kind of made him sad, like just reminding him that this isn't part of his culture and that he – almost he's an other here, just based on the food. But I remember watching him eat some of his native food once. It was – by the way, Africans make great chicken, and so it was chicken in the story and rice. And we all ate it together at the dinner table, and he just looked so at home, so happy. And all his troubles seemed to just leave him, and he forgot – he just forgot his problems for a little bit. And I think this was because he was really able to connect to that home culture, and all those challenges of being an immigrant in a new country just kind of disappeared in that moment. And so for these immigrants that I was around for so long, I really think food was an important part of their identity, and it allowed them to connect to their homeland even when they were like literally across an entire ocean. And it was just a really unique insight for me that I hadn't ever considered. That's insightful. Thank you, Andrew. And it's not every day that you come across a group of people like Donald where you have those more personal experiences, and you have the opportunity to really understand the challenges that they're facing with their identity. In this case, it sounds like that was food. And food is such an essential part of living. I can think of one experience I had in high school where I was in a three-week camp, and the food that I had to eat was not good at all. And that really affected my day. I would have to go out of the way to a gas station and get food because the food that was being served at the camp was horrendous. So I know from my own personal experiences that not having the right food in close proximity to yourself or at convenience can be challenging, and it can occupy your thoughts and take a chunk out of your life. So I imagine that Donald's experience trying to adapt to the United States and work around the differences in the United States, food, and his own food preferences, that was probably a big challenge for him because food is something that you have to confront every day. Right. You're absolutely right, Rebecca. It was a huge challenge for him, and I know he wasn't alone. It was a huge problem that almost all of the immigrants I saw faced. Right. So that makes me question. You and I, Andrew, neither one of us are immigrants. We're pretty well established here in Salt Lake City, Utah. Do you have any ideas for what we can do to help incoming immigrants better preserve their identity in terms of food? I think an important part of it is access to food. The food exists that a lot of these African immigrants liked, but it was just at these specialty stores that it was really hard to get to because they've arrived here. They don't have cars. They don't even have a lot of money, so even transit can add up. So I think just getting more of that food in local grocery stores, that would be huge for them. I can't even imagine the smiles that I would see if they were able to find fufu or nidole at their local stores. It would be huge for them. Right, and having it come in as fresh produce and being a reasonable price, these are good things to consider. This discussion reminds me of my own personal experience with a lady native to the Congo. I'll call her Amy. She had a food stand, and food was a big part of her life. That's what she would sell in her day-to-day life. But she confronted several challenges that inhibited her from fully developing her business, one being the COVID-19 pandemic, another being her stroke, a lack of social capital. She didn't quite understand how to use social media to uplift her business, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. And so she was heavily reliant upon us volunteers to assist her with her food stand. And so you can imagine, like as an immigrant, trying to preserve your identity based upon something as personal as food can be really challenging when you don't have that social network. So maybe one thing we can do in addition to petitioning for closer African food markets is to volunteer in our community and really support our African immigrants. Definitely. Thanks for joining us today, Andrew.