9 April
I arrived in NY around 1pm ish and headed first to meet my filmmaker friend Zina Saro-Wiwa in Brooklyn, to collect some footage she had shot of myself, Dorothea, Koye Oyedeji at the Harlem bookfair and interviews with us and Anton Nimblett. and just to catch up on London life (which neither of us are really v. interested in anymore) and West Africa (which excites us both a lot more). Africa is really where things are happening for artists and we both want to be in the thick of it- creating for ourselves and giving back where we can. Zina has some great ideas that I hope she can bring into fruition, Inshallah.
I arrived at Medgar Evers College early to meet Kadijatu Jalloh. Out of the blue, I received an email from her, a student at Medgar Evers from Guinea. She and her family had left Sierra Leone because of the war, lived in Guinea for awhilebefore moving to the USA for refuge. She has lived in NY for 13 years, since she was 10 years old.
She said she jumped up and down when I responded to her email – I didn’t tell her I did a (mental) jump up and down when I received hers!
Here’s the email she sent me,
Hello I am a student at Medgar Evers College, I have a issue that I believe is very important to cover at this moment, and I am also interested in any internships that your organization might have available for students during the summer or any other time in the year.
The issue that I would like to help cover is the violence that is talking place back in my home place Guinea Conkary, since our president passed away a few years back, December 22, 2008 to be exact there have been riots and violence all over the country. People dying from being beaten, some people getting killed in the streets by police officials or by citizens of Guinea, some people even die in their homes because a person who doesn’t approve if their ethnic group find it okay to come to someone’s home and take their life along with everything they have to feel more in power. The problem of the Guinean people since I can remember has been the battle between the Fulani tribe and the Malinke tribe. The Fulani tribe has 40% of the population while the Malinke has 30% and the other 20% lays between other ethical groups. The two major groups always seem to be battling against each other because they both believe they hold more power in Guinea then the other, in this confusion we all have forgotten that wether Fulani or Malinke we are all Guineans and that’s our home.
When the president passed a ruler by the name of DadisCamara who was a military official took power trying to regain power and put Guinea in the right path again, this man though he didn’t last in his post because of some brutal things he did to the people of Guinea had some great ideas to reform our country and bring us together again. Unfortunately things took another road and went upside down. After this the country held election between a Fulani and a Malinke to run for office, the Fulani senator being Cellou Dalen Diallo and the Malinke senator being Alpha Conde, the first election resulted in Cellou Dalen Diallo being the next president but some how in the government they held reelections because they said there had been a mistake, when they did the elections again Alpha Conde came to win and became the president of Guinea. This made the Fulani people angry and they have been protesting since. The Malinke people also retaliated because they felt as if though the Fulani people doesn’t have the right to complain. We have been fighting each other forever.
Recently the violence has gotten so ridiculously out if control that it has caused the United Nations to get involved and to try to bring peace amongst my people and to reform my country. It saddens me seeing this happen to the people I love and to the country I call home, knowing that one day I will return and home will be no more because of the lack of understanding of each other and education about what a nation is to be, there are going to be election in may in search of a new president and only god knows what we are going to face again. There are children too frightened to go out to school, to the market, to enjoy their home because they might get beat by the other ethic group, we have bad electricity sometimes people go weeks without power, there is no clean water people are dying from diseases and on top of that awe have created a civil war to make things worst. We need to get our country back and help our people, I have family that I am scared every day someone will call to say an uncle or an aunt was killed or they stole all the property. So many worries yet we can’t come up with possible solutions to our problems because no one seem to understand.
I would really appreciate if given the chance to work on this issue and for your magazine to cover it, it will be a honor because it will bring awareness to the troubles my country and people face and we will find it in the communities of people all over that will help or have suggestions of ways to solve our issues. I am very passionate about helping and giving back, I love reading and writing so I can use those skills to help develop ways to help my country. Thank you for your time, it is very much appreciated.
By the time I had g my head together, she had written a piecefor SABLE, for speed, since such things don’t wait, this is the exact reason why we created our E-Mag. Her piece will appear in our May upload in the Expressions section
Another great evening – with Tyehimba Jess, DuEwa Frazier, A. Lyric and award winning student, Jasmine Johnson. NY is LUCKY to have the Center for Black Literature and Brenda Greene running it. A gem of the city. Herself and Clarence do amazing work on very little, encapsulating the legacy of literary artists, so I’m very proud to now be in their archives. Thank you both.
After the reading, DuEwa came up to me and that phrase ‘pressed her card into my hand’ was made for this woman as she said at the same time, I want to be in The Gambia as you work on this project, I want to be part of the Gambia project. Just let me know when and where. That clicked the connection. I keep telling people its all about organics for me, DuEwa, when I have that space – you’ll be there!
I travelled back to Washington DC the same night as I had a radio interview the next day and didn’t want to be the casualty of anything untoward happening, so I stocked up with fruit leftover from the fruit tray, big peanut butter cookies and back to 34th street. I need some brownie points for the most megabus trips in 3 weeks or something like that! For the most part, it has been comfortable and the wifi has worked and they have arrived on time. It probably would have been easier sometimes if I drove, but I’m not doing that; I hate driving on the wrong side of the road; driving is tiring; parking in large cities is infuriating and to be honest, I believe that but I was a woman born to be driven.
Thank you Tim and Mel for coming down! and I have to show you their ‘save the date’ wedding card – do I have it – no! aarh- it is so cool. They are getting married in Vermont in the summer so If I do enough crazy things to make some money I will be able to go!
Tyehimba Jess first book of poetry, Leadbelly, was a winner of the 2004 National Poetry Series. The Library Journal and Black Issues Book Review both named it one of the “Best Poetry Books of 2005.” Jess, a Cave Canem and NYU Alumni, received a 2004 Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and was a 2004–2005 Winter Fellow at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center
DuEwa Frazier is a poet, author, and speaker. She is the author of several books of poetry, including Goddess Under the Bridge: Poems and Ten Marbles and a Bag to Put Them In: Poems for Children.
Center for Black Literature, Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn
Medgar Evers