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African Immersion

African Immersion

American College Students in Cameroon

Julius A. Amin

LEXINGTON BOOKS

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Amin, Julius Atemkeng.

African immersion : American college students in Cameroon / Julius Amin.

pages cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-4985-0237-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4985-0238-2 (ebook)

1. Foreign study—Cameroon. 2. University of Dayton—Students. 3. College students —Cameroon. 4. Cameroon—Social life and customs—21st century. I. Title.

LB2376.3.C17A64 2015

370.116096711—dc23

2014044352

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Map of Cameroon

Map of Cameroon, 1998—Showing Administrative Regions, and Cities Visited by Immersion Students

Source: Cameroon. Map. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 1998. From Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, Washington, DC, http://www.loc.gov/item/2005631064 (accessed 10 September 2014).

Acknowledgments This study benefitted from the assistance of too many people to list but I extend a special tribute to some. Philip Aaron, retired from many years of service at the University of Dayton Campus Ministry’s Center for Social Concern, pointed me to the location of sources, delivered to me hundreds of pages of documents on immersion, student reflection papers, letters, and read and made valuable suggestions on the first draft of the manuscript. In addition, he pointed me to key people involved with immersion programs at the University including Mary (Harven) Gorgette, John George, and Christine Vehar Jutte. Gorgette supplied transcripts of interviews of immersion participants in Sierra Leone, and newspaper articles she wrote on the topic. Jutte e-mailed to me a report she wrote which stimulated conversations towards the creation of a service-learning program for engineers, Engineers in Technical Humanitarian Opportunities for Service- Learning (ETHOS). She eagerly answered my questions, and directed me to others including Raymond Fitz, former president of the University of Dayton, who was graceful when I interviewed him about immersion programs. Mary Niebler, coordinator of immersion programs at Campus Ministry, supplied hundreds of pages of student reflection papers, photos, and other documents. Lawrence Flockerzie and Larry Schweikart, my colleagues at the Department of History read and made significant suggestions for improvement of the manuscript. Our frequent debates on a variety of topics sharpened my analytical skills. My chair, Juan Santamarina, was always supportive of immersion requests. Cynthia King, the Department’s part-time administrative assistant, repeatedly converted footnotes to endnotes, aligned, and formatted the document. Yvette Moore-Homan, administrative assistant of the Department promptly responded to immersion requests, and literary ran the office when, during my tenure as chair, I was away on immersion trips. Jennifer Brancato at the University of Dayton Archives helped to track down immersion reports. Heidi Gauder, Coordinator of Research and Instruction at the University Roesch Library responded promptly to my request for direction on scholarly articles on study abroad pointing me to important databases. Amy Anderson, director for the Center of International Programs, also directed me to literature of study abroad. John LeComte, director of the University’s eMedia office, digitalized photos used in this volume. Andrew Evwaraye, campus coordinator of STARS—Ohio Board of Regents program for undergraduate research, made funds available to minority students to do immersion trips. Former deans of the College of Arts and Sciences Paul Morman, Mary Morton-Strey, and Paul Benson consistently provided financial support to the program. Over the years

countless individuals from many offices at the University of Dayton donated to the immersion program. My thanks especially go Amy Lopez-Matthews, Jennifer Napier, Gwyn Fox Stump, Jessica Gonzalez, Jonathan Rike, and Anita Brothers. Joseph Takougang at the University of Cincinnati made suggestions on the manuscript. I want to thank the anonymous readers of Lexington Books for insightful comments made on the manuscript.

My friends, in the Kilimanjaro Running Club in Dayton, often asked penetrating questions about the role of race, class, and privilege in the program. They never knew how helpful and instructive those conversations were. They helped to refashion my analysis of how those issues impacted and shaped the immersion experience. They often reminded me, and correctly, of the centrality of race in the American experience. In the Kilimanjaro Club my thanks especially go to Louis “Jeep” Wright, Fred Rogers, Cynthia McGee, Jimmy Williams, and Henry “Hank” Johnson.

On the other side of the Atlantic in Cameroon, my thanks go to Nancy Mbanya who assisted in oral interviews, host families, placement site officials, and many of the people who promptly responded to my request for interviews. In-country coordinators assisted, critiqued, and helped to redirect the program at different points. History is sometimes shaped by defining moments, and we spent many of such moments together and refashioned the direction of the immersion experience. Conversations with Aloysius Ngosong, James Nkwetta Odine, and others especially during those six, seven, or eight-hour trips from Yaoundé to Bamenda were very helpful. My friends at SONARA especially Martin Tasi, Gladys Ebanga, and Blasius Ngome always ensured that our visit to that company was cheerful. At the Cameroon Development Cooperation Kebbi Ekwile promptly processed our applications to visit. My parents, Sylvester T. and Anasthasia A. Amin believed in the program from day one, and when it apparently derailed in Buea, mobilized friends and family in Kumba who gave new life to it. Without their input, the program would most definitely have not ended up in Kumba. In Yaounde my sister, Prudencia Taku, and friends always stayed up late and welcomed immersion students at her home in typical Cameroonian style, with much to eat and drink. I thank them for their contribution to the program.

Most of all, this book would not have been possible without former immersion participants. From the onset, they disregarded negative perceptions and notions about Africa, challenged themselves, and dared. For some, the Cameroon trip was their first time in an airplane, and for others it turned out to be a defining moment of their college years. For many it was a rite of passage from the college campus “bubble.” To make the trip several students went against wishes of friends and

family. They kept detailed journals, wrote post immersion reports, and established everlasting friendships. Their journals, reports, and personal letters were invaluable for this project. I especially thank those who shared with me personal journals. As promised, I have been discrete, responsible in their usage, and protected their identity whenever possible and necessary. I am particularly thankful to those who responded to my questionnaires. I sent out a nine page open-ended questionnaires to fifty former participants and received twenty-seven responses. I have tried to include their voices in the narrative as much as possible. This book, I hope, does justice to their experience. I am the author but this is their story. Documents collected for this project will eventually be placed at the University of Dayton Archives.

During almost twenty years of Cameroon immersion my family was most supportive allowing me each summer to do the program. My kids especially Britney and Brian, despite their young ages, were graceful. They were understanding when family summer programs were either adjusted or shelved because they coincided with immersion schedules. My oldest daughter, Lori, agreed that immersion was a worthwhile program. My wife, Rose, was always cheerful about the program. She read and critiqued several drafts of the manuscript. She listened to me talk endlessly about the project. She observed first-hand the functioning of immersion during visits to Cameroon. Her enthusiasm and support of the program made things much easier. This project is as much hers as is mine. I owe a tremendous debt to my wife and kids.

A project such as this can be quite challenging because it deals with an on-going program. There could always be more information, more responses to questionnaires, more interviews conducted with more people in Cameroon, more files “declassified,” and additional interpretations offered by participants. An important task of a historian is to make a determination whether or not there is sufficient evidence to proceed with an analysis of the topic, and in this case there was. No one who assisted in the project is responsible for any of the shortcomings. I take responsibility for the mistakes.

Over the years there were moments I looked back and wondered “what if?” What if my father had not sent me to a boarding secondary school? What if he had agreed with my suggestion at the end of the second year in secondary school to temporary drop out with hopes of easing financial headaches at home? “If it means I will go without shoes, so be it. . . . You will go back to school,” he responded. The sacrifices were immense, and his message was one of humility, honesty, commitment, and integrity. He taught us, his children, and those he met to never engage in self-doubt and self-pity, and to always dream big. This book is dedicated to the memory of late Pa S. T. Amin, my father, our father.

Chapter 1

Introduction Setting the Context

It was a perfect evening on July 4, 2013, in Kumba, Cameroon. With temperatures in the low seventies and a light breeze, the atmosphere was right for a celebration. Société Nationale d’Electricité (AES-Sonel), the company which supplied electricity to the country showed no signs of turning off the lights.[1] At about 6:30 P.M. University of Dayton students and members of host families and friends began to trickle into the B & B Restaurant. It was there, at that location, that they celebrated America’s 237th Independence Day. Within an hour all the students arrived. A glance at tables in the restaurant showed a wide combination of local food: chicken-chips, ndole and plantains, Cameroonian-style fried rice, garri and okra soup, fufu and eru, and more. Drinks included a variation of domestic and foreign brew with labels such as 33 Export, Mutzig, Sazengbra, Pampalmorse, Coca-Cola, Grenadine, and Supermont. Background music added to the ambiance. It was a combination of makossa, and music from the Now Collection of Best Dancing Music, Lady Pounce, Maître Gims, Petit Pays, K-Tino, Flavor, and P-Square. It was a festive moment. Taking advantage of B & B’s wireless internet evening customers texted, posted on blogs, Facebooked, e-mailed, engaged in small talk, and mostly hung out with each other and Cameroonian friends.

About two hours into the evening coordinator James Nkwetta Odine announced it was time to sing the national anthems. The group stood up, members cleared their throats, and it began. First they sang the US Anthem, and later the Cameroon National Anthem in English, and the French version by those who knew it. The event was solemn, joyful, and exciting. It was a good time to be a part of the immersion experience. The lyrics of both anthems and other defining documents from those nations were built around noble causes: freedom, equality, peace, courage, justice, and human understanding. The US Declaration of Independence stated: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”[2] The Star-Spangled Banner addressed similar themes: “O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming? . . . O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”[3] The Cameroon Anthem paid tribute to the ancestors and affirmed the nation as a land of hope: “O Cameroon, Thou Cradle of our Fathers, Holy Shrine where in our midst they now repose, their tears and blood and sweat thy soil did water, on thy hill and valleys once thy tillage rose. . . . Land of Promise, land of

Glory! Thou, of life and joy, our only store.”[4] The ideals of those anthems attested to the supreme nature of humanity, and were befitting for the occasion.

It was a remarkable moment. Occasionally keys and notes were off but all present were gripped by the excitement of the evening. The event affirmed the universal nature of humanity. It was cross-cultural experience at its best. People from different continents and different cultures cementing the bonds of humanity—they spoke with different accents, interpreted things differently, at times laughed at different jokes, but kept their “eyes on the prize.” Immersion was about identifying those bonds which united rather than divided us. It was about learning from each other, complementing each other, praying with each other, and celebrating with each other. It was about experiencing a new culture. It was a realization that whether people lived in America or Cameroon they inhabit the same space, the same earth surface, shared the same basic human needs, advocated same human rights, and strived to be happy irrespective of how it was defined.

Over time, cultural immersion was defined differently by different groups, institutions, and agencies. Alice Boateng and Abigail Mercy Thompson articulated that “international experience is noted to contribute to a greater ethnic sensitivity and awareness in multicultural practice.”[5] “The main target of immersion,” stated the Danish Institute for Study abroad, “is exchange of values that leads to a sense of intercultural understanding and competencies that will give your future a competitive edge. Immersion starts with engagement, without you taking action, you will not immerse. So get out there and meet others, try new things, and make your semester abroad unique.”[6] Gowher Rizvi and Peter S. Horn asserted that “training of students as international citizens” demanded “continuous and integrated experience of international issues and culture.” To achieve cultural immersion students had to be integrated with the local community. “International immersion programs,” they added “are important.”[7] Joshua S. Mckeown agreed cultural immersion was a prerequisite for successful study abroad programs. Sheila J. Curran argued that “cultural competency” was essential especially for Millennial students many of who went through life “over programmed and overprotected.” Study abroad “disrupted” the world they knew, and thereby prepared them for more future opportunities. Cultural immersion, she concluded, was a crucial skill in the “global work world.”[8] Study abroad, Kevin W. Dean and Michael B. Jendzurski argued, “broadened global perspective gleaned from interpersonal engagement with cultural others in an interpersonal setting.” Jennifer E. Coffman articulated similar conclusions stating study abroad “programs undoubtedly contribute greatly to comparative understanding of what it means to exist within a global context-breath of view.” Many other studies came to a similar conclusion.[9] In fact, the question as

to whether or not study abroad is beneficial has been settled. However, questions remained about the nature and implication of the benefits of study abroad.

Within the last fifteen years study abroad gained additional momentum on college campuses. Study abroad, the Forum on Education Abroad stated, was “education that occurs outside participants’ home country,” and “results in progress towards an academic degree [italics are mine].” Study abroad is essential especially in today’s rapidly changing global environment, wrote Elizabeth Shannon. “American students for whom a semester or year of study abroad is possible,” she continued, “have a very special opportunity for intellectual and cultural growth. We should insist that they take it, for it will be one of the wisest decisions of their lives.”[10] The literature on study abroad is filled with positive outcomes including an ability to learn about oneself, encounter the world, and develop a sense of the global community. Study abroad as John K. Hudzik argued became “a growth industry.” Rick Reeves added: “Study abroad is a necessity, not a luxury.” Study abroad provided students with an opportunity to “explore a different culture,” and travel to other parts of the world.

The National Association of Foreign Students Advisers (NAFSA), originally created in 1948 to coordinate advising of foreign students in the US broadened its mission decades later to advising and coordination of all study abroad students including Americans involved in international study and exchange programs. In May 1990, NAFSA added to its name the Association of International Educators to reflect its new direction. Simultaneously, the Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Program initially proposed by late Senator Paul Simon of Illinois asked the US government to assist study abroad initiatives on college campuses. Members of the Commission argued that global training of college students was a prerequisite of America’s continuous leadership in a competitive world. In short, global education was no longer an option but a necessity.[11]

As policy makers emphasized international education, so was there a rise in the number of participants in study abroad. During the 2007–2008 Academic Year roughly 262,000 Americans studied abroad, which represented an increase of almost 130 percent over the previous decade. Of that number white females made up roughly 65 percent of the participants. Minority participation was consistently low. Though African Americans made up roughly 12 percent of the US population, a 2010 study showed that African Americans made up 4.7 percent of students who participated in overall US study abroad programs in 2009. The same study showed white participation at 84 percent, and Hispanic Americans at 6 percent. Study abroad was and remains an overwhelmingly white enterprise. Study abroad participants came mostly from the humanities and social science disciplines. In fact, professional schools were consistently underrepresented in the study abroad

population.[12]

Studies have shown additional advantages of study abroad. In “The Effect of Study Abroad on College Completion in a State University System,” Isaiah O’Rear, Richard L. Sutton, and Donald L. Rubin persuasively argued that study abroad enhanced students’ ability to graduate on time. According to the study, graduation rates of those who did study abroad rose by 7.5 percent as compared to those who didn’t. The study, they concluded confirmed that study abroad was not an “academic luxury,” but a tool which contributed to “college students’ personal growth.”[13]

Despite benefits, study abroad had many problems. Student participants generally attempted to duplicate their American lifestyle in countries they visited, and resisted genuine involvement in the local culture. Also, students elected to do study abroad because it was less rigorous academically, and as a result was an opportunity for them to relax and still earn academic credit. “How much meaningful academic and cultural learning can take place in a four-week period as students surf and snorkel their way in groups along Australia’s Gold Coast, listening to their American professor lecture on a bus, and stopping to pet kangaroos at their wildlife refuge,” stated a critic.[14] Elizabeth Brewer and Kiran Cunningham argued that students “saw a study abroad semester as a way to take a semester off, but still get credit, and thus never really meant to learn very much.”[15] Sheila Curran’s conclusion was apt:

The world needs graduates with a global focus, cross-cultural understanding, and linguistic fluency. Studying abroad is a perfect venue for acquiring and enhancing these skills as well as many others. But building such skills requires intensity of purpose and seriousness of engagement. Frequently, students are seeking the social and physical safety of international programs where they can maintain US habits and lifestyles abroad. And all too often, institutional expectations for student learning—inside and outside the classroom—are low. [16]

In 2000, the African Studies Association devoted, African Issues to “Study Abroad in Africa.” In that journal articles were published on several aspects of study abroad ranging from recruitment, preparation, academic program, challenges, benefits, and impact. Utilizing case studies from programs in South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and other nations in the region the articles pointed to the strengths and limitations of study abroad. In doing study abroad American institutions typically worked directly with universities rather than the local population. Even in cases where students lived with local host families, formal arrangements were with local universities. In “Study Abroad in Africa: A Survey,” Mark Pires, Oumatie Marajh and John Metzler provided an overview of study abroad programs in Africa. Since

the mid-1990s, more American students had done study abroad in Africa mostly in the English speaking countries of South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Tanzania, indicating that language plays a significant role in the selection of study abroad sites in the continent. Though the overall number of US study abroad participants increased dramatically within the last fifteen years, the number of those heading to Africa either held steady or in some cases declined. Those who went to Africa were never above two percent of the total US study abroad population.[17]

Despite scholarly contributions of articles in African Issues and other places, many questions remained about study abroad. Additionally, it has been over ten years since African Issues focused on study abroad, and much has happened since then. There was September 11, 2001, which resulted in tightened security. To some the strict security measures made parents more relaxed to allow their children to travel overseas. However, others saw a very fluid global condition, and as a result preferred their children to either stay in the US or go to traditional sites in Europe. Another effect on study abroad was the US economic recession which began in 2006. The recession led to budget cuts at many American universities, and as a result funds for study abroad programs in Africa declined. Increasing focus on China, where several American universities currently have branches of their campus contributed to dwindling attention on Africa. All those factors and more need to be taken into consideration in attempts to understand the motives, relevance, and impact of study abroad programs in Africa. Earlier studies contained little about American perceptions of Africa before the trip, and how those views changed after the trip. Existing literature contains little about students’ interaction with African communities, and results of such contacts. Several other questions remained unanswered. What was the overall role of race in the attempt to understand study abroad in Africa? How did Africans perceive these young Americans who lived in their homes, paraded their streets, dated their youths, attended their churches, participated in their traditional celebrations, and hung out in their bars? What was the impact of such interaction? The present study attempts to answer those questions and more. Based on primary sources including extensive interviews in Cameroon, response to questionnaires, personal journals, and a variety of secondary sources, this study is a historical analysis of the University of Dayton Cameroon immersion Program as a case study of study abroad. The study is contextualized within broader issues of American and African history.

Begun almost twenty years ago, the University of Dayton Cameroon Immersion program introduced students in a more deliberate and consistent manner to life in African culture. During the one month stay in Cameroon students lived with host families, and were placed at different sites for service and educational purposes. Unlike typical study abroad programs, this program was designed to ensure

maximum interaction between American students and local people in Cameroon. Arrangements were made directly with the local community and a local university did not serve as an intermediary. The Cameroon program is therefore an appropriate case study of cultural immersion programs. While other immersion programs at the University of Dayton predated the Cameroon program, the Cameroon experience was unique for several reasons. It was the most consistent and enduring in Africa, regularly attracted students, and received continuous University funding. The program was nonstop annually for almost twenty years.

An equally important aspect of the immersion program was the service component. While early participants of the Cameroon Immersion Program focused on service learning, the program later evolved into more of an educational experience. Service learning is defined as “community service that is linked to an individual’s academic experience through related course materials or through reflection activities [italics are mine].”[18] Immersion participants elected to do service for various reasons. While some saw it as a way to “give back,” others were fulfilling an integral part of the University of Dayton mission. Still, others were moved by a sense of idealism. Whatever the rationale, students’ notions of service were challenged in Cameroon. Immersion participants went to serve yet in Cameroon they were served. They went to teach, yet they were taught. They went to help Africans learn how to develop, and live well; yet the African experience taught them how to relax, find their passion, and develop a sense of proportionality. Those were important aspects of the immersion program.

The Cameroon program was a uniquely cross-cultural experience in which participants lived with locals, engaged in activities with locals, and did service at agencies to promote local initiatives. The program addressed many of the criticisms of study abroad programs. Participants went through orientation, participated in reflections sessions, and had a series of follow-up meetings to assist in readjustment problems. Those issues, experts wrote, strengthened study abroad.[19] The current study is therefore a case study of cultural immersion programs, pointing to the strengths and limitations of cross cultural interaction.

Given Cameroon program’s unique characteristics, resilience and longevity, there is sufficient data and rationale to undertake an analysis of the experience. What is the meaning of the program? How was it different from typical study abroad programs? In what ways can it contribute to shaping future study abroad programs? What was its impact on participants’ overall education? This study attempts to provide answers to those questions and more. It examines through a historical lens the meaning of the Cameroon immersion experience. The study is different from others in several ways. It is the first historical study of its kind on the topic. It

addresses in a more consistent manner the relevance and transformative nature of a cultural immersion program in Africa. It argues that Africa is important in the consideration of study abroad sites. In doing so it delves into issues of race, class, power, and struggle for gender equality. It contextualizes students’ experiences within a broad scope of African and American history. It is therefore, in part, a study of modern African political, economic, and social systems. Cameroon was ideally suitable for an African immersion program for several reasons.

With a population of 20 million, Cameroon’s population belongs to over 200 ethnic groups speaking over 230 languages. Its triple colonial heritage makes it unique, and the nation displayed many of Africa’s political, economic, social, and religious complexities. Appropriately, the nation has been called different things: “Africa in miniature,” “Africa’s crossroads,” “Africa in one triangle,” “mecca of Africa’s football,” and “Africa in microcosm.”[20] By focusing on Cameroon, the current study serves as a window to understand American college students’ immersion experiences in the rest of Africa.

While there were similarities between the University of Dayton Cameroon Immersion Program and study abroad programs on other American college campuses, the immersion program was unique in several ways. It began as a requirement for a degree program but evolved into largely an experience not accompanied by academic credit. As a result it gave immersion participants more opportunities to interact and engage the local culture and community. Additionally, unlike other study abroad sites which students were already familiar with many immersion participants had neither heard of Cameroon nor had much knowledge beyond an elementary level of the place. Their first real introduction to Cameroon came after they decided to do the immersion trip. Of the top twenty-five study abroad countries that US students went to in 2009, South Africa was the only sub- Saharan nation on the list.[21] Even though study abroad has taken place in several sub-Saharan nations for many years, many of those programs had been sporadic, short-lived, and ignored by the scholarly literature.

There was an additional reason for this study. Postimmersion reports indicated that participants’ gains were similar to those of Returned Peace Corps volunteers (RPCVs) who served in Africa. RPCVs who served in Africa described their experience as “great,” stating they experienced “lots of personal growth,” “acquired good public skills and confidence,” “gained managerial experience,” “learned a lot about [themselves],” and “gained independence and confidence.” Immersion reports documented similar outcomes. During the one month stay in Cameroon participants were empowered and gained a new perspective on life’s deeper meaning. They learned about themselves, “matured,” and developed a new awareness of themselves

and the world around them. They gained an appreciation for what they had, vowed to stop taking things for granted, and became more constructive critics of their country.[22] This study attempts to examine how and why immersion participants who spent one month in Cameroon came away with identical outcomes as RPCVs who spent two years in that country. The Cameroon experience changed both immersion participants and RPCVs in ways they never imagined. This study attempts to examine how and why that happened. No previous study has attempted such a comparative analysis. In doing so the study expands our understanding of how to develop and implement cultural immersion programs in developing nations.

The book has ten chapters and three appendices. Chapter 1, “Introduction: Setting the Context,” defines and contextualizes immersion within study abroad literature. It addresses how and why study is different from existing ones, and why it is important. Chapter 2, “Antecedents of Cameroon Immersion,” examines immersion programs which preceded the Cameroon experience, pointing to their impact and relevance. Among earlier programs, the chapter emphasizes immersion programs in the nation of Sierra Leone. Immersion is contextualized within both African and American history. Chapter 3, “Paul Biya’s Cameroon: Overview, Debacles, and Attractions,” is an overview of Cameroon’s historical experience, and explains why that nation was ideal for an African immersion experience. The chapter begins with an analysis of the labor strike of February 2008 which almost derailed that year ’s immersion program. The study argues that in order for immersion to succeed students must have knowledge of local history and customs. The chapter contains sections on Cameroonian culture including community values, food, gender issues, and the nation’s attractions. The chapter addresses many of the nation’s challenges and prospects. Portions of the chapter have appeared in the journals Africa Today and Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines.[23] Chapter 4, “Recruitment, In-Country Preparation, and Orientation,” examines the application process to participate in immersion, and orientation of students to deal with realities in Africa. It gets into students’ perceptions of Africa before the trip. It critically examines selection and orientation showing how both changed and adjusted to new realities. The chapter contains a detailed description and analysis of in-country preparation including efforts involved in selection of host families and placement sites. It delves into issues of in-country logistics, challenges, and responses to them. Chapter 5, “Cameroon! Here We Come,” focuses on immersion participants’ service at placement sites in Cameroon. It begins with arrival at the Douala International Airport, pointing to participants’ immediate impressions of their new environment and struggles to adjust. The chapter addresses areas of strengths and weaknesses. Placement sites are discussed, explaining why selected and with particular emphasis on struggles faced by both immersion participants and Cameroonians in their

efforts to collaborate at work. In the end there were frustrations, lessons, and an awareness of difference. Students were placed at both government and private agencies including nongovernmental organizations. The chapter offers vivid description of those sites and a glimpse into difficulties faced by developing nations in an effort to advance beyond their current stage of development. Chapter 6, “Living in Cameroon,” is a thoughtful analysis of immersion students’ life in Cameroon. Like the previous chapter, “Living in Cameroon,” begins in Douala and follows students all over Cameroon. It is an event-packed month filled with surprises, frustrations, triumphs, and excitement. Each day was educational. Each day was an experience. Each event was new and seemed to surpass the previous one. The chapter follows students to host parents’ homes, to sites visited, and to bars and night clubs, and much more. It examines their likes and dislikes, and how they changed over time. It delves into their activities away from more structured programs of the experience. In the end, those were moments which tested their abilities to deal with issues such as diversity, wealth, class, poverty, and more. They engaged in a critical examination of self. Every effort is made to let them speak in the story. Chapter 7, “Confronting Race, Elitism, Privilege, and Faith in Cameroon,” focuses on how students responded to their Caucasian identity, and their interaction with African Americans in Cameroon. What emerged was a disturbing reality of how America’s racial past has continued to influence the present. Chapter 8, “Cameroonians Evaluate Immersion” examines perceptions Cameroonians held of their guests and how they changed over time. It was characterized by excitement, disappointment, disbelief, challenges, and hopes. It was an educational experience for the hosts. Myths and stereotypes were imploded. Chapter 9, “Making a Difference,” delves into projects and programs developed as a result of the immersion experience such as the Barombi Water Project, Anne Gabonay Municipal Library, and the Cameroon Football Development Program. Chapter 10 “Conclusion,” is a summation of the meaning of immersion to a student’s overall education. It is a synthesis of what went right and wrong, and contains some recommendations. Appendix A lists names of students who did the University of Dayton Immersion experience from the beginning in 1982–2000. Appendix B contains the names of those who did the Cameroon immersion experience from 1995. Appendix C is a copy of the questionnaire sent out to each immersion participant. Questionnaires were sent to fifty former participants, and responses were received from twenty-seven of them. Several photographs of immersion participants in Cameroon are included.

Notes

1.

American Electricity Supply (AES) Sonel contract in Cameroon was apparently terminated in 2013. It was believed it sold 100 percent of its interests to Actis, a British equity firm. AES-Sonel arrived in Cameroon in 2001, and never succeeded to satisfy consumers. See Piet Konings, The Politics of Neoliberal Reforms in Africa: State and Civil Society in Cameroon (Mankon, Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa Research and Publishing Common Initiative Group, 2011), p. 91; also see “Breaking: AES—Sonel quitting Cameroon,” The Cameroon Daily Journal Douala, May 29, 2013. http://www.cameroonjournal.com/aes%20sonel%20.html (Accessed 23 September, 2013).

2.

Vincent Wilson, Jr. ed. The Book of Great American Documents (Brookeville, MD: American History Research Associates, 1982), p. 15.

3.

The lyrics are on several websites. Here is one of them: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/miscellaneouslyrics/nationalanthemslyrics/usanationalanthemlyrics.html (Accessed 20 September, 2013).

4.

Tazifor Tajoche Civics Education for Secondary Schools, Book 2 (Buea, Cameroon: Education Book Centre 2003) p. 14.

5.

Alice Boateng and Abigail Mercy Thompson, “Study Abroad Ghana: An International Experiential Learning,” Journal of Social Work Education, Vol. 49 (2013), p. 701.

6.

“Cultural Immersion at DIS,” http://www.disabroad.org/study abroad/culture/ (Accessed 18 February, 2014).

7.

Gowher Rizvi and Peter S. Horn, “Reinventing higher education in a global society: a perspective from abroad,” in D. Bruce Johnstone, Madeline B. d’Ambrosio, & Paul J. Yakoboski, eds. Higher Education in a Global Society (Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2010), p. 186.

8.

Sheila J. Curran, “The Career Value of Education Abroad,” Education Abroad, (Nov-Dec., 2007), pp. 48–49, http://www.nafsa.org/_/file/_/educationabroadinted_2007.11.pdf (Accessed 27 August, 2014); Joshua S. McKeown, The First Time Effect: The Impact of Study Abroad on College Student Intellectual Development (New York: SUNY Press, 2009), pp. 25–27.

9.

Jennifer E. Coffman, “Study Abroad in Africa Considered within the New Economy,” African Issues, Vol. 28, No. ½, Study Abroad in Africa (African Studies Association 2000), p. 50, http://www.jstor.org.libproxy.udayton.edu/stable/1167058? (Accessed on 27 August, 2014; Kevin W. Dean and Michael B. Jendzurski, “Using Post-Study abroad Experiences to Enhance International Study,” Honors in Practice, Vol. 9, (June 2013) p. 99, http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.udayton.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer? vid=7&sid=e786d01b-c8f3-488d-a834- 979eda69078a%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4110 (Accessed 27 August, 2014)

10.

Elizabeth Shannon, “Reflections on the Meaning of Study Abroad,” Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary of Study Abroad (Fall 1995), pp.96–103, http://users.design.ucla.edu/~camanyag/150b/reflections.pdf (Accessed 10 February 2014). International Educator (May–June 2009), pp. 4–5; John K. Hudzik, “Reshaping International Education,” pp. 4–6; Vija Mendelson & James L. Citron, “Bringing it Home: Multifaceted Support for Returning Education Abroad Students,” International Educator (May-June, 2006), pp. 64–67.

11.

Steve Ivey, “Report urges more study abroad,” Chicago Tribune, November 14, 2005, http://articles.chaicagotribune.com/2005-11-14/news/0511140194_1_college- students-scho... (Accessed on 17 February, 2014); “The History of NAFSA: Association of International Educators,”

http://www.nafsa.org/Learn_About_NAFSA/History/ (Accessed 17 February, 2014); Rick Stevens, “Study Abroad is necessity, not luxury,” USA Today, 1/18/2012, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/story/2012-01-18/study abroad-globa... (Accessed on 17 February, 2014); Hudzik, “Reshaping International Education,” pp. 4–5.

12.

Susan B. Twombly, Mark H. Salisbury, Shannon D. Tumanut, and Paul Klute, Study Abroad in a New Global Century: Renewing the Promise, Refining the Purpose (New York: Wiley Periodicals, Inc., 2012), p. 41; “Study abroad statistics,” Vista wide, http://www.vistawide.com/studyabroad/study_abroad_statistics.htm (Accessed 17 February, 2014)

13.

Isiah O’Rear, Richard L. Sutton, Donald L. Rubin, “The Effect of Study Abroad on College Completion in a State University System.”

14.

Kevin W. Dean and Michael B. Jendzurski, “Using Post-Study abroad Experiences,” p. 101.

15.

Elizabeth Brewer and Kiran Cunningham, “Capturing Study Abroad’s Transformative Potential,” in Elizabeth Brewer and Kiran Cunningham, eds. Integrating Study Abroad into the Curriculum: Theory and Practice Across the Disciplines (Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2009), pp. 1, 3.

16.

Curran, “The Career Value of Education Abroad,” p. 52.

17.

Mark Pires, “Study Abroad and Cultural Exchange Programs to Africa: America’s Image of a Continent,” African Issues, Vol. 28, No. ½, Study Abroad in Africa, (African Studies Association, 2000), pp. 39–45; John Metzler, “Undergraduate Study abroad Programs in Africa: Current Issues,” African Issues, Vol. 28, No. ½, Study Abroad in Africa, (African Studies Association, 2000), pp. 50–56; Derise E.

Tolliver, “Study Abroad in Africa: Learning about Race, Race, Racism, and the Racial Legacy of America,” African Issues, Vol. 28, No. ½, Study Abroad in Africa, (African Studies Association, 2000), pp. 112–16; Alice Boating and Abigail Mercy Thompson, “Study Abroad Ghana: An International Experiential Learning,” Journal of Social Work Education, 49, (2013), pp. 701–15; Jude Ssempebwa, Wilson Eduan & Fawz Nassir Mulumba, “Effectiveness of University Bridging Programs in Preparing Students for University Education,” Journal of International Education, Vol. 16, No. 2, (May 2012), pp. 140–56; Kofi Boone, Carol Kline, Laura Johnson, Lee-Anne Milburn, Kathleen Rieder, “Development of Visitor Identity Through Study Abroad in Ghana,” Tourism Geographies, Vol. 15, Issue 3, (Aug. 2013), pp. 470–93; R. J. Paola & E. E. Lemmer, “Not Merely a Matter of Academics: Student Experiences of a South African University as Study abroad Destination,” Africa Education Review, Vol. 10, no. 1 (2013), pp. 80–96; Frank Waltmann, “Immersion in the Sub-Sahara,” Training, Vol. 51, No 2. (March/April 2014), pp. 24–24. http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.udayton.edu/eds/detail/detail?sid=e5530448- 83ce-4568-af4e- 584ba916b4fb%40sessionmgr4002&vid=6&hid=4110&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=bft&AN=95029548 (Accessed 27 August, 2014); Jeffrey R. Say, Isaac F. Zama, & Bradley D. Butler, “International Partnership Helping to Bring Appropriate Biofuel Technology to Rural Cameroon,” International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Fall 2012), pp. 35–48.

18.

Brian T. Johson & Carolyn R. O’Grady, eds. The Spirit of Service: Exploring Faith, Service, and Social Justice in Higher Education (Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Company, Inc. 2006), pp. 9–10; Jeff Claus and Curtis Odgen, Service Learning for Youth Empowerment and Social Change (New York: Peter Lang, 1999), p. 91.

19.

Curran, pp. 49–52;

20.

Jean-Germain Gros, ed. Cameroon: Politics, and Society in Critical Perspectives (New York: University Press of America, 2003), p. XV.

21.

Twombly, Salisbury, Tumanut, and Klute, Study Abroad in a New Global Century, p. 43.

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.udayton.edu/eds/detail/detail?sid=e5530448-83ce-4568-af4e-584ba916b4fb%40sessionmgr4002&vid=6&hid=4110&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=bft&AN=95029548
22.

Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, All You Need is Love: The Peach Corps and the Spirit of 1960s (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998), p. 146; Michael L. Buckler, From Microsoft to Malawi: Learning on the Front Lines as a Peace Corps Volunteer (New York: Hamilton Books, 2011), pp. 217–18; Kris Holloway, Monique and the Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc., 2007), pp. 2–3; Stanley Meisle, When the World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and the Fifty Years (Boston: Beacon Press, 2011), pp. 224–26; Jane Brown Hirsch, Alhaji: A Peace Corps Adventure in Nigeria (Santa Barbara, CA: Fifthian Press, 1994), p. 76; James P. McCormick, Diary of a Kimbang (Lima, OH: Express Press, 1998), p. 366; Julius Amin, “Serving in Africa: US Peace Corps in Cameroon. African Spectrum 1/2013), p. 81; Susana Herrera, Mango Elephants in the Sun: How Life in an African Village Let Me Be In My Skin (Boston: Shambhala, 1999).

23.

Julius A. Amin, “Understanding the Protest of February 2008 in Cameroon,” Africa Today (Volume 8, Number 4, Summer 2012), pp. 9–43; Amin, “Cameroonian Youths and the Protest of February 2008, Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines (LIII (3), 21, 203, pp. 677–97).

Chapter 2

Antecedents of Cameroon Immersion For it is the fate of this generation . . . to live with a struggle we did not start, in a world we did not make. But the pressures of life are not always distributed by choice. And while no nation has ever faced such a challenge, no nation has ever been so ready to seize the burden and the glory.[1]

—John F. Kennedy, State of the Union Address, 1962.

Founded in 1850 as St. Mary’s Institute by the Society of Mary, the school became St. Mary’s College in 1878 and in 1920 the University of Dayton. From creation there was an emphasis on mission and service. Catholic Marianists who established the school envisioned an institution which used “faith and reason” to change society. The Catholic Marianist education philosophy advocated the production of “distinctive graduates with a commitment to lifelong learning, [and] leadership that integrates theory with the realities of practice.”[2] It strived “to educate for formation of faith, provide an integral quality education, educate in family spirit, educate for service, justice and peace, [and] educate for adaptation for change.”[3] In Ex corde Ecclesiae, Pope John Paul II informed Catholic universities to emphasize service in their curriculum. “The Christian spirit of service to others for the promotion of social justice is of particular importance for each Catholic University. . . . The Church is firmly committed to the integral growth of all men and women,” he wrote.[4] A cursory glance at today’s University of Dayton website shows service as an integral part of the university’s education. Its mission and educational philosophy page is filled with words such as “critical minds,” “educate for service, justice and peace,” “education and faith to transform the world,” “community,” “inclusiveness,” and “compassionate hearts.”[5] The immersion program was therefore consistent with the educational philosophy of the Rev. Father William Joseph Chaminade, founder of Marainist Religious Order.

Conceived and implemented in 1982, the University of Dayton immersion program was designed to educate students in a more deliberate manner about people of developing nations. The program was initially created as part of an International Development minor. The minor was a combination of fifteen credit hours, all courses intended to give students a more detailed introduction to the third world and its culture. Immersion was the “field experience component” of the minor during which time students spent either a semester or summer engaged in a prearranged study and service in a country of their choice. To fulfill the immersion requirement participants went through four phases: preparation, immersion, reflection, and

action.[6] The University’s immersion program was to introduce students to the culture of the nation they visited. By living with people in the local community students were expected to learn, and experience the culture. A variety of activities were organized to ensure maximum gain from the experience.

During the preparation phase students participated in seminars and other activities organized by the University’s Center for International Studies. In the immersion phase students spent time in a third world country learning and becoming part of the local culture. During the reflection phase participants assessed what they learned and figured out how to apply that knowledge. The action phase prepared students to be involved to address problems in the third world.[7] Following the immersion experience, each participant submitted a report which covered things such as reasons for going to the third word, design of trip, issues addressed while there, challenges, lessons, meaning, and suggestions for improvement of future programs. Participants also completed an evaluation form which asked them to comment with specificity and examples on every facet of the program.

During the first decade of immersion experience over three dozen students participated in programs in the countries of Latin America including Columbia, Mexico, Haiti, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, and in the African nations of Lesotho, Kenya, Egypt, and Sierra Leone, and in India. Programs in those countries had three specific goals: “to provide students with an opportunity to encounter a different culture . . . to relate the experience to their major. . . . [and] to have experience of service in a developing country.” In addition immersion was designed to assist students “understand the meaning of development and underdevelopment,” with an expectation that participants returned “to relate this experience to study and life back home.” Immersion experiences lasted between one and three months and students were housed with host country people because that “allow[ed] for maximum contact with local culture.”[8] Typically, experiences were led by University of Dayton faculty or staff person but some were individually driven. Early leaders of those experiences included Philip Aaron, then professor assigned to international studies minor; Nancy Bramladge, the then director of Center for Social Concern; and Professors John Bregenzer and Bruce Taylor of the Departments of Sociology and History respectively. Selection of immersion sites was done through the assistance of Marianists, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and personal contacts. Some of those contacts were Crossroads Africa, Los Amigos de Las Americas, American Friends Service Committee, the Flying Doctors and Los Ninos.[9] Immersion participants were recruited from all majors in the college of arts and sciences, and professional schools. Whatever the school or discipline, the idea of service, imbedded in the academic culture of the University of

Dayton, was part of the immersion experience.

From inception of immersion in the 1980s, students participated for different reasons. In addition to the overall goals of the program, participants had other motives. Many had never travelled out of the US and immersion gave them an opportunity to do so. Alisa Frank passed by the Study Abroad Fair and was “hooked.” “I wanted to do something with my summer,” she wrote, and ended up in an immersion experience in India. Emily Pun Sin went on a language trip to Guatemala but by the time it was over she had changed. She learned and immersed herself in a new culture. “This trip made me even more curious about other cultures, and I realized that the richness of a culture does not have any correlation with its level of economic development,” she wrote. The Guatemala experience forced Deborah Hirt to reflect on the relevance of her university of Dayton education: “My world at UD suddenly didn’t make very much sense. I couldn’t believe that I had spent 3 years in the little isolated bubble of UD when there are so many more worlds out there. 3 years of classes in the same buildings! 3 years of going to the ghetto! 3 years of campus clubs! It made me ask, what is my education really about?” The experience in Costa Rica had a significant impact on Jennifer Frank. It “touched my soul, enlightened my thoughts, and inspired me to be that person who will one day make a small difference,” she wrote. Molly K. Achbach’s “time in Honduras was so full of friendship and laughter, that I can look back and say it was the most blest seven weeks of my [her] life.”

Whether or not participants had definite goals for immersion travel, they were transformed by the experience. Immersion was first and foremost an educational experience. Lita Battels was changed by her Kenyan experience. “Never before this summer have I given thought to how the poor live and how the poor survive,” she wrote. “Living with them daily and witnessing their humanity opened my eyes to these people and their needs,” she added. The experience in Chile forced Brian Noyle to “learn” about himself and to “rethink many of the beliefs and elements” of his “value system.” Brian Stevens, whose passion for Haiti was boundless, became the biggest advocate of that nation at his college campus. After a two months service trip to Haiti in 1993 he concluded: “if I could have anything I wanted, it would have been only to stay in Trenton [Haiti] and continue with my work for Haiti.” In a presentation in one of his classes, Stevens’s eloquence on Haiti convinced even the most inattentive students to develop an interest in the affairs of that country. “What happens in that country is relevant to us in North America,” he said. “Thanks to the slave revolt led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, the demise of slavery in Haiti signaled that slavery was unsustainable,” he added. His love, concern, and compassion for the people of Haiti came through in his class presentation. For Jennifer Frank the four weeks in Costa Rica were profound and inspiring. While there she encountered

conditions and people who helped her to realize the power of the human spirit. The lives of the people “instilled strength” in her, and as a result she became a “better person.” In Honduras, Melissa Kahn felt a sense of outrage by the degree of “social injustice” and poverty she encountered. After the trip she vowed to dedicate part of her life to uplifting the poor.[10]

Katie Burkhardt’s immersion experience in India was eye-opening. In her final immersion report she argued that more effective cures for illnesses resulted from a combination of Indian and western medicine. With a population of 1.3 billion people, India is the second most populated nation in the world. Between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries India was known for trade especially in spices. It was towards that part of the world that Christopher Columbus intended to go but ended up in America. In India, there was a strong sense of tradition. It was Mahatma Gandhi’s country. It was home to some of the world’s leading experts in the software industry. It was home of some of the world’s largest cities such as Calcutta. It is a country whose past and present were complicated by British imperialism. It is a country of immense contrast. It is home of the Taj Mahal and other rich tradition but it also was home to some of the world’s poorest people. In reports immersion participants articulated those characteristics. In India, they were touched by poverty, sexism, social decay, and a marginalization of large segments of the population. Experience in India challenged students in several ways. India “tested my faith,” a student wrote. After India, Burkhardt wrote: “I want to work for the underserved population.” The experience “restore[d] self-confidence” in Paul Ebert, and “challenged” many of Mary Niebler ’s “perceptions and beliefs.” She scorned at the culture of “sexism” and subjugation of women but found solace in prayers. As a result of the experience Andy Albers began to ask more serious questions about issues of inequality, justice, and distribution of wealth. “Probably the hardest thing to deal with,” he wrote, “is the realization that two thirds of the world lives in . . . poverty and only a fraction of the world live in . . . richness. It’s something that isn’t right.”[11] If a goal of education is to challenge students to ask difficult questions, then immersion was succeeding. Immersion participants were affected by experiences in India and other countries. The Colombia experience made Lizanne Martin a “better person.” It was all worth it: “I was blessed and honored that I was chosen,” she wrote.

Foreign travel enabled students to separate myth from reality. Western media and popular literature engaged in overkill of negatives in depictions of people in the third world. Over the years developing countries were portrayed as fertile grounds for crime, disease, and chaos. The people were considered “strange,” “exotic,” and “different.” Letitia Montavon was not adequately ready for the Colombian experience. “I realized there were many things I had failed to prepare myself for,”

she wrote. Many were unprepared for the level of “poverty,” and “hardship” they encountered in developing nations. In Columbia a participant had “curiosities about the drug situation.” “It is through trips like this,” wrote Mark Delisi “that the mediated realities of other people’s lives can become un-mediated.” Despite the problems and difficulties in the third world, students found examples of hope, resilience, courage, community consciousness, friendship, faith, and belief. The experience rekindled their sense of idealism as they became more determined to find ways to “assist the less fortunate.” Others developed a new level of consciousness about the global community. Those who went to “change the world” were transformed by the experience. Immersion enabled participants to “think outside the box.”[12] They learned about themselves, their strengths and limitations.

However, the early years of immersion weren’t without challenges. Participants were ill-prepared, ill-briefed, and ill-trained for life in developing nations. Most had never taken a class on the history, culture, and life of people in countries they visited. Those who went to India, Honduras, Guatemala, Kenya, Costa Rica, and other parts of the developing world had never seriously engaged those nations in an intellectual manner. In short, there was a knowledge vacuum about third world people and their land. It was a serious flaw from the onset of the immersion experience, and one that remained unaddressed in future programs.

Participants were surprised at the community spirit in developing countries, something which basic reading on the region would have helped them to understand. The communal spirit in developing nations helped to facilitate the ease by which immersion participants were received by the local people. Yet, the failure by students to have read about those regions magnified larger curricula issues at American college campuses. On the one hand institutions developed programs to send students to developing nations but on the other hand the academic curriculum remained very Western-oriented. Few courses which focused on developing nations were taught on those regions. For example, at the University of Dayton when students began to go to Africa there was one course on the curriculum on Africa, and it was not a requirement even for students doing the African immersion experience. They were no specialists on India on campus, and only a few professors were available on the Latin American experience. The weakness was not unique to Dayton. At many US institutions, especially smaller campuses, the teaching of Africa was relegated to faculty who encountered the continent as a hobby or to part- time faculty or to those who frequently used National Geographic as a main source of information on the continent. The second largest continent in the world with 54 nations, ancestral home to over 10 percent of America’s population, the source of vital minerals such as coltan and diamond, the land of complex cultures, languages, and religions, and the ancestral home of some of the world’s leading statesmen such

as the late Nelson Mandela, Africa was not considered important enough for rigorous intellectual work on American college campuses.

An immediate and important challenge was the inability to put in place an effective tool to measure the program’s success. While student reports stated immersion had an important impact on them, it was difficult to gauge in what sense. Besides occasional write-ups by former participants in the Dayton Flyer newspaper or Dayton Daily News there was no feasible way to transfer knowledge acquired by immersion participants to the rest of the campus.[13] Scholars have emphasized the importance of postimmersion conversations especially on campus. Referring to this failure to capitalize on overall student experiences Kevin W. Dean and Michael B. Jendzurski wrote: “Sadly many proponents of global education fall short in capitalizing on the opportunity to maximize post-travel programs. A lack of innovative and sustainable mechanisms for disseminating knowledge and skills gained from international study remains an unmet challenge.” “Without post-travel engagement,” they added, “the broader campus community remains excluded from the vast educational value international study affords; they do not ‘get it.’”[14]

For most immersion participants, life in developing nations began with anxiety tempered by illness, homesickness, isolation, nervousness, and frustration. It was “overwhelming and stressful,” a participant wrote. “My first real sense in Columbia was personal powerlessness,” wrote another, adding “it’s a truly humbling experience to be placed in a foreign environment with no concept of the native language.”[15] Students were not prepared for the “level of poverty” and “destitution” they found, and as a result questioned whether or not they could make any meaningful impact. Given what they saw many concluded that walking a mile in one’s shoes in order to feel their pain or empathizing with the have-nots may sometimes not be enough. In short, going hungry for a few days to experience what the hungry go through is insufficient to understand the plight of those who are chronically hungry. Students wept at sights of children and elderly who survived on the barest minimum essential for life. It was an experience which remained etched in their consciousness. They were frustrated by their inability to make substantive change.

Also, security was always a concern. Occasionally, participants experienced acts of petty thievery but in 1993 it was different for Sandy Grady. Grady, a student volunteer in Kenya, was robbed several times. But things turned violent when her friend was murdered while trying to assist a man who had been robbed.[16] It was tragic, and a grim reminder of the perils of immersion and foreign travel. Participants were always informed to remember that they were in foreign countries, and should never to let down their guard.

Funding was an early headache. Because the immersion program was started in an ad hoc manner, it was difficult to secure university-wide funding for it. Cost was dependent on where students went for the experience. During the early years a significant part of the funding came from the Marianist Foundation. Also, immersion administrators turned to other departments on campus for support, a practice generally referred to as “tin-cupping.” In short, part of the program’s funding was from the goodwill of the leadership of other units on campus. Funding for immersion was a concern for Raymond Fitz, then University president. In 1997, Fitz cautioned against the “tin cup” approach to funding immersion, adding that over time, the approach became “irritating.” Fitz raised a significant question: “What would happen if the Marianist Foundation didn’t fund immersions or if there was a new president?” Those were real concerns, and he requested from the Center for Social Concern a report to justify why immersion programs should be institutionalized within the university system.[17] Until the late 1990s immersion funding was always a nagging problem. Additionally, funding was complicated because immersions took place during summers when students had summer employment, thereby forcing many qualified and capable students to reject participation in the program. Whatever the financial challenges, various university programs and academic units including the Honors and ETHOS programs provided support for most students in their respective programs who showed interest in immersion experiences.[18] Of the early immersion programs, Sierra Leone showed the most promise.

Sierra Leone Experience

On the eve of the twenty-first century, the West African nation of Sierra Leone was no place for an immersion program. Its capital, Freetown, was an inferno. On January 5, 1999, Freetown was attacked by antigovernment groups resulting in weeks of fighting. By the time it was over, more than five thousand people had been killed, thousands of women and girls raped, hundreds of property destroyed, and there was chronic instability. The carnage in Freetown was a continuation of a decade old civil conflict in Sierra Leone which began on March 23, 1991, when antigovernment forces and groups rallied under the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and attempted to overthrow the one-party system in the country headed by then President Joseph Momoh.[19] The resulting eleven years war attracted regional and international attention.

The war was brutal, destructive, and inhumane. Tagged the “most brutal and vicious war of the late twentieth century,” the Sierra Leonean war was characterized by rapes, cutting of tongues, kidnapping, child soldiers, drugs, outright torture, looting, the practice of “short sleeves,” and “long sleeves” whereby hands were cut either at the wrist or the arm, and mutilation of other body parts. It ranked among some of the most vicious wars in postcolonial Africa, even surpassing the Nigeria- Biafra war in which scorched-earth policy was a tactic. Women and children bore the brunt of the war. Abductees, Chris Coulter wrote, who became “bush wives through forced marriage, domestic workers, or slaves . . . [and] were never counted or registered in any postwar program.”[20] The Sierra Leone war has been chronicled in books, documentaries, and big screen movies including “Woman see Lot of Things,” by film maker Meira Asher (2006), and “Blood Diamond” coproduced and directed by Edward Zwick starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou (2006). Set in Sierra Leone, “Blood Diamond” brought global attention to the destruction and pain caused by diamond mining. “Conflict Diamonds,” as some termed it became a main source of the conflict as antigovernment leaders used profit from illegal sale of diamonds to pay for the war. The war officially ended with the UN’s declaration of the cessation of hostilities on January 2002. The war retarded the development of Sierra Leone by decades. By the time it ended, tens of thousands had been killed, thousands of amputations, and thousands displaced.[21] The problem of child soldier and the use of rape as a weapon were brought to global attention. Those same tactics were repeatedly used in the Congolese civil war.

The Sierra Leonean war pointed to a deteriorating political situation in Africa in the late twentieth century. The collapse of the Berlin Wall and events following it were

impactful on Africa. One after another regimes of Africa’s most notorious strongmen tumbled. It was an impressive list: Siad Barre, Mobutu, Mengistu Haile Mairan, Kenneth Kaunda, and more but in their place came chaos. They were brutal wars in the Congo, Somalia, and Liberia. Sierra Leone was one among many. In the 1990s the country was dismissed as a “failed state,” and as a nation “literally dying.”[22] It was frequently listed as the world’s poorest nation. In the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) annual Human Development Report, Sierra Leone was ranked last during most of the 1990s in terms of the Human Development Index (HDI). The nation topped the misery index: lowest life expectancy rate, highest infant mortality rate, chronic unemployment, and much more. In the late 1990s, it had the largest UN peace keeping force with 17,800 soldiers at one time. Soldiers from other African nations were present. They were over 250 NGOs operating and providing humanitarian aid in the country.[23] Sierra Leone was a puzzle for analysts. How could a nation created with so much fanfare descend so quickly into the abyss? With its highly reputable Fourah Bay College, and freed slave population who returned with expectations to spread Christianity and western culture in the region, many asked what went so wrong. The country was supposed to be colonial Britain’s postcolonial success story yet it turned into a nightmare. Sierra Leone obtained independence on April 27, 1961, and on September 27 was admitted to the United Nations as the hundredth member but the first fifty years of that nation’s life were anything but a success story. Yet the failures and challenges of Sierra Leone were not new. They were deeply rooted in that nation’s history, and many of the sources of the Sierra Leonean war are found in the colonial era.

The Republic of Sierra Leone is a small country, 73,326 square miles, comparable in size to the state of South Carolina. It is situated along the West African coast with the Republic of Guinea to the north, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and southeast. It has a tropical climate with dry and rainy seasons. Rainfall typically lasts from May to October while the dry season is from November to April. At independence the country had between fifteen and twenty ethnic groups. The major group, the Mande was made up of the Mende, Vai, Kono, Kuranko, Sosu, Yalunka and Mandingo. The other the Mel consisted of the Tembe, Bullom/Sherbro, Kissi, Gola, and Krim. Other groups included the Fula. Creoles are descendants of the settlers and freed slaves.[24]

Decision to Go into Sierra Leone

On the eve of University of Dayton’s decision to create an immersion program in Sierra Leone, the country was poised on a brink. The University of Dayton Sierra Leone program was the brainchild of former Congressman Tony Hall. Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1942 Hall later emerged as a significant humanitarian on the world stage. He served as US Congressman representing the 3rd district of Ohio for 24 years, and later as United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, and as chief of United States Mission to the UN Agencies in Rome. He worked on the Middle East peace initiative, introduced in Congress legislation that America apologize for slavery, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Hall’s name was synonymous with world hunger. He almost single handedly convinced major powers to focus attention on hunger. But his antihunger crusade had origins. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand, Hall saw firsthand the effects of hunger on development.[25] He witnessed the impact of hunger on children and families.

In a visit to Ethiopia in 1984, Hall was stunned by the magnitude of hunger in that country. There was a culture of hunger in which children, men, and women had given up. They were part of the forgotten people. After the visit, he wrote:

As I walked among the people, I was drawn to the children. Teenagers, weighing fifty pounds or less, were so wrinkled they could be mistaken for the elderly. I saw an eight-year-old child who weighed twenty-three pounds. These children had the distended bellies that are the telltale sign of extreme hunger. Every bone could be counted. When they died, they just stopped breathing. If a child was with his or her mother, you’d then see the mother react, sometimes with nothing but resignation, sometimes with deep grief. Some mothers hugged their dead children tightly; some lay down beside their children and sobbed. As I walked, I saw this happen again and again. Perhaps worst of all, I saw children die alone, saw adults die alone.[26]

Trips to developing nations intensified Hall’s antihunger crusade. Repeatedly, he asked developed nations to do more to solve the problem. What was needed was the will to do so, he argued. He unsuccessfully requested the US to endorse the right to food as a fundamental human right. He helped to create the House Select Committee on Hunger and served as chairman of the committee’s International Task Force. His committee conducted hearings, received testimony from witnesses, and spread the word about world hunger. The hunger committee wrote the New York Times was “the conscience of the Congress.”[27] As chairman of the committee, Hall established

contact with leaders of developing nations.

Sierra Leone fit the profile of the type of nation which attracted Hall’s attention. Despite the nation’s natural and mineral resources the country was frequently listed among the world’s poorest nations. Its problems were monumental and unprecedented. In a visit to the United States in 1988 President Joseph Momoh of Sierra Leone met with Hall requesting help for his country. It was after the visit that Hall asked Fitz to do something about Sierra Leone. Asked why he accepted Hall’s request, Fitz stated: “It was first and foremost an opportunity for the University to do something,” and for students to “put into practice their skills to assist others.”[28] Given University of Dayton’s mission of social justice and a new direction to internationalize, Sierra Leone was seen as the right site for an initiative. An engineer, Fitz turned to the School of Engineering where it designed a course for those interested in the Sierra Leone project. The course, EGR (Engineering) 320 Honors System Design, brought together thirty-five juniors and seniors to work on the project. The course was designed to prepare students for immersion and service in Sierra Leone. Most disciplines were represented in the group. It was an appropriate gathering of student talent. At the end of the course the group produced a report titled: “Building a Bridge: Proposals for Enhancing the Relationship between Dayton and Sierra Leone.”[29] It was a thoughtful and well-done report. The report formally introduced the University of Dayton and the broader Dayton community to the nation of Sierra Leone. It raised awareness on immense human tragedies taking place on the other side of the Atlantic. The report represented a beginning.

Despite the good intentions, the report had shortcomings. It contained little to nothing about realities on the ground in Sierra Leone. It was an arm chair document. There was little in it supported by concrete examples. Mary Harven Gorgette wrote about this after her first trip to Sierra Leone. “I felt like our report was a waste . . . even the simplest proposal, a pen-pal program, would be virtually impossible to implement, considering the irregularity of school attendance and the teacher turnover rate.”[30] Nick Miller, concluded the systems design proposal was “hopelessly inadequate.” John George, another participant, found the report naïve. “I have often heard people speak of the simple life or religious orders referring to an oath of poverty chosen as an alternative to the typically high-tech, fast-pace life of an adult in the developed world,” he wrote, adding “people who speak in this way do not mean the kind of poverty which I call absolute poverty because one cannot possibly choose such poverty. . . . The poverty the people of Sierra Leone endure is much more than having a lack of food or nice clothing. It is being robbed of human emotions and lacking basic knowledge of the world one lives in and the forces that

control one’s life.”[31] Most participants agreed the report was superficial and lacked intellectual analysis.

Yet, it was important. Whatever the report’s weaknesses, the document began the University’s eventual involvement to a more serious and continuous commitment in West Africa. It led to the development of a cadre of students who became major proponents for the University’s more constructive internationalization efforts in developing nations. Those students established a foundation for future African immersion programs at the University. As pioneers, they made mistakes, but their example was emulated by others. Their greatest contribution wasn’t in what they accomplished while in Sierra Leone, it was in showing their colleagues and the University community that immersion in Africa was doable, relevant, and a wave for the future. In that respect, they achieved more than they ever imagined.[32]

An additional reason for getting involved in Sierra Leone was Nord Resources Corporation, a Dayton based multinational company which had been in Serra Leone since 1972. Through its subsidiary Sierra Rutile, Nord mined titanium oxide used in aircraft and paint pigments industry. Sierra Leone had the world’s largest reserve of the mineral. Nord Corporation was an employer in the Miami Valley and also contributed to a tax base in the region. Though listed among the world’s poorest nations, resources from Sierra Leone regularly contributed to economic development of the Miami Valley. The report made a connection between Sierra Leone and the economy of the Miami Valley.

Also, Sierra Leone held a special place among the Gullahs, a unique group of African Americans who live in the coastal region of South Carolina and Georgia. Gullahs traced their ancestry to present day West African coastal region from Senegal through Sierra Leone and Liberia. Joseph Opala, Lorenzo Turner, and others established that the Gullahs are descendants of slaves who worked on plantations in South Carolina and Georgia. Folktales, legends, folk beliefs, language, and jokes among Gullahs have similarities with those of ethnic groups such as the Mende and Temne in Sierra Leone. Gullahs preserved important aspects of African cultural heritage. During slavery their forefathers worked on rice plantations in South Carolina.[33] Planters preferred slaves from Senegal, Sierra Leone and Liberia region because they already had familiarity with rice cultivation. Studies of Gullah life and culture were among those used to challenge previous accounts which argued that African Americans made no cultural contributions in North America.

Sierra Leone also attracted the attention of other universities in the region. In 1990, the Southwestern Ohio Council of Higher Education (SOCHE) sent faculty and staff

from different universities to study how the organization could build relations with universities in Sierra Leone.[34] The SOCHE group was hosted by the University of Sierra Leone at Njalla. The trip was partly facilitated by the Society Taking Active Responsibility for International Self-Help (STARFISH), an NGO started in 1985 by Joseph Giardullo, a nursing professor at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. For a brief period Nord Corporation was a main source of revenue for Starfish.[35] Through the organization’s efforts, many in the Miami Valley travelled to Sierra Leone. Other universities and hospitals in the region also were involved. The Miami Valley Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital donated medical equipment. Wright State University donated books. In addition, Sierra Leonean longtime resident of the Miami Valley Williamson Ademu-John established in 1988 the Society for the Advancement of Culture and Welfare in Sierra Leone to assist in coordinating projects funded by groups based in the Miami Valley.[36] Relations with Sierra Leone were on the rise in the Miami Valley, but everything was cut short by the war.

Finally, Sierra Leone was a good fit for University of Dayton student involvement. The country had potentials for growth, and its size made it possible for an alignment of resources of the University of Dayton and the broader Dayton community with those of that country. The official language of Sierra Leone is English and therefore language was not going to be a problem.

Service in Sierra Leone

For scores of University of Dayton students who visited, served, and immersed themselves in Sierra Leone between 1989 and 1994, their lives were changed forever. They were transformed in many ways. For some, the trip became a defining moment of their college years. Years later Ann Hudock, who spent a year in Sierra Leone and later worked as a graduate assistant in Fitz’s office on the Sierra Leone connection, reflected: “Each step of my career has been informed by the experiences I had in Sierra Leone and working with Association for Rural Development (ARD) and the communities they served, particularly groups of dynamic women.” Her Sierra Leone experience was pivotal in the writing of NGOs and Civil Society: Democracy, a study which addressed challenges NGOs faced in Sierra Leone.[37] Nick Miller, whose initial trip to Sierra Leone was the result of “a vague desire to help others, coupled with a sense of adventure for living in a different culture and the hope that the whole experience would help me [him] grow as a human being,” returned there as a Peace Corps volunteer, and later “became a high school teacher . . . directly as a result of my positive experiences in Sierra Leone.” For Herb Runnels, the Sierra Leone experience forced him to reflect more seriously about global inequities: “my problem is guilt. Guilt for what we have and what we don’t do with it. Why are people suffering and dying from diseases that we can treat and cure. . . . Polio? We have vaccine. Blindness can be caused by a simple vitamin deficiency, so a few vitamins could have spared their sight. Why aren’t we doing more to get these vaccines and vitamins to these people?” “The problem is money,” he continued, adding “Money Americans would rather spend on trendy clothes or expensive cars. For me it is even more personal. I have been there and experienced it firsthand. It isn’t just an image from some commercial on television. It is real and much more vivid. I have met these people, I have talked to them and they are in desperate need. I feel I have a greater responsibility now that I have experienced it.” Sierra Leone’s impact was immense on Susan Brown. After Sierra Leone, Brown wrote a senior thesis, “The Rehydration of Children in Sierra Leone, West Africa,” based on research done in Sierra Leone. Following graduation, she took a teaching job in Namibia. Initially, it was a one year assignment but she ended up doing three years. “I was a teacher in rural Namibia for three and a half years because of the experiences I had in Sierra Leone. . . . The experience [in Africa] has governed many of my decisions in life,” she stated.[38]

Few immersion participants predicted the impact the experience was going to have on them. Almost 80 percent of immersion participants were Caucasian and hailed from middle-class origin. They chose to go to Sierra Leone for different reasons. For many, Sierra Leone was perhaps their only opportunity to visit Africa, and for

others it offered an opportunity to travel out of the country. Runnels went because it “was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Africa always seemed mysterious to me and I wanted to see what life was like there,” he said. The trip was an awakening for all. J. Scott Stewart’s trip to Sierra Leone was first and foremost to “follow-up theoretical research with first person evaluation.” Kimberly Sirl saw the trip as an opportunity to learn about diverse global societies. “To be fully human,” she wrote, “is to realize the common humanity we all share.” “I went to Sierra Leone . . . to discover our similarities and differences and in the process, perhaps discover something about myself,” she concluded. Joan McManamon went because she had “a very narrow perspective of the world.” She “wanted to meet people who have lived different lives,” and to “understand the cultural forces” which shaped them. Others went for the adventure. The Engineering design group began the process and other students followed including Ann Hudock, Eileen St George, Jenny Battaglini, Kathleen Carroll, Joan McMananmon, Wendell Tucker, Rita Bowen, D’Arcy Oaks, Rachel Ulrich, and many others. They went for immersion and service.[39]

Prior to departure for Sierra Leone, participants went through a formal preparatory stage, known as orientation. The orientation was designed and implemented by Philip Aaron. Over the years, he changed, adjusted, and revised orientation sessions to meet changing realities. Whatever the changes, aspects traditionally included in the orientation were guest lectures on Africa and cross-cultural experience, preventive health care measures, and vaccinations, and cultural simulation exercises. While it was almost impossible to fully prepare immersion participants for an African experience, Aaron did what he could with the resources he had.

Aaron was present at the creation of immersion programs at the University of Dayton. Though his official title was “Immersion advisor” he did it all. He took a half-conceived program and turned it into reality. When asked how he came up with ideas to shape the program, his response was persistent experimentation. He generated new ideas based on the composition of the group, relied on input from former participants, and read whatever he could about immersion. He brought in local experts to speak to students. Williamson Ademu-John was frequently consulted. Aaron’s course on international development, a requirement for immersion participants was conducted in like manner. Often, it served as an introduction to prospective immersion participants. The approach was flexible, engaging, and thoughtful. When Kathleen Carroll, an arts design major, arrived for class on the first day she wondered why she was there but as lectures progressed into international NGOs and their activities in developing countries, “it became clear each one of us could make a difference in the world including me,” she wrote. [40]

In addition to organizing orientation sessions, Aaron occasionally spoke to parents hesitant to allow their children to go to Africa. He counseled students, showed them ways to fundraise, and used their experience to build on future programs. He answered students’ questions even after they completed the immersion experience, and graduated from the University. He was the engine room of immersion during those early years when the program struggled to gain university-wide acceptance. Students confided and trusted him. Numerous letters from former participants referenced him as one they turned to when doubts crept into their minds about whether or not they did the right thing to go to Africa. Susan Brown found Aaron pivotal in the direction she pursued after college. “I feel good about what I am doing,” she wrote to Aaron about service in Namibia. In a November 23, 1993, letter she added: “I am so thankful for all your support and prayers.” Few people captured in writing Aaron’s impact than John George:

You have been a blessing to me. . . . Your quiet, humble presence has helped me look at and deal with many things. . . . In your class, for the first time I had a professor ask questions to hear what students had to say. . . . That was very important and challenging to me. At work you always had time for others . . . , your faith and support in our trip to Sierra Leone has been vital to Mary and me. I do not know if I would have committed to it if you did not seem so certain it would be pulled off. . . . Thank you for all these things, and most of all, for courageously being who fee called to be and walking humbly with God.[41]

The long-awaited Sierra Leonean experience always began from touchdown at the Lungi-Freetown International Airport. Each year by the time students checked through customs, immigration, and luggage claim it was already nightfall. Each year the darkness heightened the anxiety of being in a strange environment. The “culture shock” was worse than “I imagined,” a participant wrote. Nick Miller described his initial reaction as “steamy African night,” and “entering the sweaty, chaotic atmosphere of Lungi airport as well riding a ferry across a dark bay of an unknown continent.”[42] Awaiting students at the airport were always representatives of the Association for Rural Development (ARD). Shortly after arrival in Freetown, most students concluded that things were much worse than imagined. Herb Runnels provided a vivid reflection of his early days in Sierra Leone:

The Third World is tough. In relative terms to the United States, they, Sierra Leone, have very little. It was a struggle to obtain clean water and enough food deemed safe by First World standards. Electricity, which is so intricate to our lives, was all but completely missing from theirs. It was extremely humbling to have to bathe entirely by wash cloth. Insects and animals of frightening proportions are free to wander about the house and street. Every new glance

revealed the evidence of malnutrition and poor health care.

In the midst of apparent and real hardship, immersion participants saw firsthand what it meant to go without basic needs. Some responded with a sense of guilt wondering about life’s inequities. “I feel guilty both for having so much myself and from being from a country that has such immense wealth but does not succeed in sharing and helping those in need,” wrote Joan McManaman.[43] And for some participants there was relief that they came from the US and did not have to live through such hardships. It was in truth to borrow the words of Jacob Riis, “how the other half Lives.”[44]

Despite the problems, Sierra Leonean “people were generally happy and especially optimistic for the future,” Runnels wrote. The people had an exceeding ability to endure, observed immersion participants. Students attested to the hospitality, kindness, and friendship of Sierra Leonean people. “Friendship is a way of life in Sierra Leone. We were always greeted with a smile and a handshake . . . they were quick to offer us a seat, drink, and even food they had such limited amount of,” he added.[45] The courtesy and friendship towards strangers was evident from the airport in the interaction with employees of ARD.

From the beginning of University of Dayton’s involvement in Sierra Leone ARD was there to assist students navigate through various strata in the country. Created in 1986 by Kanja Sesay and Alie Fornah, former employees of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), ARD emerged to be among the most credible nongovernmental organizations involved in development work in Sierra Leone. Forna and Sesay earned degrees from Fourah Bay College, and later took positions as project officers with CRS. Employed at CRS for eight years, Forna worked with villages to “design and carry out small community projects, such as building storage shed for the rice shed for the rice harvest or sinking a well to provide clean drinking water.” As part of their work, Sesay and Forna attended conferences on development in other African nations. At those meetings they met counterparts from other African nations who informed them of NGOs they started to assist the local people. They were motivated to do something similar in their country. Increasingly, they found working with CRS routine, unexciting, and restrictive. They spent too little time in the field, they complained. “We didn’t want to be desk-bound officers. . . . At the field level, you’re where the action is. When we realized that these arrangements would limit our contact with village groups, we asked ourselves if we should continue playing that role or opt for an alternative that would give us more contact with these village groups,” Forna stated. It was then that they decided to form ARD. By 1990, ARD was in full operation. Its activities mobilized grassroots people. It empowered local people to take charge of their lives. ARD organized the

community to produce basic necessities such as soap, cloth-dying, and jam. Farmers were taught skills on how to improve output.[46]

ARD was the University of Dayton’s main contact in Sierra Leone. The organization handled logistics arrangements for immersion including housing and service sites. The majority of students placed at ARD did site visits and wrote grant proposals, taught computer literacy, and went on field trips with Sierra Leonean coworkers for inspection and site visits.[47] They wrote monthly “Updates” of ARD activities mostly to inform friends and family in the US of their activities. Those “Updates” contained information on what students accomplished, site visits, future plans, and occasionally had personal information. On March 31, 1992, Gorgette and George wrote in an Update:

March was a busy month for us at ARD. . . . We evaluated two projects sponsored by Christian Aid, a development group in the United Kingdom. We wrote and sent out reports on eight evaluations we did last month. And we drew up a list of small community projects that have registered with us, which will be reviewed by a US donor for funding. We’re particularly pleased about making these contacts for Sierra Leone groups, as ARD was founded to meet their needs. Often we got so busy doing assignments for other groups—just to pay the bills—that we have little time left for community groups that have registered with us. The cards are really stacked against bottom-up, grassroots- initiated development. But as ARD and its goals gain recognition and support, we are better able to support the efforts of these local groups who are working to help themselves.[48]

The tradition of monthly Updates was continued after Gorgette and George departed from Sierra Leone. Kathleen Carroll and Joan McManamon served as Project assistants for one year with ARD. They too wrote Updates. They assisted with projects which met development needs “through the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of community projects.” During Carroll’s first tour in Sierra Leone she created a new logo for ARD which as she put it “is now seen worldwide every time ARD communicates with these NGOs.” Jenny Bataligni and Wendell Tucker who replaced Carroll and McManamon continued with the same job description of their predecessors.[49]

Not all students worked at ARD office. Those who did the one month experience were generally assigned elsewhere. Gorgette, for example, during her first visit to Sierra Leone was assigned to the Milton Margai School for the Blind where she taught English, French, and piano lessons. During his initial one month visit, George taught Math and English at a Boy’s Society school, and Nick Miller was

placed at a technical institute where he taught math and engineering related subjects. Other students served where needed.

But service in Sierra Leone wasn’t without problems. Immersion students were frustrated with the slow pace of things. Many were introduced to the concept of “African time” which meant people were perpetually late for events and time- conscious appointments. Equally, they discovered many of their own shortcomings making them wonder how they could make meaningful contributions without much knowledge of the people’s culture. Chikako Mese, greatly impacted by the immersion experience, wished she had taken a class on human rights prior to the experience. She questioned the role of western intervention and patronage in Sierra Leone. “We’re basically the same—most of life for everybody is just made up of things that happen day to day,” she said. However, a class on African culture and development would have helped her to more fully contextualize those ideas. Brown regretted not taking classes on development studies. “I spent time in Namibia really wondering if I needed to be teaching these people who already had such a pastoral, peaceful lifestyle. . . . Did I want them to end up like many busy, stressed people in the developed world. I could have used some help with these issues,” she wrote.[50] Because immersion participants had limited knowledge of Krio, a lingua franca of Sierra Leone, they were unable to communicate extensively with locals. It became a barrier especially in rural areas. Effective communication is a prerequisite for the success of any development program. Additionally, the nation’s poor infrastructure complicated things because it was much harder to take assignments in rural areas where more help was needed. It was equally risky. A former volunteer with ARD explained frustrations of working in rural areas:

I was disappointed in the disorganization and reluctance of participants to cooperate with facilitators. But, I eventually got to see Bo and meet Kanja and Rashid’s parents. I took a bucket bath at the Sesay’s (by that time I was so gross after 3 days of no showers where I’d been staying and having covered myself in . . . spray each night to counter the bugs). It was quite an experience—I was outside, separated from people by some palm fronds that were barely higher than my head with ice cold water (isn’t it always?)—but it was refreshing and I felt much better after it. I think from now on I am going to just prepare myself —over pack if I think it’s necessary—just in case. And also recommending that volunteers NOT go on trek alone period.

An additional headache dealt with accommodation. In most cases things worked well, but in others they didn’t. Some of the housing was inadequate, and coupled with the irregularity of electricity and water things appeared more challenging than should have been. As students settled in to the country, they increasingly raised

questions about their ability to do much for Sierra Leone, and some questioned the nature of assistance provided by ARD. A student assigned to ARD was blunt: “I do not have any direct skills that are applicably being utilized in the ARD setting. For the past couple of months I have greatly questioned ARD’s role in helping the people. I feel more that ARD is just lying to get a piece of the international donor ’s pie in the name of the poor.” It was not the first time those complaints were raised. Constantly strapped for funds, ARD turned into an organization which satisfied first and foremost wishes of funders rather than villages. Ann Hudock who spent much time working with ARD wrote: “ARD’s criteria seemed to reflect its desire to work with groups which would produce results pleasing to donors, were easy to reach, and had already undergone some degree of organizational development support or training. These were not likely to be the poorest or most marginalized.”[51] It was markedly different from perspectives shared when Forna and Sesay left CRS.

Other problems students experienced had little to do with ARD. There were distressful issues about the culture. A particularly challenging problem was the treatment and perception of women in society. Female participants were uncomfortable with the secondary role assigned to women. In some cases, people could not move beyond seeing them as sexual objects. They were frequently asked out for dates, and marriage proposals kept coming. “Having men hit on me . . . became a familiar occurrence,” Kimberly Sirl wrote adding “it was particularly difficult to accept the way in which women were treated.” It was a recurring issue during the entire Sierra Leone program. Such irritation followed Susan Brown from Sierra Leone to Namibia: “Living here for me seems unimaginable to me right now. I’m having constant marriage proposals every day these days—I guess these guys here just hear about a white girl who speaks the language and stamps millet and want to marry immediately. Most if not all the proposals are laughable— they approach women so differently from what I’m used to. How can you even take someone seriously if you don’t know him at all and he doesn’t know you—but I’ve learned NOT to laugh—people get really offended and think you’re laughing b/c he’s black,” she wrote.[52] It took years before immersion administrators came up with ways to address the problem. Even then there is still no formal policy in place.

A thornier problem was the absence of a well-coordinated policy to treat immersion participants who fell sick. While efforts were made during preparation to ensure that students took the required and recommended preventive measures against common illnesses, occasionally students contracted malaria and other viruses. Traveling diarrhea was common. But there was no policy in place to treat those cases. Given poor health care delivery systems in Sierra Leone, students who fell sick were terrified. Sickness created impatience to some, and to others empathy because while they had an option, Sierra Leoneans who were seriously ill had none.

A student who contracted malaria wondered why he was not “evacuated immediately.” Because of general malaise in African nations, students did not realize that those nations were better equipped to diagnose and treat malaria than many western countries. Another student complained of being “placed in the poorest living conditions,” with the “barest minimum to eat.” Another added: “No one can get healthy on baked beans alone.” The problems in Sierra Leone and seemingly no way out made some gain a new appreciation for daily comforts in North America. “For as long as I live I will never forget getting off the plane at New York . . . although I was exhausted, sick, and dizzy, I remember laughing aloud as I walked down the carpeted hallway of the airport,” a student wrote.[53] Yet, those problems did not overshadow the overall gains of the Sierra Leonean immersion experience. The program was educational, rewarding, and in some cases career changing. Increasingly many used their experience to change aspects of their life. They learned to question excessive materialism which gripped life in western society. Two months after Sierra Leone Gorgette wrote, “I’ve been getting by on one bottle of hairspray; I’ve been drinking a lot of water and my wardrobe is a little thinner but better worn these days. And I’m feeling pretty liberated.”

Immersion participants gained a new awareness of community consciousness, as a participant noted the difference between life experienced in Sierra Leone and one in the US:

I went to visit my friend. . . . who works as a nurse up near Detroit. She and her husband have an apartment up there in a big complex. I had a nice time talking to . . . , but it really disturbed me whenever we went outside, none of the neighbors spoke to each other, and all apartments looked the same. I tried to make eye contact with several people to no avail—they didn’t want to look up! It frightened me and made me sad—but it was hard to tell . . . , who didn’t think it was funny or strange at all. I guess my biggest problem in coming back is how impersonal our society is here—I mean, you could die in those apartments and nobody would ever know.[54]

Benefits from the Sierra Leone immersion were qualitative. Students gained a sense of empowerment, self-esteem, and developed more empathy, and compassion. They learned as John F. Kennedy said, that “the pressures of life are not always distributed by choice.” The children of Sierra Leone who went without food did not choose to go hungry. Immersion exposed students to global inequities and many rededicated themselves to doing something for others. As they returned to the US they vowed never to forget the impact Sierra Leone had on them.

Participants learned about themselves, matured, and developed a deeper understanding of humanity. The experience reinforced, changed and redefined careers. Others developed a fresh appreciation for things which they took for granted such as clean drinking water, health care, education, good roads, and basic services such as electricity, and so on. The “African experience” changed “perspective on prejudice, justice, religion, and American culture,” wrote Brown. “You cannot completely control your own life—that in Sierra Leone or anywhere . . . God does a pretty good job when you leave it all in His hands,” added Gorgette.[55] For many participants, and other young idealists who went to change Sierra Leone, they became transformed. Sierra Leone turned them into thoughtful citizens of the global community, and as they returned they vowed to be more attentive to issues of social concern. Issues of human rights, freedom, justice, equality, and fairness transcend those boundaries. There were other gains.

In truth the chief beneficiary of immersion programs during the early years was the University of Dayton. The poor in Sierra Leone, India, Honduras, Mexico, Kenya, Guatemala, Colombia, Nicaragua, and all the other countries in which the University had programs are still there. Lines of correspondence established with former immersion participants discontinued shortly after most returned to the US, but the lessons they learned in the third word remained a pivotal part of their lives. The credit of such transformation went to the university. Following Sierra Leone, the immersion program moved to Cameroon.

Notes

1.

John F. Kennedy, “Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union,” January 11, 1962 in Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1963), p. 15.

2.

Larry E. Schweikart, ed. Voices of UD: University of Dayton, 1850–2000 (Dayton, OH: University of Dayton Press, 2000), pp. 3, 23.

3.

Characteristics of Marianist Universities: A Resource Paper, 2006, 1999. Chaminade University of Honolulu, St. Mary’s University, University of Dayton, p. 3, Documents provided by Philip Aaron (Hereafter referred to as DPA); The Mission Identity Task Force: Common themes in the Mission and Identity of the University of Dayton, July 2012, University of Dayton Archives, pp. 3–6.

4.

“Learn, Lead, Serve” The College, DPA.

5.

The Mission Identity Task Force: Common Themes in the Mission and Identity of the University of Dayton, July 2012, pp. 3–6.

6.

Report, Center for International Studies—Honors Program, Immersion Experience —Sierra Leone, May 1990; Report, Center for International Studies, Report on Immersion, February 1991, DPA.

7.

Report, Immersion Experience, May 1990, Appendix B. DPA; “Immersion,” no date; DPA.

8.

Report, Immersion Experience, May 1990; Report, Immersion Experience, February 1991; University of Dayton Campus Ministry, Report to the Marianist Foundation, funding for Overseas Service-Learning Immersions, Preliminary Program Assessment, FY 2000–2001, DPA.

9.

Report on Immersion, February 1991, pp. 3–5, DPA

10.

Lita Battels, Immersion Report, October 5, 1992; Brian M. Noyle, Campus Ministry Immersion Program, Summer 1995; Emily Pun Sin, Guateman Immersion Report, June 22, 2003; Deborah McCarty Smith, Brian Stevens ’94; “Helping Haitian Refugees Adjust,” UD. Quarterly; Brian Stevens, Haiti Today, April 2, 1993; Molly K. Achback, “Learn, Lead and Serve,” August 10, 1999; “Katie Burkhardt,” The College Winter 2002, DPA; Alias Franks, “Immersion Report,” no date; Katie Burkhardt, “Integrating Medicine in India: a description and critical analysis of the practice on Indian traditional medicine and description of Infectious Disease Case Studies found while observing Indian allopathic medicine,” no date; Deborah Hirt, “Guatemala Reflection 2003,” Andy Hickey, “My Capstone Experience,” no date; Jennifer A. Frank, “Costa Rica: A Small Part of the Big Picture, A Cultural, Spiritual, and Academic Experience,” September 30, 1999; Melissa Kahn, “Honduras,” August 17, 1999, DPA.

11.

Paul Ebert, “Immersion into India,” August 23, 2001; Mary Niebler, “My India Immersion at a Glance,” August 31, 2001; Andy Albers, “Report on Immersion Experience: India, June 26–July 27th,” no year, DPA.

12.

Mark Delisi, “Immersion Report: PCNA Trip to Bogota, Columbia July 20–August 19, 2001,” September 21, 1991; Lizanne Martin, “The Colombian Experience,” no date; Letitia Montavon, “Immersion Report,” August 20, 1986.

13.

Flyer News is the main student newspaper on the University of Dayton Campus. Dayton Daily News is the main daily newspaper in the city of Dayton. See for example, Molly Flynn, “UD Students experience culture during mission trip: Twenty

students went on trips all over the world,” Flyer News, September 1, 1996.

14.

Kevin W. Dean and Michael B. Jendzurski, “Using Post-Study abroad Experiences to Enhance International Study,” Honors in Practice, Vol. 9, (June 2013) p. 102

15.

[Immersion participant], “Immersion Report: 1991 PCA Program—Bogota, Colombia,” no date, DPA.

16.

Letters, Sandy Grady to Philip Aaron, June 24, 1991, January 16, 1992, April 6, 1992; May 24, 1992, April 26, 1993, December 20, 1992; Sandy Grady, “Thumb- Wrestling the Hand of God,” no date on article; Lisa Brown “Short take: Sandra Grady ’90,” University of Dayton Quarterly, no date; Alicia Winterhalter, “Graduate takes fond memories of UD with her to Kenya,” The University of Dayton Flyer News, February 5, 1991.

17.

E-mail correspondence, Nancy Bramlage to Raymond L. Fitz, December 2, 1997; Fritz to Bramlage, December 4, 1997; Report Philip Aaron, Campus Ministry Report to the Marianist Foundation, Funding for Immersion. Experience Assessment of Current Projects, March 26, 1999; Memo, Raymond L. Fitz to James F. Fitz, Marianist Foundation Grant: Evaluation and Request for FY 99–00, March 8, 1999; Memo, Raymond L. Fitz to Chris W. Conlon, Immersion Programs Sponsored by Campus Ministry, January 27, 1997; Memo, Raymond L. Fitz to Chris Conlon, Nancy Bramlage and Phil Aaron; DPA.

18.

Students’ participants of immersion also received grants from Leann Lead, and Serve, Cordell W. Hall International Fellows Fund, and various academic departments at the University of Dayton.

19.

David Keen, Conflict & Collusion in Sierra Leone (New York: Palgrave, 2005), pp. 1–4.

20.

Chris Coulter, Bush Wives and Girl Soldiers: Women’s Lives Through War and Peace in Sierra Leone (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press 2009), p. 51.

21.

J. Peter Pham, The Sierra Leonean Tragedy: History and Global Dimensions (New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 2006), p. XIX; John L. Hirsch, Sierra Leone: Diamonds and the Struggle for Democracy (Boulder, CO: Lynne Reiner Publishers, 2001), pp. 13–14; Marda Mustapha & Joseph J. Bangura, Sierra Leone Beyond the Lomé Peace Accord (New York: Palgrave Macmilken 2010), pp. 1–13.

22.

Pham, p. XVII Hirsch, p. 13.

23.

Coulter, p. 31; Pham, p. XVII.

24.

Coulter, p. 32; Pham, p. 29.

25.

Tony Hall, Changing the Face of Hunger: One Man’s Story of How Liberals, Conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, and People of Faith Are Joining Forces to Help the Hungry, the Poor, and the Oppressed (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2006), p. 6.

26.

Ibid, p. 7

27.

Ibid, pp. 6, 73.

28.

Author ’s interview with Brother Raymond Fitz on October 2, 2013, at St. Joseph

Hall, University of Dayton.

29.

Report University of Dayton Honors Program. Building a Bridge: Proposals for Enhancing the Relationship Between Dayton and Sierra Leone. Dayton, January 1990, pp. i-ii.

30.

Report, Mary (Harven) Georgette, Sierra Leone Experience, September 13, 1990, p. 3.

31.

Report, John George, “Sierra Leone Experience,” no date.

32.

Report, University of Dayton Honors Program, p. 2.

33.

Joseph Opala, The Gullah: Rice, Slavery, and the Sierra Leone—America (Freetown, 1976), pp. 1, 26–30.

34.

The author was a member of that SOCHE group in 1990.

35.

“Sierra Leone Well-connected,” no date, Documents provided by Mary Gorgette (Hereafter referred to as DMG).

36.

Ibid

37.

Ann Hudock. http://dai.com/who-we-are/our-team/ann-hudock (accessed January 21, 2014; Ann C. Hudock, NGOs and Civil Society (Malden, MA: Blackwell

Publishers Inc., 1999).

38.

Gorgette, John George, and Bernadette Martin, “Sierra Leone,” no date. DMG. The article uses interviews of the first group which did the Sierra Leone program as its main source; Report, Susan Brown, “The Faces of Sierra Leone,” July 20, 1990; J. Scott Stewart, “Sierra Leone Immersion Report,” September 12, 1990; Chikake Mese, “The Sierra Leone Experience,” no date; Herb Runnels, Immersion Report, September 1990; Nick Miller, “What I did during Summer Vacation,” no date; Interviews and transcripts conducted by Mary (Harven) Gorgette of the following: Wendell, Herb, John, Meg, Nick, Chik Immersion Report.

39.

Kimberly Sirl, July 17, 1990, DPA; Kathleen Carroll, “Learning through Volunteer Service,” DPA; Joan McManamon, “Reflections on my Experience in Sierra Leone,” no date, DPA; Kathleen Carroll, “Immersion Trip to Sierra Leone,” June 24–July, 1992,” DPA; Interviews conducted by Gorgette.

40.

Report, Kathleen Carroll, undated, DPA.

41.

Letter, John George to Phil Aaron, undated, DPA.

42.

Runnels, Immersion Report, September 30, 1990; Nick Miller, “What I Did During Summer Vacation,” no date; Joan McManamon, “Reflections on my Experience in Sierra Leone,” DPA.

43.

Ibid

44.

Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (New York: ReadaClassic, 2010).

45.

Runnels, Immersion Report, DPA.

46.

Gorgette, “Developments with a human face: Village background leads Sierra Leoneans to farm group that helps farmers,” no date, DMG; “ARD: Success without Foreign Experts,” African Farmer: March 1993, DPA.

47.

George & Gorgette, “Up Date,” March 31, 1992; DMG; Jenny Battaglini & Wendell Tucker, “Up Date” July 12, 1993; Carroll, “Learning through Volunteer Service,” no date, DPA.

48.

Gorgette & George, undated article; Interviews conducted by Gorgette, undated, DMG.

49.

Letter, Battaligni to Phil Aaron, undated, DPA.

50.

Gorgette & George, undated article; Interviews conducted by Gorgette, undated, DMG.

51.

Hudock, p. 61

52.

Letter, Susan Brown to Phil Aaron, June 14, 1994, DPA; Runnels, Report, September 1990, DPA; Letter, Susan Brown to Phil Aaron, March 16, 1995, DPA.

53.

Dion A. Ruff, African Immersion Report, undated; Runnel, Report, September 1990, DPA.

54.

Letter, Susan Brown to Phil Aaron, March 16, 1995, DPA.

55.

Brown, “The Faces of Sierra Leone,” p. 6; Gorgette, Sierra Leone Immersion Report, September 13, 1990, p. 4.

Chapter 3

Paul Biya’s Cameroon Overview, Debacles, and Attractions

In February 2008, the nation of Cameroon stood on the brink. During five harrowing days between February 25 and 29, life in Cameroonian cities was reminiscent of that of the early 1990s when “Les villes mortes” or “Ghost Town” was dominant. A nonviolent protest which began as a transportation workers strike in February quickly turned into an anti-Biya campaign. Streets in the cities of Douala, Kumba, Buea, Limbe, Yaoundé, and Bamenda became centers of violence, looting, police brutality, and destruction. On February 26, city administrators imposed a state of emergency. The following day, February 27, President Paul Biya broke his silence. In a nationwide televised address, he admonished Cameroonians to stop the mayhem, vowing to prosecute to the fullest those “demons” that had “manipulated” Cameroon’s youths. Labeling as “apprentice sorcerers,” those he claimed misled the youths; he promised swift action to restore the status quo. The actions of the wrongdoers were doomed to failure, he fumed, since Cameroon “cannot be built through destruction.” Although his now emboldened critics were quick to respond, Biya did not retreat. Indeed, the present crisis seemed to be one of those occasional popular uprisings that historically test the mettle of “strongmen” such as the Cameroonian leader. But this was much more. Peace, Biya warned, would be restored by any means necessary. And the casualties mounted. In city after city, security forces implemented Biya’s clampdown while Cameroonians in the Diaspora—connected to the homeland via the Internet-watched and waited for news from relatives and friends.[1] The US embassy in Yaoundé responded with travel advisory stating:

This Travel Warning is being issued to advise American citizens of the unstable security situation in Cameroon. On February 28, the Department of State authorized the departure from Cameroon of eligible family members of American employees of the U.S. Embassy throughout Cameroon. American citizens in Cameroon should exercise extreme caution and try to depart the country if their situation permits. American citizens outside of Cameroon should defer non-essential travel until the security situation stabilizes and critical services are restored. International flights into Douala and Yaoundé continue, but may be diverted or cancelled on short notice.[2]

For a brief period on February 28 it appeared as if Cameroon might slide into open revolution, but the next day the tide began to turn. Biya’s security forces prevailed

and the nation settled back to calculate its losses, and learn the lessons. While there have been protests in the past the one of February 2008 happened so quickly and Biya’s response was unprecedented. As calm was restored Cameroonians and observers alike struggled to understand the events which led to such violence and disruption. For a long time Cameroon enjoyed the reputation of a peaceful country. Even in the midst of much social decay that image was generally untarnished. The origins and sources of the events of February 2008 were deeply rooted in Cameroon’s postcolonial history, and highlighted many of the nation’s flashpoints.

Generally known as “Africa in miniature,” Cameroon with a size of approximately 183,000 square miles is slightly larger than the State of California. The nation mirrors many of Africa’s complexities in terms of climate, vegetation, people, geography, culture, and languages. With the shape of an elongated triangle, Cameroon shares boundaries to the south with Equatorial Guinea, and the People’s Republic of Congo. To the north it is bound by Chad and the Central African Republic and to the west by Nigeria. Sitting on the coast of West Africa, Cameroon’s most pronounced geographical feature is Mount Cameroon. Its elevation of 13,350 feet makes it the highest mountain in West Africa.

Cameroon has four distinctive regions in terms of geography: the southern coastal lowlands, the western highlands, the central and southern plateaus, and the Chad basin in the far north. Much of the country has two seasons: rainy and dry seasons. The climate varies from tropical in the south to semiarid in the north. Rainfall decreases from the coastal region inwards and is also dependent on altitude. The southern coastal lowlands are hot and humid with average temperature in the high seventies during the dry season. Rainfall is often very heavy especially during the rainy season as this region has some of the highest rainfalls in the world. Debundscha in the outskirts of Fako Division has the second highest recorded rainfall in the world. It has an average 1000 centimeters of rainfall annually.

Cameroon’s current population of 20 million people belongs to over 200 ethnic groups speaking over 240 languages. The people are descendants of pygmies, Bantu and semi-Bantu speaking people, Fulani, and Afro-Asiatic. The major ethnic groups include Dualas, Bakweries, Balongs, Bafaws, Bassas, Bulus, Ewondos, Bamilikes, Manums, Chambas, Tikaris, Kotokos, Matakans, Fulani, Nso, Bangwa and Kirdis and live in the ten administrative regions of Cameroon: which are Northwest, Southwest, Littoral, South, Center, East, North, West, Far North, and Adamawa. Each region is composed of divisions and subdivisions. Of those regions the Northwest and Southwest are predominantly English speaking while the rest are predominantly French. English is predominant in the former British colony while French is dominant in the former French colony. Pidgin English is spoken by most people in

the country. It is the lingua franca of the nation especially in urban areas. Most Cameroonians, therefore, speak at least three languages: traditional language, Pidgin English, and either English or French.[3]

The culture of the Cameroonian people is community oriented. The village is a community from which everyone traces their sense of belonging, direction, and purpose. Immersion participant Erin (Kaufman) Beaver had firsthand experience of community when she visited the Bali Subdivision in the Northwest region: “Community in Cameroon is strong. People do look out for one another and how very important that is to remember in my own life. I must show compassion for others and help extend my hand to help others feel part of that human community.”[4] It was the sense of community which facilitated the ease with which visitors became integrated into the community.

Generally, most people traced their roots to villages, and frequently returned there to undertake development projects. Village culture emphasized social responsibility. It was from there that people learned traditions, values, and role in society. The young were taught to respect elders, work hard, and play a constructive role in society. Traditions were taught through riddles, folktales, folk beliefs, and legends. Young people learned society morals and norms. Early in life, young people were taught what they need to accomplish in order to become adults. In local tradition the word “youth” was a fluid category in many Cameroonian languages. While words exist for child and adult, none was available for youth, an indication that it was neither an age nor biology based category.[5]

A sense of community was the center piece of tradition. While some have debated the origins of the phrase, “it takes a village to raise a child,” there is ample evidence showing that it refers to African cultural values. In her 1996 book It Takes a Village: And other Lessons Children Teach Us, Hillary Clinton brought attention to that proverb in the US. Even in the face of mounting criticisms she remained undeterred, emphasizing the sense of social responsibility which comes with being part of a community.[6] In Cameroon, family is at the center of the community. Extended as opposed to nuclei family is the norm. People are sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, or grandmothers, or grandfathers. In most local languages words exist for relative but not for cousin, aunt, or uncle. Cameroonians celebrate their sense of community through marriage. Unlike in western societies where marriage is a union of two individuals, in Cameroon marriage is a union of two families.[7]

Despite many of the positive things imbedded in the culture, they were aspects particularly disturbing about Cameroonian traditions. A culture of gender inequality was deeply rooted, and its legacy remains ever present. In many places women do