Mbiye Kasonga Interview, History 150 Spring 2016, Conducted by Haley Brandt, Life as an African Immigrant, March 23, 2016.

a. This interview was conducted over the phone. I did not have to edit it too much, however I did leave out fillers, occasional redundant statements, stutters, and things of that nature. I used Google Voice in order to record my phone call, which I set up online through my Google account and connected to my phone. I set aside a quiet time in my dorm room to conduct the interview with no interruptions. Mbiye and I scheduled a time the week prior for us to speak, and I prepared by polishing my questions and reading up on the Democratic Republic of Congo.

b. Mbiye was born in Africa and came to the United States at a very young age. Speaking absolutely no English, she was forced to learn how to adjust to a brand new culture. She learned English and attended school, working harder than most her age. She excelled in academics and extracurriculars, and is now attending the College of William and Mary as a first year.

c. The Democratic Republic of Congo was colonized by Belgium in 1908 and experienced a history of political instability and conflict. In 2002 they aimed to “establish a government of national unity” (World Factbook.) However, in recent decades they have experienced an array of conflicts and high poverty rate. Many people emigrate from the DRC in search of better living conditions.

 

HB: So, first of all, which part of Africa did you come here from?

 

Mbiye: The Democratic Republic of Congo.

 

HB: Describe your early years there, what a day in the life of you was like.

 

Mbiye: It was… pretty fun, from what I remember. I was, like, a really little kid and my whole family—well not all of them, but a chunk of my family—my cousins and I would play together a lot. I remember being outside a lot… there wasn’t a lot of indoor entertainment, I guess. We didn’t have a TV and stuff, but that just wasn’t what we were interested in. We played outside all the time, often barefoot, to the point where I would always get, like, this is really gross, but worms in my feet, because I never wanted to wear shoes. And school was a big deal because there’s no public education, so my parents had to pay for school. [Because of this] we all really liked going to school. Yeah, I don’t know, it was just really happy. I enjoyed it a lot.

 

HB: What factors contributed to you leaving, and what brought you to the U.S. in particular?

 

Mbiye: So, essentially what happened was, when I was three my biological mother passed away and when I was four my biological father passed away, and I was adopted by an uncle of mine who lived in the U.S…. and the reason he came to the U.S. specifically was for his job in Southeastern Virginia.

 

HB: Was it a shock being in such a different place at such a young age?

 

Mbiye: Oh yeah, totally. It was definitely a culture shock in many ways. I think American society is just very different from African culture. There’s less of an emphasis, I think, on really strong familial structures, which was interesting… because growing up… both of my parents worked, but [they] were around a lot more. Once we moved to America and I was adopted by my aunt and uncle they worked all the time. My [uncle] would come home late, and even my [aunt] was working a lot so that was a big shock. [Throughout the interview, she addresses her aunt and uncle as her “parents.” However, for the sake of the clarity of this interview, I have changed this to say “aunt” and “uncle.”] …Other things, like the way we dressed [in Africa] a lot of times was very different from here. A big thing was school. Like I said earlier, public education just isn’t a thing in the Democratic Republic of Congo, so your parents have to pay for school; it becomes a lot more of a luxury. And here, coming to school and hearing people say things like, “Man, I wish I wasn’t here right now,” or like, “School sucks,” was a big culture shock. It isn’t… it isn’t regarded as highly here.

 

HB: What about learning English? Was that really difficult?

 

Mbiye: It was. Learning English was really hard. It would’ve been harder if my [aunt and uncle] hadn’t immersed me so fully in American society. I remember the very first night that we got here, my [aunt] turned on the TV and [said], “This is how you’re going to learn English,” because a lot of the English language is, you know, colloquialism you wouldn’t pick up in a grammar class. And so doing things like watching TV… I used to have to read books in English and write book reports for my [aunt and uncle] … they worked really hard to make sure that I had really solid reading comprehension, which I think benefitted me really greatly all throughout even middle school and high school. But yeah, it is really hard to learn because there aren’t very many set rules in English… so that makes it really difficult to get any sort of straightforward understanding of the language.

 

HB: Going off of that, how long would you say it took for you to adjust, and what challenges did you face while you were trying to adjust?

 

Mbiye: I would say the language barrier was the biggest challenge, for sure. I think it took me at least a solid three years before I felt like I was really comfortable with American culture.

 

HB: Describe the process you had to go through to become a citizen.

 

Mbiye: So, the process was a lot easier for me than it would’ve been had my [aunt and uncle] not been citizens already. I think that what happened is, my [uncle] had to file for us. The application—just the application—…cost about six hundred and ninety-five dollars.

 

HB: No way!

 

Mbiye: Yeah… so you have to pay that amount, you have to print out the application… [which is] extensive, I would say twelve to thirteen pages. Even for me, as someone who had been in the states for a while and had a parent who was already a citizen, which is really the easiest type of application you can do, it was still about twelve to thirteen pages. So it was a really long application. You have to pay a lot of money for it. And then, we had to wait about four to five months before we heard anything back… and you have to pay the money whether or not they say yes… if something were to be wrong on your application… that would just be the end of it. But luckily my [uncle] was really experienced and obviously we spoke and understood English pretty well, so we were able to complete the application. Thankfully, my parents had that kind of money to pay for both my sister and I. And then after we got the confirmation that we were U.S. citizens, there was a swearing-in ceremony where we went and there was a whole bunch of immigrants and they had us kind of swear our allegiance to the United States of America and renounce all of our allegiances to any other affiliation or governments that we had been a part of.

 

HB: Have you ever found it difficult to remember your roots among American culture and the push of that?

 

Mbiye: Yeah, I think American culture and Western culture in general tend to permeate everywhere in the world, no matter where you are… and so being here, the main thing is I’ve definitely lost the tribal languages that I once spoke as a child, and I can only really remember my French… so that’s the hardest thing for me to keep as a part of my culture…… [but] I have been lucky to have a family that has kind of kept me grounded in who we are and what we are. As a kid, my [aunt and uncle] always [said], “Remember, you’re African.” My [uncle] really made sure that was always a focus. But I would say now, living on my own, in college especially, I find myself wanting to reach back to those roots even more, and it’s a little bit harder being detached from that, I guess. But yeah, I do find myself kind of losing certain things and I do think that if I were to go back to the Democratic Republic of Congo right now I would not be able to assimilate very quickly because I am so used to Western culture.

 

HB: Your roommate also comes from similar circumstances as you, right?

 

Mbiye: Yeah! She was born in Rwanda and she moved here in elementary school just like I did.

 

HB: So has that kind of helped you this year, meeting her and everything?

 

Mbiye: I would say so. The thing about my roommate though, is she is “African-White” I guess. (she laughs.) You know, she doesn’t connect to her African roots as much. But it has helped me… because I think what happens is, when you’re torn out of the place [of your] culture and planted into a completely different, new culture, but you retain that familial culture… you kind of develop almost a third identity. So you’re not necessarily fully African, you’re not necessarily fully American. And I guess the word would be “African American,” but that has a completely different connotation in America. But there’s, like, a third identity or this third culture that you kind of adopt, and [my roommate] and I have that similar experience… Having a roommate from similar backgrounds has helped me, I guess, have someone to relate to in that sense.

 

HB: Going off of that, describe how you feel today as a legitimate African-American citizen… how it has impacted you as a person.

 

Mbiye: I’d like to think that I have picked up the best parts of each culture. I feel like I have the familial ties and loyalty that is stressed in the African culture, but at the same time, the independence and sense of agency that is stressed in American culture. I think that my background has really empowered me to be even stronger than I think [I would have been] if I had stayed in Africa or if I had just been born in America. It allows me to have a different perspective; I think it has made me more open minded.

 

d. Overall, the interview went very well. She was very well spoken and open to sharing her story. Something I would do differently would be to better plan how to respond to her statements and transition into the next question more naturally or smoothly. There were a couple times I strayed from script, but I believe it helped the development of the conversation in a positive way.