Clifton Johnson Age: 31 From: Glen Cove, New York Current Residence: Austin, TX I first met Clif through my friend Mallory Romero. We both went to Fordham University in the Bronx and stayed in touch years after graduating. That was … Continue reading
Mallory Luz Romero-Johnson Age: 31 From: Glen Cove, NY Current City: Austin, TX I met Mallory during our freshman year at Fordham University in the Bronx. We were two young women thrilled to finally be on our own, and eager … Continue reading
Alex Larrieux
Alex Larrieux
Age: 30
From: Randolph, MA
Current Residence: Maputo, MozambiqueAlex was the first person that I interviewed. I met him in high school and at some point in undergrad we lost touch. I saw on Facebook that he was living in Mozambique and I knew that I would need to reconnect with him to ask about his experience. At that point he was the only friend I had who was born in the US, and made the decision to move to an African country.
I remember setting up my first call with him. I was so excited about the possibilities and couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say. The conversation was brief due to a bad connection, but thank goodness for WhatsApp and email. I was able to throw ideas out to him day or night to get a friend’s honest opinion, which brought me to this interview series. (Thank you Alex for being so generous with your time)
Similar to the other interviewees, Alex didn’t set out to live in Africa. But his college years set the foundation of wanting to live abroad.
D314: Where did you go to college (undergrad and postgrad)?
AL: Northeastern University for undergrad and law school, Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid, Spain for graduate school.
D314: What did you go to school for originally and what did you end up studying?
AL: I knew towards the beginning of college that I wanted to study International Affairs and Spanish. I wound up adding Economics as a double major with International Affairs after a year or two into college.
D314: Was it always your goal to live in Africa? If so, how did you envision yourself on the continent? Was it a specific country or job? Even if it was a fantasy please share. If not, where did you think you would end up?
AL: From university and law school I was really interested in living and working abroad for at least a few years. It wasn’t necessarily my goal to move to the African continent, but the opportunity presented itself and I knew from the jump that it would be a once in a lifetime/life changing experience.
D314: How did you come to live in Africa, what was your journey?
AL: The first time I visited the continent was in Tanzania in August 2012 where I took a two week vacation. My friend told me to bring a suit because we’d be going to a “bridal sendoff party” while in Dar es Salaam. I was very fortunate to have brought the suit because I also wound up scheduling an impromptu job interview for a consulting firm.
During the interview I was asked if I’d be interested in working in Maputo, Mozambique, which is just south of Tanzania. At the time I don’t think I’d ever properly met anyone from Mozambique. The first few things that popped in my head about the country were that 1) one of the greatest footballers (soccer players) of all time, Eusébio, was from Mozambique; 2) I’ve seen pictures of amazing beaches there! 3) the country had a civil war up until 1992; 4)one of their founding fathers was Samora Machel.
After a lengthy process I moved to Maputo in July, 2013. It was my first time there, and I knew virtually no one.
D314: What are you doing in Africa exactly?
AL: Working for a professional services firm as a senior tax consultant.
D314: What is a typical week like for you? If there is no such thing as a typical week explain.
AL: My Monday through Friday routine is in some ways similar to most other people working office jobs around the globe. However, there are definitely noteworthy distinctions that make my experience uniquely Mozambican.
Living so close to work I usually walk; but on days when it’s just too hot or raining in the morning I’ll take a “txopela” (aka tuk-tuk, or motorized rickshaw). Even after living here for almost two years I still get the same shock of enthusiasm and sometimes disbelief that I’m living on the opposite side of the world from where I grew up.
Once I get to the lobby of my apartment building and step out onto the sidewalk I’m greeted by the sight of wild peacocks foraging for food, the sound of people chatting and greeting each other in Xangana, Ronga and Portuguese, and the aroma of fresh bread and “badjia” (deep fried bean cakes, Delicious!), being sold from small storefronts to people queuing for breakfast. Large acacia trees line the side of the road, providing shade for shoemakers, fruit and vegetable pushcart peddlers. “Dishili” “Bom dia, tas bem?” I say to the familiar faces seen each day on my way to work.
Around midday, I often go further downtown for lunch where local restaurants are serving, feijoada, peanut curry chicken, and seafood. A few days a month one of my favorite restaurants gets gazelle, which is seasoned and served with rice or xima/pap (corn meal). Like many people here in Maputo I put excessive amounts of piri-piri (Mozambican chili sauce) on all of my food.
Unless there is a scheduled music festival, road trip, or weekend beach getaway with friends, people here seem to just wait until the weekend starts to make plans. From my experience in Maputo, most things really seem to operate through word of mouth. You meet up with your friends and in a seemingly effortless manner find yourself in a social setting within a matter of minutes. During summertime (+/- December to March) you may find yourself ice skating (yes, ice skating) at the inflatable skating rink downtown, devouring a massive pizza and local beer with friends at the restaurant Mundos, watching the sunset on a friend’s varanda, and dancing until the sun comes up at the city’s centuries old fort, the vintage train station, or a rooftop party.
For a city of almost 2 million, many people surprisingly seem to know each other, and when strangers do interact for the first time they often cut jokes, laugh and carry on the same way only well acquainted people would do in the States. Getting to know people, making acquaintance and finding good friends in Maputo is practically as easy as breathing.
Weekend getaways can consist of driving about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the city to the animal reserve where one can see elephants, giraffes, buffalo, hippos, gazelles, zebras and more. At the coast of the reserve are deserted virgin beaches suitable for camping. At night it’s possible to find sea turtles come on shore to lay their eggs.
There are probably dozens of beaches accessible from Maputo for a weekend. There are a number of clubs and hotels in town where you can pay to use their pool as well. Given that my family originally hails from the Caribbean, words can’t describe how much I love the beach!
Road trips or short plane rides can be made to Johannesburg, Swaziland or further north into Mozambique.
D314: What are some of the opportunities you have noticed in your new country? It can be career, love, culture, etc.
AL: Career: There are a lot of consumer demands in Maputo that have not been met by the country’s booming economy. Many young Mozambicans I know are very entrepreneurial minded, with dozens of ideas for providing a service or consumer goods to a growing middle class. With enough determination and grit one can definitely launch a successful business venture.
Love: Mozambique has perhaps the most beautiful women of any country I’ve ever visited and/or lived in.
Culture:
There has been a lot of cultural exchange taking place in Mozambique for over a millenium; dating as early back as Arab, Swahili, Persian and Somali traders. There are a lot of cultural similarities between parts of the Caribbean/Latin America and Mozambique. One of my colleagues gave me a bunch of music off her mp3 player and I found dozens of zouk and kompa tracks! There is a great opportunity to engage in African diaspora cultural exchange throughout many aspects of Mozambican society.
D314: What do you hope to accomplish while you are in your new country? (This is a vague question so choose to answer it however you wish).
AL: I moved to Mozambique partially with the intention of gaining professional and technical experience in a developing country.
I consider it an accomplishment making real friendships across the planet and have done so while living here.
D314: What are some of the challenges you experience?
AL: Once I got settled into life here it was easy to become slightly introverted. I still have to challenge myself to try new activities, meet new people, learn new customs/cultures and truly engage my surroundings. I try to avoid sitting around, isolated in the comfort of my own apartment for too long. I didn’t move to Mozambique to be a hermit.
D314: Do you miss The States?
AL: Definitely miss my family and the friends I grew up with back in the States. Missing weddings, babies being born, and not seeing lifelong familiar faces can be frustrating. Skype and Whatsapp helps but it’s important to make the extra effort to stay in touch with close people who are far away.
There’s so much culture and so many experiences in Mozambique that the inaccessible things from the States are replaced with new local experiences. One important part of living abroad that I’ve learned is that it’s often best to embrace one’s surroundings and let them influence the character and personality.
To a certain extent I knew what I was getting myself into by moving here. Fortunately I wasn’t brought to Mozambique due to desperate circumstances, or against my will. Therefore, many things that I don’t have here that I would take for granted back home I just learn to deal with.
D314: What is the biggest thing you have learned?
AL: Living in Mozambique has emphasized the importance of accumulating and valuing memorable life experiences and lessons over gadgets and other material commodities. I grew up listening to my maternal grandfather tell stories for hours on end of his eventful life growing up in Barbados, and immigrating to NYC during the early to mid-20th century. Stories told with such detailed veracity and passion that, God willing, I’ll be telling them to my own grandkids later on in life.
I’m still learning the importance of blazing my own trail, building my own cache of epic tales, jokes and sob stories. For me, there is a certain level of sclerotic monotony to living in northeast suburban USA; and I’m aware that things don’t have to continue as such.
D314: What is the biggest thing you have lost?
AL: The ability to see family and close friends on a whim. Just need to convince people to come visit!
D314: Do you have any words of advice for your people who are pondering a move to Africa?
AL: A country like Mozambique is under the radar for the average US citizen. United States popular culture and media paints a dystopian picture of many countries in Africa. Mozambique is essentially unmentioned and non-existent for many people back home. There came a point where I had to discredit and ignore much of the misinformation about my new home and take a few steps into the unknown before being able figure things out for myself. People are often faced with these types of challenges; I feel most comfortable engaging them when they manifest as travelling opportunities J
As a black American, moving to southern Africa offers an unprecedented sense of liveliness, liberation and hope. As I was having breakfast a few months ago at the Maputo International Airport with one of my best friends before his flight, we came to the conclusion that living in a country like Mozambique allows a black American to live life free from the racial politics, mental and physical oppression that he or she often endures back home. Almost like I’m finally getting the opportunity to catch up on many of life’s little luxuries that I wasn’t afforded as a person of color for a whole host of reasons.
What is it like to live in modern day Africa? This thought has replayed itself in my mind since I was a teenager. The majority of my family lives there today and probably will for generations to come. The last time I visited Ghana I was 17 years old and wrapping up my junior year of high school. I remember comparing Ghana to the US, noticing what I considered at that time major differences— no movie theaters, no huge malls, internet cafes versus wireless at home, and the Chinese restaurants were set up as fine dining versus the fast food versions in many ghettos across America. I was excited to discover Frankie’s, a cool touristy hotel that served pizza and ice cream. As I sit here and reflect, I realize how stupid it was. I should have spent more time reveling in the authentic African food my family prepared. Even though my mother made it at home, there is something special about having palm oil and African spices in Ghana than the US.
I think I really began to appreciate everything when my cousin Nii Amoo took me to what he referred to as a “jazz party.” I said “Okay, why not.” He is the only cousin I have that is exactly my age and our mothers are very close, so naturally we spent time together. His father drove us to the party in his luxury car, I cannot remember whether it was a BMW, Mercedes-Benz, or Jaguar. My cousin informs me that the party is at an American school. For those of you who are unfamiliar, in many countries there are schools set up for the children of American diplomats and the employees of American companies. These schools are not exclusive to U.S. citizens, rather it allows the children to receive the same education abroad that they would back home.
So we enter and I hear current hip-hop music, people are dancing, laughing, and enjoying refreshments. I turn to my cousin with a surprised look on my face because there is no jazz music and it’s a regular high school dance. One of the best that I had been to at that point, might I add. I never understood why they called it a “jazz party” though. But at that moment I began to think about what my life would have been if my parents decided to stay in Ghana. Besides missing out on a few conveniences, my life would have been pretty good. All around me I was surrounded by young, beautiful, intelligent people who were all shades of brown. Back home I was one of four black students in my class. Apart from attending the Annual Students of Color Conference, I was never surrounded by so many people who looked like me that shared an ancestral history.
During this two-week trip I helped my Auntie Rebecca at her bread factory, attended a cousin’s wedding that my Auntie Rebecca catered, watched telenovelas with my maternal grandmother, listened as my mom and Auntie Mercy gossiped in their native Ga until the wee hours of the morning, and so much more. If I were there now would I be working, happily married, a stay at home mom, or running in a rat race like I do in NY? It’s been fourteen years since my last visit but the question still remains, but this time I wanted to actually answer that question and not just for myself; but for others who are curious just like me. What is it like to live in modern day Africa? The news coverage is predominantly focused on Boko Haram, Ebola, war, extreme poverty, fighting between the Christians and Muslims in Central African Republic, homophobia in Uganda, and other negative stories until infinity. Just to be clear, every single one of the issues I mentioned is occurring, but that is not the only experience to be had in Africa. Every day men and women go to work, children go to school, families discuss their day around the dinner table, Africans meet up at bars to watch soccer matches, teens try to sneak into nightclubs— you know, all the things we do here in the States.
Even in 2015 I find that people have this ignorant perception of Africa. I want to change that. I want people to feel love, admiration, and to be curious about Africa. I want people to see it for themselves and draw their own conclusion instead of relying solely on what they see on the news. So I reached out to a friend and friends of friends, to get an honest answer on what it is like for them living in Africa. Hopefully after reading this you will be better informed and be curious enough to visit and/or invest in the continent.
I asked all three interviewees to answer the same questions below.
1. What is your name, age, and hometown?
2. Where are you living now?
3. Where did you go to college (undergrad and postgrad)?
4. What did you go to school for originally and what did you end up studying?
5. Was it always your goal to live in Africa? If so, how did you envision yourself on the continent? Was it a specific country or job? Even if it was a fantasy please share. If not, where did you think you would end up?
6. How did you come to live in Africa, what was your journey?
7. What are you doing in Africa exactly?
8. What is a typical week like for you? If there is no such thing as a typical week explain.
9. What are some of the opportunities you have noticed in your new country? It can be career, love, culture, etc.
10. What do you hope to accomplish while you are in your new country? (This is a vague question so choose to answer it however you wish).
11. What are some of the challenges you experience?
12. Do you miss The States?
13. What is the biggest thing you have learned?
14. What is the biggest thing you have lost?
15. Do you have any words of advice for your people who are pondering a move to Africa?
Over the next few days you will have an opportunity to see what they have to say. If you would like to take part in the series or know of anyone who I should interview, contact me.
Hello Everyone!
I haven’t written a post in years literally. But I am happy to say that I have completed a small profile series on what it’s like to live in modern day Africa. I am so thankful to my friends who let me interview them and who helped me edit this amazing piece.
Back in June I attended the Chanel Little Black Jacket exhibit that was making its way around the globe. When it came to New York I just knew that I would have to check it out for myself. I’m glad that I trekked … Continue reading
When I have time I like to visit some of the museums in the city. My favorites include The Studio Museum, the MET, Brooklyn Museum, and MoMA. A few weeks ago my girlfriends and I decided to meet up for brunch since most of us were free. We always typically meet up in the city when there is a large group because we are spread out hailing from the Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn, the Upper East Side, and the one sole person living in Long Island. After changing the location several times we settled on going to Bier in Harlem. A restaurant that I absolutely love, their coffee is amazing and their hamburger with fries is divine. I’m pretty sure they use a montreal-esque steak seasoning on the burgers and they serve the fries with truffles and shaved parmesan. Yum!
Jacolby Satterwhite, photo by Scott Judd
Since we were going to dine in Harlem I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to visit the Studio Museum with one of my friends. During the guided tour of the exhibit Fore, we saw the work of artist Jacolby Satterwhite. It’s not every day that you see an exhibit that utilizes video, animation, sketches, and live performance. Upon seeing it I knew that there was something unique and special about this artist. I may not understand his pieces entirely, but I was still intrigued by what he put together. For Satterwhite’s project Reifying Desire he dances while wearing a silver latex catsuit that is outfitted with a camera in his headdress. He incorporates drawings of everyday objects from his mother who battles schizophrenia, and creates a 3-D animation video that “explore themes of memory, desire, ritual, and heroism”. (jacolby.com) I did enjoy his earlier work Model It where he vogues in front of luxury retail shops on Fifth Avenue in glitzy attire to what I believe is his mother’s music. Take a look at that video on his website http://jacolby.com/home.html. I would be interested to see what you guys think.
The first and second time is a charm for fashion designer Jason Wu. First Lady Michelle Obama wore one of the designer’s custom creations for the 57th Inauguration. The sleeveless vibrant red gown has velvet detailing throughout giving the garment a shimmering effect. From the photos it looks as if the fabric flows so effortlessly with each step or dance the First Lady takes with our president. I can’t wait to see this in person someday.
During today’s ceremonial swearing-in Beyoncé beautifully sang the National Anthem in a stunning Christian Dior coat, Emilio Pucci gown, Lorraine Schwartz emerald-green jewels, and a bold orange manicure which I’m sure will start a new trend. Jay-Z made sure to match his leading lady’s fabulousness in a Tom Ford suit.
Many of us were waiting in anticipation to find out what First Lady Michelle Obama would wear today during the inauguration. Once again FLOTUS delivered, this time wearing a creation by American designer Thom Browne. Previously Thom designed for Club … Continue reading
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