Tesfaye an Ethiopian coffee grower takes out a micro-loan to finance his coffee growing enterprise. Because the Ethiopian government has a loan to pay back to the World Bank, it has persuaded coffee growers to abandon subsistence farming but increase the country’s coffee exports. The government has hopes that the global market prices will work in their favor and the return on the investment (ROI) will help to pay back the loan, invest in infrastructure and ameliorate the lives of Ethiopian coffee growers. However, demand for coffee decreases which leads to a fall in prices. Compared to coffee growers from western countries who are subsidized by their governments, Tesfaye is not subsidized by his government and as a result is worse off than he was when he decided to grow coffee full time. Tesfaye now owes the co-operative bank money. The little land that he was using to grow coffee its soil is completely exhausted and can barely grow food for his family. His family is therefore facing hunger and malnutrition; his bare land is now facing soil erosion leaving the land arid and the weather dry and hot. Stuck in limbo, Tesfaye opts to brave the long treacherous trip through the Sahara into Libya in hopes to reach Europe for a better life. He rationalizes that at least he can get a job in Europe and pay off his debts back home and with the extra remittance perhaps he can make his family lives better.

For thousands of African migrants a hope for a better and stable life outweighs the menace and uncertainty at sea. Many trek from Western and Eastern African countries through the Sahara Desert to Morocco or Libya with the help of smugglers and into the treacherous sea where their fate remains in the hands of God. Many might and have perplexingly asked why do they risk their lives? Why leave your home only to die at sea?

Majority of African migrants are running away from persecution both religious and ethnic. Other reasons include economic hardship caused due to inflation, unemployment or global policies like in the case of Tesfaye denying the poor a chance at living a productive life. Economic hardship can also lead to brain drain whereby the highly educated become unemployed or underemployed. Increase in desertification and overpopulation that puts a strain on agricultural land especially along the Sahel region can lead to migration of people. Furthermore, recent emergence of conflict in areas such as DRC, Mali, some parts of Nigeria, and Libya are also some of the many reasons that leads to migration.

Therefore, what can be done to cub migration and put a stop to the thousands of able bodied Tesfayes lost at sea? Should we arrest the traffickers? Where there is a growing demand supply will also increase exponentially. Since there is an ever increase of people willing to risk their lives for a better life, human traffickers will also be in operation.

  Death penalty? Does that solve the root cause of the problem? I never understand the justification of a death penalty. I guess when it comes to life I become a complete idealist instead of a relativist. Again will the death penalty solve the root cause of the problem? Or will it just do away with the negative gene in the population but giving rise to another Boston bomber or even worse?

I do not condone their actions. It was pathetic needless to say lives were lost and lives were changed forever. Have we stopped to ask ourselves what led them to this? As an immigrant I get it. You come or your parents bring you to a country in which all you want to do is thrive but the immigration laws set in place prevents you from achieving a goal. But hey you can argue but you are resilient. We forget not everybody was built the same way. One of the root causes is immigrant exclusion. You get to a point where you feel you are but not of.  The older brother never felt a part of. He tried to go pro in boxing so he can become an American citizen but he got prevented because he was not an American citizen. Who knows how many things he tried but kept on hitting rock and a hard place? It is the most frustrating and hopeless feeling to keep trying but only to get told “you can’t do it because you are not a citizen; sorry” Can we instead talk about fixing our immigration laws to match the ever growing globalization and mobility of living things?

Second have we stopped to think maybe it is culture and family dynamics? A cultural dynamic that finds it hard to co-exist in a multicultural realm. American society is and was created to sell a nuance of the melting pot utopia whereby you leave what you know behind and adopt a new persona. Very many immigrants struggle with this and therefore resulting in two identities; outside the house American while inside the house your respective culture. Holding on to your culture is not bad but allowing your culture to be detrimental to your own personal development then that poses a problem. It can pose a problem because when some cultural values no longer work but the family is doing everything it can to hold on to these values resulting in stress in the family.

I never got to meet my paternal great great-grandmother physically but I have gotten the chance to meet her through the stories that have been passed on about her from generation to generation. Africans have a unique way of story-telling that ensures that key elements of a family’s or clan’s history are cemented onto the temporal lobe of the brain. In the quietness and darkness of village life after a long day when the family would sit down sipping on chai (tea) or kahawa (coffee); my grandmother would narrate stories of my great great-grandmother with so much familiarity. My grandmother was married into the family but her level of knowledge of the family’s proud history made me understand the importance of my great great-grandmother.

Anyango was my great great-grandmother’s name and later became the family name.  As a result of cultural exchange and adoption of Islam and Christianity majority of African societies that were previously matriarchal gradually became patriarchal. Therefore, it was and still is quite out of the ordinary for a clan or family to have the name of a woman as its form of identity. As legend has it, Anyango’s husband died when she was still a young woman with children. Because Luo societies shunned single parenthood, it was expected that Anyango would get inherited together with her children and everything she had built with her deceased husband by the male next of kin. The male next of kin then acts as her husband and continues to bare children for the deceased  and the children bore are not considered children of the kin but of the deceased. Anyango adamantly refused to be inherited because she understood that not only was the practice inhumane but also if she got inherited all the wealth she had built with her husband will get lost. She foresaw that inheritance meant that her great grandchildren will have nothing to call their own. The backlash wasn’t bread and butter but the public humiliation, physical abuse and society ostracization from male and female alike was beyond she could take.

Cultural practices and taboos are set in place for a reason and most cases for a good reason however they become a vice when it is used to oppress and also employ irrational actions to instill the practices. Cultural practices and beliefs have been used as tools of oppression towards women. In some communities women cannot go to school but is instead married off to the oldest male member of the community. Women in some communities are not allowed to date or marry outside their culture and if they do they automatically bring dishonor to their families and community. Furthermore in some communities, women have to undergo circumcision in order to preserve their purity until marriage.

My call is not merely for society to change its stance towards women but for women to stand up for other women. Anyango when she opted out of being inherited, women called her crazy and even took part in physically abusing her. As women we are enamored for being visionaries; for seeing beyond what the rest of the society might still be short-sighted on. It was because of Anyango’s bravery that the Anyango’s family no longer practice wife inheritance. It is because of Anyango I was able to be put through good schools and get the best education my parents saw fit for me. It is because of Anyango that when my cousin was sent home for lacking school fees that my grandfather wasn’t limited by gender but sold one of his cows to ensure my cousin graduated from high school. As women when we identify the Anyangos among us we need to nurture and support them instead of taking part in ostracizing them. What is deemed acceptable in your society today might be deemed illogical in the next 10 years or so. Rosa Parks or Malala Yousafzai were going against long held beliefs that were considered legal or the norm but because of their bravery girls can get educated and segregation was abolished.

#BlackLivesMatter trended on social media a couple of months ago. #BlackLivesMatter was associated with the loss of lives of Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Renisha McBride, and the many other lives we might never know about because media didn’t shine a light on the story.  #BlackLivesMatter was likewise associated with the failure of American Justice System towards black people. #BlackLivesMatter opened up discussion on the topic of race, white privilege, police brutality, black and white stereotypes but it also gave a platform to unapologetically white supremacist views.

The central view that creates a division and a justification of killing of unarmed black people in the hands of white officers is that black people kill each other every day and seem indifferent and unbothered by the ever present crime rates in their communities.  One thing that people who hold these kind of views fail to understand is the systemic racism that has been set in place since the abolition of slavery to keep black people at or below poverty level. We see lack of better funding in schools that are predominantly black and Hispanic. For instance, Newtown High School in Newtown, CT has fully equipped laboratories, lunch programs, and a well-defined gym program. When you compare Danbury High School which is in the same county as Newtown; the disparity in its quality of education it is quite obvious. Access to job opportunities is likewise mired by institutionalized racism. A recruiter going through a pile of resumes is more likely to find a John Smith marked white as his race on the demographic section favorable for hire than a Melissa Williams marked black. Unbeknownst to the recruiter John Smith could be a serial hard-drugs peddler while Melissa Williams was raised in a catholic family and taught the values of hard work and respect.

Is it true that black people are indifferent to the plague of violence in their communities? To hold on to such myths not only is it an insult to the black community but also an ignorance to current socio-economic trends in this country. The Obama Administration launched my Brother’s Keeper initiative that seeks to educate and give black boys an alternative to a life characterized by violence. Chicagoland a documentary that was aired on CNN that focused on crime rate in the heart of Chicago. A lot of community driven, family focus and involvement initiatives have been adopted to tackle issue of violence in Chicago. As a result, a life in Chicago is saved and a future is secured because there are positive role models. Positive results isn’t only felt in Chicago but nationwide according to the FBI report black on black crime plummeted by 50% while white on white crime was at 86% by the end of 2014. The Harambee Center in Danbury a social center has opened doors and set in place an after school program that serves both under-served and privileged youths in and around Danbury as an alternative to running the streets. Therefore, we see a nurturing of the youth’s talents and a chance to stay out of trouble.