Chapter 5: Africans in America: Sudanese Refugees in America: Navigating America in the Twentieth Century

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来自 Rice University 的课程

America Through Foreign Eyes

94 个评分

Rice University

America Through Foreign Eyes

94 个评分

The United States has always been a source of fascination — both attraction and repulsion — for the people of France, Mexico, China, and African countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, and Sudan. "America Through Foreign Eyes" is a rich, interdisciplinary, international course that features Rice University faculty from a variety of disciplines and area studies. Focused on perceptions of America abroad, the course is a cross between World Cultures and American Studies. The course features four modules, each covering the perceptions and interactions of particular regions with America, Americans and Americanization.

从本节课中

America through African Eyes

The United States has always been a source of fascination for Africans. African observers and travelers are rarely indifferent to American culture and people. This module, “America Through African Eyes,” examines historical and contemporary perceptions of America, Americans, and Americanization through the lens of African writers, politicians, intellectuals, refugees, and local citizens. Taught by Dr. Jeffrey Fleisher, a professor of Archeology, this module will cover the four themes of the course: Democracy and Modernity; Globalization and Capitalism; Racism and Immigration; and Intellectual and Cultural Life.

Chapter 1: Introduction: America Through African Eyes6:38

Chapter 2: Africans Appropriating Americans: Elvis and the Chewa of Malawi6:52

Chapter 3: Africans Appropriating Americans: Tupac Shakur in Sierra Leone6:58

Chapter 4: Africans in America: America through Enslaved Peoples' Eyes7:52

Chapter 5: Africans in America: Sudanese Refugees in America: Navigating America in the Twentieth Century7:16

Chapter 6: Africans in America: Africans and Race in America8:34

Chapter 7: African-Americans and Africans in Ghana: Kwame Nkrumah, American Civil Rights, and Ghanaian Independence7:39

Chapter 8: African-Americans and Africans in Ghana: Slave Tourism: How West Africans see African-American Tourists6:35

与讲师见面

Dr. Anne S. Chao
Lecturer
Rice University
Dr. Julie Fette
Associate Professor
Rice University
Dr. Jeffrey Fleisher
Associate Professor
Rice University
Dr. Moramay López-Alonso
Associate Professor
Rice University

In the last chapter, we examined slave narratives to think about how enslaved

Africans viewed their capture and entry into America.

And in the next chapter, we'll look at stories of Nigerian immigrants and

the racial challenges they face in America.

But in this chapter, I want to discuss a group of immigrants from southern Sudan,

who came to the United States as refugees in the 1990s and 2000s.

For these immigrants the move to America was a remarkable transformation.

It provided relief from violence and

displacement in their own country, where they often lived in refugee camps.

Because of this, American offered the possibility of freedom, mobility, and

a start of a new life.

But the transition to living in the United States was also challenging in that it

represented a dramatic break from the way of life that Sudanese immigrants were used

to, and required significant changes in how they lived their lives.

The people who we'll be talking about today were refugees

from what today is the country of South Sudan.

South Sudan is the newest country in the world,

gaining independence from Sudan in 2011.

The independence of South Sudan was gained through two extremely long,

and brutal civil wars, that were fought between groups in the northern and

southern parts of the original Sudan.

The second Sudanese Civil War was fought for more than 20 years, from 1983 to 2005.

During this war, more than two million people died from fighting, but

also from famine and disease that resulted from the war.

In south Sudan, more than four million people were displaced, and

many ended up in refugee camps in other African countries, including Chad,

Ethiopia and Kenya.

Beginning in the early 1990s,

the United States began to resettle small numbers of Sudanese refugees.

These numbers increased after 2001,

when the United States agreed to resettle more then 3,000 young Sudanese men.

These refugees are often called the Lost Boys of Sudan, a group of 20,000 boys,

who were displaced or orphaned during the war.

The examples and stories that I'll be talking about today,

were documented by the anthropologist John Holtzman, who interviewed a group of

refugees from the Nuer ethnic group that had been resettled in Minnesota.

The primary challenge most Sudanese refugees face when they arrive in

the United States, is that they have little education and very few job skills.

Therefore, they struggle to earn enough to live in the United States.

Because our course is about America through foreign eyes, I want to try and

help you imagine what America looked like

to these Sudanese refugees when they first arrived.

Most of the refugees came from two ethnic groups, the Dinka and the Nuer.

Both of these groups are what anthropologists call agro-pasturelists,

people who rely on large herds of cattle,

as well as small scale subsistence crops such as, millet and other grains.

They mostly live in very rural settings where their families, communities, and

daily cycles involve tending cattle and crops.

The transition of Nuer refugees to the United States

was not simply one of dislocation to a new place with new people and

languages, but an entirely new way of living life.

Although there are many topics I could discuss,

I want to focus briefly on three areas that the resettled Nuer found strange or

difficult in Minnesota, food, money and time.

The shift from their diets in Sudan to that of the United States was challenging.

The Nuer in Minnesota continued to make some local foods like Injera,

a spongy bread eaten with meat and vegetable stews.

However, they also ate American foods like pizza and other easily prepared meals.

Since these immigrants were mostly agro-pastrolists, beef and

milk were significant parts of their diet in Sudan.

But in the United States,

they didn't like the milk in stores as they found the processed milk unappealing.

And although there was plenty of beef in the shops, it is often confusing for

new immigrants to never see live animals.

In a recent story on national public radio, one Sudanese immigrant said,

going to the store, you see these good meats around, but there's no cow.

Where does it come from?

Is it actually really beef?

He laughs.

And where is that cow?

We're been here in town for almost a month and we don't see cows.

The issue of money was often a great challenge for

newly arrived, Nuer refugees.

They came from a place where there was little need or

use of money, where wealth was bound up and cows and other animals.

This shift to a cash economy that involves working jobs for

money is something that many refugees find difficult.

It's not simply the change in how they generate wealth, but

rather that in America there is a constant need for money.

A situation that Holtzman calls vexing for the immigrants.

One man that Holtzman interviewed told him how excited he was when he received

$250 from a resettlement agency when he first arrived in the United States.

This seemed like an enormous sum of money based on his perspective from Sudan,

but he quickly realized

how little this amount of money would get him in the United States.

This is actually a conversation that I have had many times with Tanzanian friends

who live in rural areas and work with me on my own research.

They often ask about hourly wages or yearly salaries of Americans, and

are shocked at what seem to be large sums of money that people make each day.

However, when I explain to them about the costs of daily life in America, housing,

food, transportation, clothing,

they quickly realize how these seemingly large salaries may not go very far.

The issue of time was also challenging for Nuer immigrants.

As agro-pastoralists in Sudan their time was structured in relative flexible ways,

as they managed their herds, farmed the land and

met with other members of the village and community.

The Nuer were often surprised at the rigidity of time in the United States,

where work is governed by the daily clock and fits into eight or nine hour shifts.

This is completely opposite their Sudanese lifestyles,

where their daily schedule is governed by the work at hand.

Some days are busy and eventful, and others not.

Thus, while the Nuer talk about their immigration to America in positive ways,

the transition can be disorienting.

Life in America represents a dramatic break from life in Southern Sudan.

With it's processed foods, reliance on money, and rigid scheduling,

the transition to America for these immigrants is challenging.

And yet, Sudanese immigrants have prospered and

developed cohesive communities in many cities in the United States.

They've gotten jobs and raised families and sent children to college.

And now that South Sudan is an independent country, many are attempting

to return to their homelands to find lost families and begin a new life there.

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