It’s fascinating how we could be dislocated from one territory to another, it shows how the world could be a better place without borders and walls, but yet still, it comes back to our own way of life (human nature). We could be very territorial and evasive as well, however, when opportunity calls for dinner, you better run there while the front doors are still wide open and the turf is without borders. I wish we all as exchange students, knew how cultural exchange could be an intellectual nourishment, a privilege and a great pleasure to go beyond our world and feel the experience of life lessons and the value of the education we are acquiring. In this article I can’t wait to share with you my personal experiences from this exchange program. About my trajectory, my stay, adaptation, cultural experiences and exchange, as well as the knowledge I have acquired and shared along my years of stay in the country.

It’s such a pleasure to historically be a student of one of the biggest federal institutions in South America and Brazil. Today, I even find myself writing to grace the 60th anniversary of our high esteemed university. This was all possible through the Ministries of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty), the embassy who broke down the educational walls and made it without borders, so that we could exchange knowledge and culture through the exchange program called PEC-G. It is soul enriching and interesting to be in a new territory, adapt to the society, learn their language, culture etc. They say learning a new language it’s like growing wings. It takes you soaring on greater heights.

Speaking of language reminds me of the first time I had contact with Brazil and all I knew were only three words that had no connection to each other and were badly pronounced, thus bom dia, garoto and rapariga. Along my days I learnt the use of the last word (rapariga) could be considered offensive in some regions in Brazil and was even colloquial. Coming from an english speaking country, it was a big challenge learning to speak and pronounce words without an accent. Some Portuguese words still weighs my tongue down even today that I speak fluently. However, it is nothing compared to the weight of knowledge I have acquired through education. Could anyone believe that I came from the roots of great and diverse culture (african culture, black culture) to yet find a missing piece of my culture in Brazil. It’s like finding that little piece of a missing puzzle.

Who Invented What?

So here comes my architecture history professor, very old and kind, one of my favorite professors in my faculty. He came teaching about how cities were built in ancient times and civilization along the timelines, teaching about the great architecture of the ancient mayans, the romans and the greeks and a bit of African history which was more focused on Egypt and Mesopotamia, even though I found the content of the African history very little, looking from the perspective of a continent filled with rich and diverse culture, but that wasn’t the part that kicked me to myself realization process, finding out my real identity, my true history and the true history of my ancestors and the motherland. There was a phrase he used to joke about it and would repeat it almost every year to his students saying even if you will fail the course you have to learn and keep it in mind that the “Greeks invented everything” at that moment I felt very confused and disappointed in myself for not even knowing that much to oppose to that phrase. This ignited something in me to really go for more than I know, to seek much knowledge about myself and my people. Looking at the enormous territorial demarcation of Brazil and the majority of the population being black and brown but with not enough knowledge about African history, I felt that I was a true representation of Africa. So the plight of seeking got me much answers about Africa, such that I could understand the Brazilian perspective of Africa and who an African is. I can’t seem to hold it upon their heads for not knowing much about my continent and country because of the language barrier.

Moreover, I doubt that many Africans know that much about Brazil aside from the everyday stereotypes, thus, football and samba. I have been ignorant myself for some time, I thought Brazil was only Rio de Janeiro and then it was all about beaches and surfing, however, I didn’t ignore the opportunity of educating myself properly when the chance came, So I give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

There is this saying that, to know what the rat has for dinner you should visit him sometime in his rat hole. Thus to understand lifestyle in Brazil, you should dive a bit into matters of the society to get the real view and understanding for yourself. However not all exchange students have that will to do that. Unlike many others, I decided to penetrate into their way of life, daily lifestyle, the way people think, etc. but i couldn’t come to a simple conclusion because i found out that the society is made up of different people from different ancestry. For example, we have the native Brazilians, people from the Portuguese, Italian, those from the African origin etc. Even though I didn’t get the answer I expected, I found something peculiar about all Brazilians, that they all talk about Africa but people know very little about the continent’s current state of affairs. They know about how black people came to be the majority of the Brazilian population, thus the stories told from the perspective of slavery and that is one main way Africa is known here (through slavery). Some other common ways African countries are known is through the safari that passes on the national geographic television, some old tribal war films like Hotel Rwanda and Diamante de sangue. This showed how much people’s memories are not refreshed about the continent.

Truth be told I wouldn’t expect everyone to know a lot about African countries, but a country as big as Brazil with the highest population of black people outside the African continent, with majority of its people bearing the same ancestral background, sharing cultural traits, I expected that the African cultural heritage could be held up high and passed on to keep the memories and our history alive, to my surprise it was so much about African Traditional religion than maybe commerce, trade or contemporary Africa. That being the case, It became pertinent that, as exchange students from Africa, we automatically are the new teachers of what we expected people to know. Therefore we needed to become the change we wanted to see. The clear picture of contemporary Africa we wanted to impregnate people’s mind with was hanging around our necks. We couldn’t do less than to organise cultural events, talk shows to educate the public about the pieces of history that went missing along the lines.

Identity and Memory

In November 2019, the Union of African students at UFF, organized a cultural event entitled “Identity and Memory of Africa”. This event became a turning point to our lives and that of many students in the university. We held various talk shows about social life, politics, economics, technology and sciences in various African countries. We educated ourselves and the university students who were present about how black African history in Brazil is missing some pieces and key details. At the end of the programe many black students were able to find pride in themselves as capable black people, with black ancestry, rich culture and rich history. It was a total success and relief for the black students to know that their history does not start from slavery, that it does not start from the sugar cane fields and the bearing of slave masters names, but it starts from way back when the Greek philosophers were seeking knowledge in Africa, when mathematics and science were a mystery and the alchemist were been prosecuted and punished as witches and magic men. That their history started from when the Egyptians laid the first stone wall for the pyramids that still defies the laws of contemporary architecture and engineering, when the kingdom of Aksum were carving heads on coins, that their history started from when the kingdom of Benin was building the greatest wall that has ever existed before that of China. It is our responsibility as exchange students to show our participation in this cultural exchange and most especially those of us coming from Africa, it’s a duty call since we share history and a great heritage.

How Brazil is shaping me

I was reading a book entitled Consciencism, Philosophy and Ideology for Decolonization written in 1964 by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, one of the greatest men the world has seen, a man who possessed an undoubtful intelligence, also a fruit of education without borders. Aside from the many interesting things he talked about, there was a part that really represents my stay in Brazil and the kind of education I’m having at the moment. In the introduction, he talked about how he was presented to great Greek and other great philosophers like Aristotle, Plato, Nietzsche, Hegel, Karl Max etc. which were of no direct importance to him as an African student coming from the colony, however, he had to view it from a different and a much broader perspective, of how their teaching and philosophy could indirectly impact his society. I feel that, since his time not much has changed. It makes it feel like the world has been in a halt for some time now, but actually it hasn’t. My point is, my first time in class learning about Greek philosophy, Roman architecture, ancient politics, Brazilian urbanism and history, I found myself conflicted with the same ideas Nkrumah had but on the other side it was gradually and indirectly shaping my way of logical reasoning, my attitude and ideologies became sharper as well as my approach to social problems and my contribution to politics in my country.

Brazil is a great country full of natural resources, beautiful landscape, architecture, beaches, agriculture, however, it is torned apart by social injustice, violence and racism. It’s not so different from many countries around the world, everyone has their own problems and so does Brazil. It is so easy for many African students, to say that they never suffered racism or the denial of knowing what racism meant in their home countries is an obvious fact, but it is critical that we analyze the fact that tribalism exist in many African countries and these two social problems are not very different, if they were family members, I believe they would be close relatives. I could use my country Ghana as an example, people have preconceptions about people from some minor tribes, they pass funny comments and do exactly what racist does to the minor races in countries where racism is strong like in Brazil and the United States.

So today if I find myself deconstructing the society I live in (Brazil) and my Ghanaian society, it’s because I found myself, my true power, my inner capabilities as a young black African, capable of winning and going the extra mile for greatness. It isn’t easy and has never been easy but we should never forget our identity. I urge everyone and all exchange students around the world to see the beauty and pleasure in cultural exchange.

On the 6th of March, 1957, the new President of the new Republic of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah made a remarkable speech, in the extract of his speech he said

And, as i pointed out… from now on, today, we must change our attitudes and our minds. We must realize that from now on we are no longer a colonial but free and independent people […] that new African is ready to fight his own battles and show that after all, the black man is capable of managing his own affairs.

With this I encourage all the African students participating in the exchange program, that the knowledge we are acquiring today will be of much essence to our society in a few years. So we should never give up even though There might be challenges, however, we must be reminded that, “a man cannot remake himself without suffering for he is both the marble and the sculptor” (CARREL, 1959).^[1] Therefore, we must keep pushing forward and persevere no matter how hard a situation may be with our education or personal life, these are the experiences that are shaping us and molding our success story.

Drawing down the curtain on perseverance, it brings to mind the story of the two little mice that fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. “The second mouse would not quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out”.

Notas

[1] So I quoted Dr. Alexis Carrel prior to what I said earlier, about the challenges that come with the exchange program and the incentives I was giving to the African students in this situation. It’s similar to the old adage “No pain, no gain”, which means you cannot change a given situation without putting in much effort. In this context, “suffering” would be the hard work we put in the things we do to shape our lives.

Referências

CARREL, Alexis. Man, the unknown. [S.l: s.n.], 1959.