Meet Minata & Soho, mother and son, from West Africa

West Africa is remarkably culturally diverse. It is home to multiple ethnic groups and tribes, each maintaining its own language, dialect, customs and beliefs. These intricacies are manifested through their food, dress, music, art and more. Africa is a continent rich in bio diversity and ecology. Its climate is heavily influenced by the dry Sahara to the north and east, as well as the Atlantic Ocean to the south and west. The climate varies from tropical to sub-tropical and humid to arid. Minata has come for a long visit with her son. She will stay until September. Her son, has lived in the United States for approximately 12 years. He was kind enough to translate our conversation with his mother. When Soho moved to the US, it was incredibly hard for Minata to see her son move to another country all alone. She endured a great amount of suffering after he left but she knew he would have a better life. Today he has built a beautiful life in the United States and works as a cloud platform IT engineer. Some of the major cultural differences that they have had to cope with is that it is incredibly cold here in comparison to West Africa. They joked that is is always cold! There is also a major language barrier, as well, as their native language is French. When speaking about their life in West Africa they said, “Daily life is very communal. It is much much easier to meet random people, create conversations and to make connections and friends.” They said that the American Culture is more isolated and segregated. This has been a huge barrier for Soho to overcome. When we asked them if they had one thing to tell the world, they said, “Love your people like you love yourself. Be mindful of the hurt that you may cast onto others and never miss an opportunity to apologize and heal relationship wounds. We should work to attain peace everywhere in the world as a whole people.” We LOVE this! Thank you so much for visiting