My US Fulbright Experience, My Eye-opener to my World
When I
first heard of the Fulbright FLTA program
halfway into my Masters of Arts degree in English at theUniversity of Ibadan in 2009, I knew at once that
I had to apply and take advantage of the opportunity for a myriad of reasons.
I’d get an opportunity to contribute to mutual understanding among countries of
the world and enhance in my own little way the ongoing trend of globalization
and world peace. I’d be an ambassador of my beloved Yoruba language and my
Country Nigeria, I’d come in contact with the English Language in a Mothertongue
(L1) speech community. I’d improve my professional skills in the language
teaching field and so on. All this time, a very important advantage which would
rank among my top life changing experiences never really occurred to me. This
experience which I call an eye-opener to my fatherland, I must say
informed the need to write this article.
Nevertheless, I shall dwell also upon how my other desires have been met almost
in the order in which I listed them in the opening sentence.
For me, this
journey of discovery which helped to fulfill my dream of seeing the world beyond
my country and joining with hundreds of others in bringing diverse cultures and
languages of the world to a common platform started right from the articles
which the Institute for International Education (IIE) sent from time to time
coupled with the pre-departure orientation organized by the US embassy in
Nigeria. I began to see the cultures of the US in a new light. It now became
clearer as a country with a plethora of cultures and not a 'cultureless'
society as most erroneously believe. It would be better described as “a canvass
with several shades of paints and styles” as I recall a writer saying in one of
IIE’s articles. This point would be further reinforced by my day to day
experience in New York City about which I wrote a poem titled “Races and
Faces”.
However, the
real life experience of the friendliness and rapture which cultural exchange
and transnational friendship could bring started for me at the Orientation at
Phoenix. I also began to have a feel of Americans’ friendliness and sense of
curiosity which has ever been my experience since I got to New York
University. I go to the class everyday looking forward to my students’ smiles
and intense questions about and admiration for my Yoruba culture. But
unexpectedly too, living in New York, and more so, taking graduate courses in
Diaspora Studies and Africana Studies has brought me into a new consciousness
about Nigeria and Africa. More precisely put, the Fulbright experience afforded
me the opportunity of finding a distance, a different and panoramic locus
standi from which I can take a distant look at my world, a view which though
not disinterested, yet was free from the bias and limitations of an insider. I
now feel a new sense of citizenship -
not only of Nigeria but of the world, a call to action, a better perspective of
what our national problems are and the solutions to them, a new disposition to
academics and politics and a raised sense of self-esteem.
Like John
Donne who said in one of his poems, “I wonder what you and I did till we
loved”, I also say I wonder what knowledge I had till I got involved in this
project. After I wrote the first paragraph and the idea of the eye-opening
experience however, it occurred to me that I could have jumped to a hasty
conclusion. After all, we are just barely half-way into the program, and a lot
of other –probably more “wall-shattering” – experiences are on the way. Yet, I
say, if this program should come to an end at this very moment, I shall not
have wasted the US department of State’s, IIE’s and my resources in embarking
on this journey of discovery. I could almost say at this point Veni, Vindi, Vinci. Mo wa, mo ri, mo segun.
