Akwa Ibom State Association USA The main hall: speeches, donations, and friendship

By Kevin Lambert
RALEIGH, NC— They came from all over America, a hotel full of diasporites from Akwa Ibom, for the 19th National Convention of the Akwa Ibom State Association USA. Eighteen hundred attendees were counted, but this included wives and children -- "Africans don’t go anywhere without their family," one lady explained. The kids wore everything from traditional African garb to Spiderman suits.

Like Nigerian-Americans everywhere, it was a prosperous, well-educated bunch. Edet Udofia, president of Homeland Music, a vendor of Akwa Ibomite recorded music, set up a booth and played the region’s hits, bringing Africa to Dixie. Some ladies wore traditional African head ties – two feet of silk wrapped in any way the fancy struck them. Eugene Okon, the event’s main organizer, wrote "One could not help but feel at home with all the nice and positive faces."

To Okon, and association president Emmanuel Umoh, the purpose of the convention was to "unite Akwa Ibomites in diaspora to celebrate our rich cultural heritage, build on our strength and leverage our resources towards developing our motherland…and to strengthen our relationship with the broader American community." Raleigh’s city fathers, always eager to host a group of prosperous immigrants, sent welcoming representatives and even, by the end of the weekend, had learned to pronounce "Akwa Ibomites."

Titled "Leveraging Resources for Sustainable Development," it was the association’s 19th convention. Founded in 1987, the association is one of the oldest African societies in the United States.

"We want to help to solve some of the problems in Akwa Ibom," says Umoh. "We get together to create the tools to solve these problems." Every year comes under a theme, this year it was about academic education and HIV protection.

A lot of lecture time was given to economic empowerment, a recurring theme with African diasporites everywhere. Representatives from the financial world gave lectures and talks, all with an eye toward showing Akwa Ibomites how to keep the economic edge they have built up.

"Wealth building in America is important because we all send money home," said Clifford Mpare of Piedmont Securities, one of the many extremely qualified speakers. Indeed, the academic achievements of the attendees was almost intimidating; there were often more PhDs attending some of the lectures than at the Los Alamos laboratories.

Akwa Ibom State Association USA Akwa Ibomís school of excellence, focus of this yearís Association fund-raising.

Dr. Hilary Inyang, professor of environmental engineering at Duke University, whose credentials take up a full page of ten-point print, talked about the socio-economic destiny of Akwa Ibom state. Dr. David Wiley, author and director of African Studies at Michigan State University, pointed out that "there has not been a lot of appreciation for Nigeria’s role as soldiers in WWII and peacekeepers in so many other places." Nor, he said, has there been much for their contriubtion to American society itself, right down to our own legends. He explained that such cowpoke terms as "bronco" and "buckaroo" originated in Africa. He also praised the current state of Akwa Ibom, saying that the region has "a lot to be proud of."

Basil Udotai, coordinator of the Nigerian Cybercrime Working Group, talked about "419" scams, and how he plans to stop them. These are the well-known e-mails from hustlers pretending to be African royalty. These are, unfortunately, next to oil, the product that Nigeria is best known for.

Clifford C. Mpare, talking about personal finances and financial planning, mentioned some optimistic statistics for African development. He noted that African return-on-investment is on an upswing and inflation is dropping. The African stock exhchange has tripled since the early ‘90s, and the number of stock exchanges has quintupled.

Chief Temitope Ajayi, president of the All Nigeria American Congress, and a Yoruba from Lagos, praised the Akwa Ibomites. "They are very friendly," she said, "with good hearts, and they work hard." Later on, she passed out seven congressional awards from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), including one for "Best Father."

Akwa Ibom State Association USA H.E. Dr. Brimmy A. U. Olaghere

One of the true stars of African independence, one who witnessed the "winds of change" days is H.E. Dr. Brimmy A.U. Olaghere. Both an elder and a liberator, he has worked with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and W.E.B DuBois in the early 1960’s. But, as executive president CEO & chairman of the United States Africa Development Consortium (USADC) working group in Washington D.C., he discussed his ideas for the TransAfrican Highway, and stated "Nigeria is the best friend of the United States." Later, he announced that USADC had chosen Akwa Ibom as a pilot state to launch $1 billion for infrastructural development.

Akwa Ibomite authors came to plug their books, mostly technical tomes in their chosen fields.

Dr. George Inyang, a professor at Georgia State University, has written "The Rise of a Majority Power," a deep look into political realities of Nigeria. Dr. Ignatius E. Idio sold copies of his "Effective School Leadership." Also, continuing an Akwa Ibomite tradition that goes back millennia, he honored his in-laws by offering copies of "Culture, Customs and Traditions of the Akwa Ibom people of Nigeria," written by his late father-in-law, the late Obong Joseph D. Esema.

Photo by Kevin Lambert Akwa Ibomitesí fashions can brighten up a hotel lobby anywhere.

Another author, Dr. Emma Ekut, is a sort of a star in the realm of popular self-help, an American phenomenon that has trickled back to Akwa Ibom via the diaspora. He has written "The Indispensable Visionary" and "Recipe for Success," and been praised by Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of "Chicken Soup for the Soul."

Friday evening was topped with a dinner and countless cultural dance troupes, followed respectfully by a band playing their more successful stepchild, reggae.

Adding to the melting pot
Way back in the beginning of immigrant America, the Irish came in seemingly endless waves, fleeing the mid-19th century potato famine and the usual list of old-world injustice and casual bloodshed. The Italians, Jews and Chinese followed, looking for the miraculous upward mobility and freedom from warlords that America offered. Then came the rest of the world.

Africans, starting as a minority of students in the ’60s and ’70s, have passed the word back home that economic justice and prosperity awaited those who braved the passage. They are by now a respected minority group, contributing billions to the American economy and sending billions more back home.

Unlike their immigrant predecessors, Akwa Ibomites have contributed practically zero to America’s crime rate or social service workload. Their kids don’t drift into gangs, they don’t produce drunks, chronically unemployed, or irresponsible fathers

Even in their first generation, which in other ethnicities has given us such notables as Al Capone, "Mad Dog" Coll and "Gurrah" Shapiro, the kids are obediently going to school, getting good grades, and doing their ancestors proud.

Photo by Kevin Lambert A dancer shows off her latest hat.

Families
Americans rarely bring their families on a business trip or convention. But Africans have much more holistic ideas about business and pleasure, and family is the inseparable from work. The business and networking vibrations were inextricably integrated with the feel of an oversized family reunion. Special youth sessions were held, and the younger kids were entertained by magician Tim Dumas on Saturday morning.

In the special session by and for youth, approximately 50 teenagers, as polite and well mannered as Dominican monks, elected a new chapter president, listened to a talk on financial planning and cautionary tales about teen hazards like credit card debt, and elected a new president, all without a single sneer, rolled eye or remark about how lame those old folks are.

Ofonime Inokon, 22, a mortgage banker in Ozone Park, NY, has grown up as an Akwa Ibomite-American. She is polite, beautiful and one of the oldest "kids" there. When she speaks with the other youngsters she speaks English, with her elders she speaks Ibibio, "to show respect."

Akwa Ibom State Association USA Hon. Hope Umana (left), and Association President and Mrs. Emannuel Umoh

The cultural clashes between the two generations are the stuff of sitcoms, rather than tabloid headlines. "A lot is physical appearance," she says. "The hair, for instance. The older Akwa Ibmoites don’t like cornrows, gangsta’ clothing, earrings on men."

When she visits Akwa Ibom it is important that "I try not to show too much Americanization." Again, the issue is respect.

Andy Obot, who works as a travel agent in Nashville, always finds the conventions to be fun. "There is not a year that I miss. In my business, I talk to these people many times, but I never see them face-to-face. So it’s also networking. And then there’s the charity work. We have been doing a lot of charity work in our chapter."

Tina Ndem, a fashion coordinator in New Jersey, who has been attending since the 1980’s, goes there to "meet different people, and add them to my collection of relationships." She attends also for artistic inspiration.

Photo by Kevin Lambert The face of the future: Ofonime Inokon

"The cultural part of the show and the fashions – the different styles that people are wearing. My 15-year-old daughter enjoys going there. Even though she was born here, she enjoys the interaction with other kids of African descent."

Saturday morning, the northern and southern U.S. factions had the traditional soccer game. This year it was divided between Boston and New York versus everybody else. They tied, 3-3.

Akwa Ibomites here have a sharp sense of obligation to those they left behind. Saturday night’s gala dinner—which featured such luminaries as Prof. George A. Obiozor, Nigeria’s ambassador to the U.S.—was kicked off by President Umoh, who talked about the goal of 10,000 students in HIV prevention programs by 2007. "A life saved for one-hundred is better than a life buried for a thousand," he said. The School of Excellence, a technical school at Mkpat Enin, was the focus of the evening’s fundraising, and quite a few thousand dollars were pledged. Donations were either publicly announced or simply tossed into raffia baskets that were passed among the tables.

Dancing, extremely important in African society, took its turn, and the evening was turned over to that.