Coleen Anderson
Togo
July 2004
 
Terminus  
            Six forty-five p.m. on July 2 found me standing under a canopy on the U.S. Ambassador’s lawn with soda water in my hand, a silly look on my face and the loop tape “Whatever possessed me to come to an official gathering where I have nothing in common with anyone else?” playing in my head. I had shown up in my best African print while all the diplomatic types were dressed in cocktail dress. Duck out of water. I was about to dump my drink and head for home when approached by a friendly face dressed in tie-died indigo…a visiting Fulbright Scholar from another West African nation who happened to know my name! So, we stood there talking about our Fulbright experiences, our universities, our research, our outfits… Ah, someone who spoke my language. I felt instant rapport with this scholar whom I barely remember meeting at our Fulbright orientation in Washington the year before.
            One month later, a different venue. It’s after the official end of my Fulbright grant period but I’m attending a linguistic conference in Ibadan, Nigeria. Again I’m standing around in African print material, but this time surrounded by colleagues African, North American and European alike. Instant rapport builds with these scholars, some of whom I have never met before in my life. We’re sharing our research, discussing difficulties, strategizing for the future. I’m completely at home.
            These singular experiences have solidified for me the growing awareness that I am a part of an academic community with a common interest: Africa. Even if we don’t always fully understand each other’s research, our eyes don’t begin to glaze over when we listen to each other.
My interest and commitment to the welfare and development of Africa predates my interest in obtaining a Fulbright Grant, which is as it should be in my estimation. But as a Fulbright Grantee, I am considered and expected to be an academic ambassador of the good will of the nation funding my research. In my opinion, one of the greatest ways I as an American can foster good will between my country and those countries in which I am being hosted is by valuing what they value.
This concept came home to roost the other day while at the conference in Ibadan. I was walking and chatting with a professor of English at the university there, a woman about to defend her dissertation in linguistics. Within a month she will be flying to the U.S. to meet up with friends and relatives living on the East Coast. She said to me something to the effect of “My friends in the U.S. tell me that when I arrive to expect the following negative qualities ‘x, y, and z’ among Americans. But I have found you (contrary to expectation) to have the positive qualities ‘a, b, and c.’” These qualities a, b, and c, are essentially ranked high on African value lists. It’s not that they are not valued at all by Americans, but rather that they are ranked lower on our list of values. In fact, it was not only I as an American who exhibited the characteristics this Nigerian valued, but the other expatriates attending the conference as well.
Why is that? It is, in my opinion, our commitment to Africa. It has helped us to identify what Africans value and to the best of our abilities, if we so chose, to adapt ourselves to those values, even when they are at times in conflict with the ideals that we hold near and dear in our home countries. In truth, in spite of the fact that my nationality, socialization and value system, are for the most part thoroughly American, I am not compeletely enamored by “The American Way”. I have lived too much of my life overseas now to believe that our way of viewing the world and of conducting our lives is the only way – or even the best way – in every circumstance. Americans do have a lot to offer the world. But we can and should learn what is good from other societies and adapt to make the world a better place for all of us.
The Fulbright Program is one way in which American students and scholars both can contribute to and learn from other societies to achieve such an end. I for one am grateful for the opportunities that the Fulbright has afforded. What the grant has done for me that other means (such as being under the auspices of the NGO I have worked with since 1990) have not has been to open more doors and to open other doors more widely.
As an example, through the Fulbright program I have been able to make contacts and form relationships with professors and students at the University of Lomé and with students at the University of Bénin in Cotonou.  As a result, I have learned more about the particular challenges Togolese and Béninese face as scholars and potential scholars in developing nations with limited academic resources. I have begun to think and strategize in terms of how my own institution in the U.S. may form a partnership with one or more of these institutions in West Africa. And as I return home to finish my dissertation, my hope is to continue fostering these relationships so that mutual understanding and benefit between our countries can continue to grow.