African Career, Education & Resource (ACER) Fair

Today I participated in the  African Career, Education & Resource, Inc (ACER) fair at Park Center High School,  Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Service providers in such fields as health, employment, education, were there to showcase their services and share information on their programs.








I met people I know and new ones as well. The lady in the picture at the top here and on the left was my student at St. Olaf College about 13 years ago.


Some years ago, she read my book, Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences, and is an avid fan of it.






Other acquaintances who were there include Dr. Alvine Siaka, the coordinator of African Health Action and Rita Apaloo, coordinator of African Women Connect. Rita is also a long-term fan of Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences. As usual, we had much to talk about, concerning what we are trying to do with the African community in Minnesota.

Among the new people I met today is Iqbal Duale, Community Education Specialist for an organization called Planned Parenthood. We discovered that we have common interests and are involved in in cultural diversity issues. We plan to keep in touch.

It is heartening and gratifying to be with such people, whose commitment to social causes is unshakeable, and who are not deterred by problems and challenges encountered on the way.

A few days ago, I mentioned ACER, the organizer of today's fair. I did so in a blog post about a meeting of the board of the Afrifest Foundation. ACER and the Afrifest Foundation have decided to collaborate, and I decided to participate in today's fair partly to facilitate that collaboration. I am the chair of the Afrifest Foundation. I was delighted to meet the ACER volunteers and to note their welcoming and cheerful spirit.

I participated in today's fair under my business name, Africonexion. I had my table, seen on the left, where I displayed my books and other publications. I talked with people about the books and about my work as a cultural consultant dealing with Africans and Americans. As always happens, I met different kinds of people, including those who are working in institutions or organizations which require the kind of resources I offer, notably publications and presentations. I look forward to being in touch with these people, to learn from their experience and share my own experience.

Reflections on my Book Talk in Faribault

Some days ago, I posted a message about a book talk I was to give at South Central College. The talk dwelt on my book, Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences. Rebecca Fjelland Davis subsequently wrote a report on her blog, including comments she published in Goodreads:
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Joseph Mbele's book AFRICANS AND AMERICANS

Our class, "Culture and History of South Africa,"  read Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences last week. The author, Joseph Mbele came to visit us on Tuesday. It was unanimously considered a DELIGHT.

The book is a fast read, and Joseph Mbele writes in a conversational, welcoming style that sucks you right in, keeps you laughing, and keeps you reading. 

In person, Joseph proved to be one of the most brilliant, funny, warm, and gentle human beings I've ever met. My students loved him; the two hours with him flew past.


Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences by Joseph L. Mbele
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was the most delightful read about the differences between Africans and Americans and how we relate to each other. My students loved it, found it fascinating, and flew through it.


If you have students, friends, neighbors, classmates, ANYBODY you know from Africa, this book is for you. If you are traveling to Africa, like my students and I are, it's a MUST.

Best part? Now whenever I am late (no, that never happens), I can say I'm on AFRICA TIME.

View all my reviews

Posted by Rebecca (Becky) Fjelland Davis at 6:53 AM No comments:

Minnesota Black Pages 2010-11

The Minnesota Black Pages 2010-11, a rich source of information on businesses, products, and services pertaining especially to people of African descent, is now available. The current edition focuses on the housing crisis. In line with my abiding interest in cultural issues, I contributed an article titled "Housing as a Cultural Phenomenon", pp. 29-30.

Readers of my Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences, will remember that housing is one of the issues I talk about in that book. For the Minnesota Black Pages 2010-11, I went somewhat beyond what I wrote in the book.

The Minnesota Black Pages 2010-11 also carries advertisements, and you can read about Africonexion, my consulting company, on page 28. On page 41 you can read what the Minnesota Black Pages team wrote about my Africans Americans book. Enjoy the Minnesota Black Pages 2010-11.

My African American Readers

Writing Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences, I faced many challenges. After publishing it, I wondered how readers would respond.

I was anxious, for example, about African Americans, because I talk and warn about differences between them and Africans. I even claim that African Americans are not African but American.

In due course, Shannon Gibney, a gifted African American journalist, called, seeking to interview me about my book. We did a phone interview, and she had sharp questions. Her review appeared in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. I was touched by Shannon's honesty when she disagreed with me, and both relieved and gratified by her endorsement of the book.

Another high-profile African American response came from the Minnesota Black Pages, whose 2009/10 edition featured a colourful, full-page endorsement of "this ground-breaking book that addresses the sometimes frustrating disconnects between African Americans and African Immigrants," noting that the book's "concise and easy style will provide the reader--no matter their heritage--the knowledge to overcome a great deal of miscommunication and embarrassment" (page 47).

Needless to say, these responses have lessened my anxieties, and I thank these African Americans for sharing their opinions so generously.

Africans and Americans: A Book Talk in Faribault

I have visited Faribault again and again, over the last few years, to participate in various educational and cultural events. On October 21, I went there again, at the invitation of the Buckham Memorial Library, to talk about my Africans and Americans book. I had mentioned this invitation in a previous blog post.

People came from Faribault and neighbouring towns, as well as Minneapolis. Delane James, director of the Library, introduced me.

I started with a brief account of my work at St. Olaf College: teaching global literatures in English, Folklore, and advising study abroad programs.
I noted that my interest in cultural differences developed in the course of my graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1980-86. There I experienced life in a foreign culture for the first time and began acquiring the knowledge I share in my Africans and Americans book and other writings.

I highlighted the main lessons I learned while writing the Africans and Americans book, and the lessons I learn while offering cultural orientation to Africans and Americans or while helping resolve conflicts between them.

One of these lessons is that we all grow up in our cultures with the idea that our culture is normal. We do not even think about it, just as we do not think about the fact that we are breathing.

The problem is that we tend to see our culture as the norm. We get a reality check, often a rude awakening, upon encountering a different culture. That encounter can result in problems between us and other people. Drawing upon my book, I gave examples of problems that occur between Africans and Americans.

I stressed, as I always do, the importance of learning, to know ourselves and others. We have no alternative, with the world increasingly becoming a global village and people of different cultures criss-crossing the globe and settling everywhere. Every place will feel the impact of these trends: from American cities, towns, and communities to the remotest parts of the world. I mentioned Tanzania, my own country, and the influx of foreigners there, from places as far as China.
After my talk and a period of questions and answers, there followed a book-signing, a ritual much beloved by Americans.












This was a worthwhile event. I had an attentive, engaging, and delightful audience and we were all very pleased. Delane urged everyone to organize similar events in their respective communities or places of work.



There are more photos of the event here. Milo Larson, chair of the Faribault Diversity Coalition was there, and he wrote a note on Facebook:

Great Forum by Joseph Mbele last night at the Library, always learn something new about the different cultures whenever I hear him. Everybody should see him just once, would be a more harmonious place.

My Nebraska Readers

On June 9, 2010 I was in Amsterdam for several hours, on my way from Minneapolis to Dar es Salaam. As we were standing in the long, packed queue, proceeding to the boarding gate, a lady approached me confidently and asked me to sign a copy of my Africans and Americans book.

I did not know the lady, but she had the book in her hand. As she was handing me the pen and the book, I humbly asked for her name, and she told me to write Charlotte and Aimee. I asked where she was from and she said Nebraska, adding that she and several other people were on their way to Arusha, Tanzania, on a mission trip. Such mission trips are now very common among U.S. Lutherans and other Christians.

As Charlotte and I talked, we discovered that we have a mutual friend, Pastor Martin Russell, who is a seasoned leader of mission trips to Tanzania. I have never met him, but we are connected on Facebook. As we were getting connected on Facebook, Pastor Russell told me that he constantly recommends my book to mission trip participants. That is how Charlotte got to know about it.

During the flight, a young lady came to my seat and declared that she was Charlotte’s daughter and excitedly started praising my book, saying it “really nailed it.” Other people sitting nearby heard her. I was humbled. She asked if I would pose for a photo with her group later, and I gladly agreed.

When the plane landed at the Kilimanjaro International Airport in Arusha, I joined the group in the back of the plane and Charlotte took the photo shown here.













Such encounters with my readers have become quite common during flights between the USA and Tanzania. I am easy to recognize because of the photo on the back of my book, and I know that wherever I go, I cannot hide.

What on Earth is an iPad?

Like many people, I had heard that Apple was preparing to launch something called an iPad. I understood that it was some kind of reading device, but I am not really one of these high-tech folks.

The farthest I had gone in this direction is publishing my books online, and more recently, publishing them as e-books. I knew that you require an e-book reader, also known as an e-reader, to download and read e-books, or you could use other devices for the same purpose. I don't even have an e-book reader. All this iPad talk flew right past my ears.

Then on March 30, 2010, I got a message from lulu.com, which read in part:

Congratulations! Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences, one of the most popular books on Lulu, has been selected for submission to Apple's new iBookstore (accessible on the iPad)....

That woke me up. I started reading about the iPad, while taking the steps specified by lulu.com to prepare my book for the iBookstore.