Nana came to the US from Mali to pursue a college education. At the time we spoke, Nana had completed a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree and was a working mother with 3 young children.
Where are you from?
“Mali. West Africa. […] My family is from Timbuktu, which is in the north. Quite a lot of people know that here. Which is amazing [laughs]. […] Actually, I went to the store once and someone asked me, I was with my mom and my mom said, ‘We are from Timbuktu’ and ‘Oh, that’s far that place far away’. And my mom said, ‘The real Timbuktu.’ He was like, ‘Which one?’ [laughs] So then he explained [that] he did not know that it existed, really. He said that he’s just thought that people say meaning I came from far, far away, you know, so, yeah, from the real Timbuktu [laughs].”
What was the most surprising thing when you go to the US?
“Snow, that was the most surprising thing because I came in the middle of the winter, it was December. It was surprising and exciting at the same time. I used to take the snow from the cars and eat it [laughs].”
“I still remember this thing, [my mom and I] went from the dorm. We walked because we didn’t know how to take the bus, nothing. So we walked from the dorm to Dollar Tree and we bought a lot of stuff. We didn’t have a car, no buses, nothing. So I did like back home, I put everything, I bought a big laundry basket. Dumped everything in it, put it on my head and started walking in the middle of the street. [People were taking] pictures, videos [laughs]. My mom was laughing. She said you are the star of the town today. It was funny and fun.”
Did how you practice Islam change when you came to the US?
“Before I didn’t really practice Islam until I came here. The loneliness made me watch like khutbahs and stuff, so I changed. Dramatically I changed. I used to wear, hair extensions to here [indicates long hair], red. It was crazy. But with God’s grace, alhumdulillah, I changed everything in my life.”
“Everything changed. Like prayer wise, I used to pray, but not with like the devotion that I have here and stuff. I can say everything about me changed here. Everything. And that was because of me being alone. And it was one of the ways, it was either me going the wrong way, which is going to the bars and stuff and finding all sorts of friends. Or me being in my small world and trying to find something new that would push me to God and which I thank God, alhumdulillah, for that. And I think if I had stayed back home, I wouldn’t change like this.”
Do you do anything in particular to teach your children about home and their culture?
“I try. They go back home. Once a year I try but like now tickets are getting expensive because they’re getting regular tickets each. So at least I’ll try at least once every two years. And they’re in connection with their cousins. They talk on the phone, on WhatsApp. They have videos, pictures with the cousins, and they talk with everyone and they even speak our language. So, which is good.”
“Every jummah, if they are here, we go to the mosque. For gatherings, we go. I tried to take them in Ramadan and Eid and everything. Just so they see what we are about really.
When Nana arrived in Indiana, the community was still praying in the house on Philadelphia street. I ask what this was like
“It was like a small house with, like the men are downstairs. The men used to pray downstairs and we [women] go upstairs. I used to remember this weird noise whenever we walked upstairs. It just gonna be like, you’re gonna fall down [laughs]. The noise, [makes creaking noise]. You can’t obviously, like no strangers can [sneak] up, you will hear them. No matter how small you are, you feel like you’re going to fall down. Yeah. It was good. It was just small.”
What’s it like being visibly Muslim, and visibly a Black Muslim, in Indiana, PA
“Yeah, it’s hard. It’s really hard. […] Like one time I remember it was maybe five years ago and I got stuck at Martin’s [grocery store] […] then the guy at Martin’s [says], ‘Why you wear this in our country, go back to your country’ and stuff. It was scary. I thought he’s going to shoot me there. But I let that go. I didn’t tell anyone. […] And the one that happened in the Indiana mall. That one, I think was a lady, I don’t really remember, but that was shocking too. She actually touched [my hijab] and said ‘Do you have to wear this? Why are you wearing this?’ It was scary. I thought she was going to beat me or something. It was scary. And not long ago, I went to Eat ‘N Park [a restaurant]. I got out of the car and two men standing by a red pickup truck, and they were cursing me, ‘Go back to your country.’ Oh my! I run into Eat N Park because I said they’re gonna shoot to me and run away, what can I [do]? So, I run into Eat N Park. What can you do? Everywhere you go you will be different unless you go back to your home.”
If there’s one thing you’d want an average resident of Indiana to know about being a Muslim women, or an African Muslim women, what is it?
“To get to know the person first before judging. Which is sometimes not easy, which is sometimes difficult, but at least if you try. You can make some research on your own before you judge the person and get to know about Islam because Islam is peace. And like African added to Islam, we are always like open and sometimes we can be reserved, scared which is normal because we’re in a world where we don’t know a lot of stuff, so we are just like immigrants and stuff from our countries. I just think the main thing is to get to know the person first before you judge or you take any decision [against] the person or something. Just get to know the person, because I can’t say 100%, [but] most of the people are nice, like Muslim people. Most of them are nice, like open.”
Muslims in PA 