Editor’s note: This is fourth in a five-part series about African students’ experiences in the United States.

The different histories and cultures of people native to Africa and African Americans prevent them from seeing eye to eye. Jonnell Marion, president of the Black Student Alliance and junior in marketing, said the relationship is non-existent, but it is not a problem just between Africans and African Americans.

“I will go further and I will say that I have observed a problem with the black community in general here at Iowa State,” Marion said. “We don’t talk, we don’t communicate.”

Francis Owusu, assistant professor of community and regional planning, said the lack of interaction affects the relationship Africans have with African Americans.

“Africans have their own stereotypes about African Americans and African Americans have their own stereotypes about Africans. And there is very little opportunity to interact so that we can get over those stereotypes and get to know the people who are involved,” Owusu said.

“The people that come here from Africa are a selective few. They don’t represent the typical African,” he said. “They come here and somehow they succeed at school, and they look around and they look at African Americans and they say, ‘Well, I came here, I had nothing and I have been able to succeed, so if you guys are not succeeding it means you are not pulling your weight. I am black, you are black.”

Peter Eyongeseh, Ames resident, said very few people have taken the time to understand the complex history of African Americans. He said in terms of skin color, Africans and African Americans might be the same, but in terms of racial experiences they are entirely different.

“African Americans in America are basically lost people,” he said. “African Americans are the only people in the continent of America who do not know their history.”

Many African Americans on campus agreed that slavery has made them lose touch with their African heritage, but they said that doesn’t make them lost people. Some also said although they may not have the African culture, they have been able to trace their lineage.

Eyongeseh said although African Americans have African lineage, they are different from many people with similar lineage elsewhere in the world.

“African Americans are bastardized, and it is by intent. Slavery in America happened the same way slavery happened in South America and the Caribbean, but America is the only place where African Americans were stripped of their culture,” he said. “In a lot of places like Brazil or Jamaica, African names still linger. You will see certain names like Nigerian names, Ghanaian names. Even certain languages still linger. Why? Their colonial masters allowed them to know themselves a little bit.”

Marion said he does not consider himself bastardized.

“I would not consider myself a bastard, because I very well know who my father is,” Marion said. “I very well know partially what the history is. I am not ignorant to that kind of stuff.”

Marion said the relationship between Africans and African Americans is complicated because not many people take time to understand the different histories, but he doesn’t see that as an excuse.

“We are not all too different – with history, our thinking process,” he said. “A smile is the same thing in Africa or China as it is here. I am sure we laugh about the same jokes. Communication and understanding one another is what I see as a necessity.”

Eyongeseh said, however, that for such a communication to be successful, everyone needs to understand where certain cultural traits come from.

“There is an island right off North Carolina. There are a group of African Americans who, right around the Civil War, moved up to these islands and they went and they stayed there,” he said. “These are people who were slaves, too. In these islands, they were very poor, but if you go and see them, if you go and observe them, you would see traits among them that you don’t see in the vast majority of African Americans who live in the continent of America. There is one father, one mother.”

Marion said he agreed with Eyongeseh’s analysis, but it doesn’t warrant the simplification of African Americans with stereotypes.

“The fact that our fathers are not leading a lot of our communities is hindering the way black Americans in general are coming across in the media,” he said.

He said although Africans see themselves differently, they cannot separate themselves from this perception.

“The majority here on this campus are going to see us all the same,” Marion said.

He said it would take an effort from both sides to improve the relationship.

“It’s not a one-sided thing. It’s not a case of African Americans doing something and then Africans would be accepted or feel comfortable and vice versa,” Marion said.