Abiba

http://justlikemychild.com/blog/human-rights/womens-rights/two-flying-roaches-and-smoked-monkeys/



Abiba Salamatu is a 23 year old mother of two children, Mohammad, age 6, and Issaka, age 4, living in the coastal city of Monrovia, Liberia. She is a single parent, who is forced to take care of her two children alone after her husband, Abdul, died due to the on-going civil war. One day, rebel forces came through the market place and through crossfire Abdul was an unfortunate victim of the event. Now, all Abiba can do is try her best to earn enough money to feed her children and make it through each day. She doesn’t have the knowledge or time to worry about what is going on politically. After waking up at sunrise, she prepares food in masses to sell to the public throughout the day in the market place. Abiba walks in the heat while her two children help and follow her around in order to sell as much food as she can.

 

On a regular July afternoon, as Abiba is negotiating a sale, she hears commotion a few yards away. At first she doesn’t pay much attention because these commotions are common as a result of the on-going civil war; however, after hearing the voice of a little boy crying, she walks over only to realize that Mohammad is being beaten by a fruit vendor. Abiba instantly runs to vendor and pleads him to stop beating her son. The vendor tells Abiba that her son was caught stealing fruit from his stand. As Liberians are strong believers in instant punishment, the vendor did not hesitate to beat Mohammad once he was caught. In order to compromise, Abiba gave the vendor all 20 Liberian dollars that she had made that day.    http://www.punchstock.com/com/USA/gb/asset_images/imsis099-002

                                                                                                                                                           

On the way home, she scolded Mohammad asking why he would put them in such a risky situation. He simply replies, “Mother, I was only hungry.” After hearing this, Abiba feels guilty and realizes that his hunger is only going to worsen because her earnings for the day have been taken away.  Now she wonders how she is going to feed her children tonight. She looks at the blood on her son’s body and knows that this is only a fraction of the violence taking place all around her. Not only that, Issaka begs for water as she is starting to suffer from dehydration from being in the sun for 14 hours that day. Because of today's events, Abiba will be pressured to work double the next day trying to make up for her lost profit.   That night, as Abiba soothes Issaka to sleep, she wishes that she could escape this war-ridden country and provide a better life for her children. But she knows that she has no means to carry out this wish.

                            http://developmentalidealism.org/imagery/malawi.html

 The next morning, as Abiba is walking to the market place, a fellow female vendor walks along side of her and quietly mentions that she has heard of unions that women in the nearby tribes are forming. Alarmed by the concept, Abiba encourages her friend to continue. Her friend explains that the Liberian government, supported by International groups, is giving out poverty-reduction, interest-free loans to these unions. She tells Abiba that if they can gather a few more women, it would be a real possibility for them to receive the money and begin to dig themselves out of poverty. Abiba knows that if she had more money it would open up many opporunities because she could open up her own business instead of renting a stand in the crowded market. She knows that this is the only way to ensure that her children don’t go through the same hardships that she has had to endure. As much as she wishes that she could change her current situation, she knows that the best she can do is to ensure a brighter future for her children. She then turns to her friend, and with a slight nod indicates her willingness to participte in this movement.

Over the next few years Abiba notices the strength and fight grow in her children’s eyes.  In this time she is slowly climbing her way out of poverty and has moved into a communal home with other women in the union. The close proximity of her home to the city allows her children to go to school on a regular basis.   Within the next few months American missionaries begin visiting the school, meeting and forming close bonds with the children.  As the years go by one missionary becomes extremely close with Abiba’s children - teaching them English, showing them pictures of American children and culture, and encouraging them to continue with their education. 

http://www.facts-about-countries.info/tag/african-continent/

As the children approach their late teen years they began to contemplate leaving Africa to travel back to America with the missionaries.  Over the past few years the missionaries have provided the children with courage and information about foreign countries. One afternoon Abiba's oldest child gained the courage to approach his mother and propose the idea of traveling to America with his sister.  At first Abibia was stunned into silence, how could her own children dare think to break their strong family bond; however, she knew this was the opportunity she had always hoped her children would have. 

Peter Stalker would say that Abiba is thinking about the structuralist aspect of emigration. In theory, she could be “knocked around by forces out of her control.” In this particular case, these forces are the uncontainable civl war, the constant threat of violence, and the deficient economy she lives in. She subsists in a land where there is little to no opportunity for her or her family. Abiba lives in a dual labor market, which creates two distince types of jobs. Abiba is working a low-skilled and low-paying job in the market place. She must do this to provide for and support her kids. But her greatest hope is to do this to enable her children a better future. By giving them an education, she is giving them a chance at obtaining a higher-paying, more permanent jobs. Abiba is clearly trying to ameliorate the situation by enduring this hardship confronted in a structuralist market, but enabling growth in the future.


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Abiba couldn’t sleep for days; instead of resting, she would think about her children traveling to America. Would they survive on their own? Would they be bullied and teased? Would they be able to handle the work load of an American University? She would stop herself mid-thought and try to think more positively: the world is becoming smaller- my children can now travel to places outside of our country, they know of cultures other than our own, they are going to go and make wonderful lives for themselves. Abiba and her children were experiencing globalization first-hand.

                                                                    

                                                                   

Because of her family and religious upbringing Abiba had always valued culture above everything else; she valued her tribe and their religious connections; she took pride in the African landscape and beauty, despite her poverty.  Allowing her children to travel to America would be breaking all of these ties.  She would be allowing McWorld to enter into her life, but she knew she must allow this for the benefit of her children.  And although Abiba knows she will probably never experience American culture directly, or the outcomes of having a higher education and stable job, she is overjoyed that her children will have these experiences - that they will live longer and happier lives because of their contact with the rest of the world.  In the back of her mind Abiba deeply hopes that when she grows old her children will return to Liberia to take care of her - the woman who did everything she could to insure that her children would live to see another day despite the poverty, violence, and political strife of their everyday lives.

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