Both Sides of a Dream
My full name is Richard Ngong Afuma. I was born in the minority English speaking territory of Cameroon. Richard is not my birth name. My birth name is Ayeah Nsom, named after my mother's polygamous father. I chose the name "Richard" for my Christian name when I was baptized under the illusion that I will become rich someday. I always wanted to be associated with the name of the President of the United States, Richard Nixon. I share the same birth day as Neil Armstrong and Patrick Erwing.
My mother was a widowed-single-mother and a ferocious pipe smoker who breastfed me until I was about five, and also with special chewed cooked yams. She married once but her husband was murdered by the hand of his own father. She chose not to remarry but continued child-bearing from different men. She birthed a total of 11 children including identical stillbirths. Barnabas Afuma is my adoptive father. My biological, Nsom Nabi, an avid basket weaver, died in the early 1980's. I don't know him, and never met him. I am the fourth child, the first male and the only child in the family to attend college.
I left home at the surprisingly young age of eight to live with distant relatives so that they would help pay for my education. This gave me the unprecedented opportunity to go to school and learn how to read and write in English. I was also able to attend secondary school and ultimately come to America. Coming to America is big in my area. I am the only child in the family to go to college and the only bread-winner. It is common practice in my culture for poorer children to be sent to go and live with a rich family or friends to perform domestic services; in turn they are sent to school to learn a trade. My primary aspiration growing up in the village was to go to school acquire an education and help support my family.
I attended 7-year primary education and a 4-year secondary education or college in Cameroon. A college in Cameroon would be an equivalent to a high school in America. I also attended Yaoundé University (department of laws and Economic Sciences), the only institution of high learning in the country prior to coming to America.
In 1987, I came to America to attend Westbrook college which is now the University of New England. I graduated in 1991 with BS. I also attended University of Maine, Orono graduate school from 1992-1994. I was mistakenly flown to Portland, Oregon instead of Portland, Maine. Apparently, the travel agent did not know about the existence of two cities in America both sharing the Portland name, and issued me a flight ticket to a wrong destination. I did not know either. My luggage was in during the odyssey and was never recovered; lost items of great sentimental value.
I am currently living and working in Portland, Maine. I have deep sentimental attachment to the state of Maine. I consider Maine my second home. I became a naturalized American citizen in October of 2008. I have faced and overcome challenges both in Cameroon and America.
Afuma means, a survivalist or a person in a desperate situation without an immediate solution.
