that have only an African language, Somalia, for instance. Rwanda and Burundi could both be that way, but they were colonized by Belgium and so you find French there. And Rwanda has now changed its official language to English. It’s a whole bunch of things that people don’t know. But underneath that, there are about 2,000 languages across the continent. And so you find people who speak English, but really, if you scratch the surface, underneath maybe even at home, they speak something else that isn’t a big language, but it may be a big language. Those of us who speak Swahili, for instance or Yoruba, those are major African languages. They aren’t what most people like to say are dialects.”

The African Center for Community Development was founded in 2014 by a group of Africans — and their supporters — who were concerned about the recent immigrants and the lack of understanding about Africa and the people who live there. The main concern is the newly-arrived immigrants and their lack of access to community resources. The ACCD would help them identify needs and then connect them to resources.

Jennifer Lord who was the executive director of the Harambee Center in South Madison in the 1990s — and is now the director of development for ACCD — emphasized the benefit of having one place where someone can get help.

“People don’t know what services are available,” Lord said. “At Harambee, we had many people coming in who came in for one thing and when we asked if they had health insurance, they said, ‘No.’ They came in looking for where they register their child for school. But because there was a place for people to come and get information and learn about what other services they can get connected to, that was incredibly powerful for an immigrant/refugee community. And we don’t have that anymore, especially for a refugee community. What we have right now focuses on Latinos and Hmong. And everything is in either Spanish or Hmong. You don’t hear French or any other African language. There is also the cultural piece that accompanies that as well. And then there is the historical mistrust of government and how you develop that trust when you come from a country that perhaps has not had the same political system that we have here. The African needs are very unique.”

As it relates to education, the children of African immigrants come into a situation where they are being pulled in many different directions linguistically and culturally.

“That is right to the point of one of the purposes and missions of ACCD,” Songolo said. “It is to get the children of Africans to know who they are and knowing who they are, they will adjust better in this new society. It’s not new to them, but it is new to their parents. In order that there be no confusion in their heads, they know both cultures. What we always say about language is that if you are multilingual, you know something, you know a given thing in several languages. That’s not a weakness. That’s a strength.”

Lord pointed to an internal study that was done at the Goodman Community Center where she worked prior to the ACCD.

“We did a study of the African American children in our elementary programs,” Lord said. “And we found that it was about 85 percent, if my memory serves me correctly, of African American youth enrolled in our program for three years were testing at grade level or above. However our African students were not. That helps differentiate that there are specific needs of African youth that are different than African American youth. Thinking of it in terms of African youth, they are a minority within a minority. They have a very different experience than African American youth. So we need to figure out ways — there is a program called Transition Cultural and Language Program — that addresses that unique, bicultural experience that African youth have in grounding their identity. Without that, they are African American, they are American and they are African. What does that mean? And so, helping young people begin to understand is important. Also their cultural values are going to be more American than their parents who are more African. How do you negotiate that? It’s a very different experience than our African American youth. And so again, they are very unique and specific needs that aren’t being met by any other organization right now because they are focusing on very different cultures.”

The ACCD currently operates the Transitional Culture and Language Program to work with youth. It also works on assisting Africans to access basic resources, especially during the pandemic.

And Tunji Lesi emphasized when the children and families are stabilized and participating in the community, it benefits the Madison/Dane County area as a whole.

“The way things are right now, all of these improvements we are trying to do is just a means to a winning situation for the community and for the children and the immigrants themselves because we need some understanding of why certain things are this way and why certain things are different from this place,” Lesi said. “Sometimes you pick the best of the cultures when you understand them. You pick the best of the cultures and that can only positively impact the community that we are all in, in addition to the part that there will be some hard work on the part of these people if they understand how to navigate their background to the culture in the Madison community. With that understanding, it can only help them to grow.”

For the past five years, the ACCD has been trying to purchase a building that would serve as the focal point for ACCD programming as well as serve as a meeting place for the 20 or more African country-based organizations. So far, its efforts have been stymied.

“The ACCD applied for funds three years ago from the city of Madison,” Songolo said. “I actually became involved with ACCD back then specifically because I was told that the city was going to buy us a building. That did not pan out. I think it was never the intention and the city was going to help with some of the funding. So we proceeded to raise funding from among the African community. Those funds are there. They are still in the bank and they are waiting for additional funds to be raised. Right now, we are trying to raise more funds. And we’re trying to find a place that we can purchase. Barring that, if necessary, we would rent some place while we wait for sufficient funds to build or to purchase.”

Lord emphasized the importance of having a physical location.

“We need a place because place is important, especially when you are talking about 20 different associations that are meeting, people coming from 30 different countries,” Lord said. “Right now, they are meeting all over the city. Just being able to have a single location where all of the different African communities and cultures can come together is really important. And then when you add the pandemic on top of that, the need for that is even more important because people can’t travel as freely as they would normally. So finding a home for that is important.”