Student retains Nigerian roots
By Erin LaMourie
Features Editor

Jessica Keller looked out her window in Colby Hall to her new home as her freshmen orientation began.

Every freshman faced the fear of the unknown, but for Keller it seemed there was more unknown than known.

Erin LaMourie/FEATURES EDITOR Jessica Keller, a sophomore speech pathology major, models the traditional dress of her homeland Nigeria. The dress is worn for special occasions, especially to church and weddings in Nigeria.

She had never seen TCU before, never lived in Texas and it had been more than eight years since she had lived in the United States.

Keller, a sophomore speech pathology major, moved from her home in Jos, Nigeria to the United States just a few weeks before.

Keller said she crammed in all the knowledge she could about American pop culture in the few weeks before school started, but she knew little of the trendy clothes and hairstyles that swarmed the TCU campus.

“The first couple weeks in (the United States), my family shopped around and I tried to get some new clothes,” Keller said. “You can dress up the outside but inside you will still be a social misfit.”

Keller, was born in Jos to missionary parents. She lived in Nigeria with her parents and older sister until she was three, then her family moved to Kansas while her father earned his doctorate.

Keller said as she was growing up, she knew her family would move back to Nigeria, but she was never certain when.

“When I started a school year I knew I would be there for the whole school year but I didn’t know if after that school year we would decide to go back,” she said.

Though she didn’t remember Nigeria well her parents always prepared her for when they would return.

“I never really felt like the United States was really my home because I knew I was going back (to Nigeria),” Keller said. “I felt complete when I went back because it was if I was always meant to go.”

Keller and her family moved back to Nigeria when she was 10, and she entered the fifth grade a few weeks into the Nigerian semester.

“It was a whole different culture to learn,” Keller said. “We had to form friendships really fast.”

She said the official language in Nigeria was English, so that was not a change, but she had to start taking French in school with students who had already studied it for years.

She communicated with local Nigerians in pigeon English, a combination of English and other west African languages, and Hausa, the language of the tribe in Jos.

Keller said in Nigeria they lived without the convenience of TV, movie theaters, fast food and many other items.

They had to take everything with them they needed, she said. There was no Wal-Mart.

“We had to take our own Snickers,” she said. “We hid them in the freezer and on holidays we could have one mini Snicker.”

She also had to adjust to a new way of dressing.

“I had to wear skirts every time I went outside of the school or house,” she said. “If people came to our house we always had a skirt in a drawer. My dad would answer the door and we would run and get in our skirts because we lounged around in shorts.”

Another major adjustment was being a minority. Keller, blonde-haired and green-eyed, stood out remarkably in Africa.

“I would be going downtown and people would yell out ‘White person! White person!’ and give me strange looks,” she said. “It was very different and it made me wonder if minorities in the (United States) felt the same way.”

Keller said despite the challenges, she adjusted well.

Going back to the United States eight years later was the struggle.
Keller said her parents planned to stay in Nigeria until she graduated from high school, but it was always uncertain because of the unstable Nigerian government.

“When I was in high school there were a lot of riots going on. The U.S. Embassy told us to lay low,” she said. “They could have evacuated us if they wanted. My friends and I lived with the knowledge that if it got really bad we would be evacuated and separated and never really get to say goodbye. That was a reality but it was in the back of our minds. We tried not to think about it.”

Keller and her family were able to stay in Nigeria until her high school graduation.

“I was glad my parents decided to leave then,” she said. “It was closure in the fact that I could not stay. There were no further educational opportunities in Nigeria. I had reached the end. There was nowhere else for me to go.”

Keller said when she got to TCU, people thought she was from South Africa, because the country has black and white residents.

“They didn’t understand why I would associate myself with Africa when I was technically American,” she said. “At an International Student Association party we divided up into continents. I went to Africa and they told me America was over (in another direction). I wasn’t accepted in that group.”

Grete Brown, one of Keller’s roommates and a junior psychology major, said Keller’s African heritage was not obvious when she met her, but was noticeable.

“It is definitely not apparent in the physical sense, because she’s as blonde as can be, doesn’t have an accent, and dresses like a typical American,” Brown said. “When you have a conversation with her, though, she can relate a lot of things back to Nigeria and she talks a lot about the people she knew and loved there.”

Keller also said many people at TCU don’t understand how different her life was.

“I think of how privileged Americans are and how much I had to do without,” she said. “It is hard for me at times to see people and see how privileged they are and think they don’t really know what it feels like. I am starting to forget what it feels like, and that is hard for me.”

Brown said she is often reminded of how different Keller’s life was because Keller appreciates little things in life.

“She had to work hard for things we take for granted in the states,” Brown said. “She really appreciates the simple things like electricity and instant food. But since they had to make all their food from scratch, she is a great cook.”

Keller said while at TCU she has found there are many things people take for granted.

“In Colby (Hall) my freshman year, the lights and phones went off for a while,” Keller said. “All the girls were running down the hall complaining because they couldn’t talk on their phones for a few minutes and saying they were scared.”

Keller said in Nigeria her family was never guaranteed electricity and often went more then a day without it.

“Late at night if the lights went out, what could you do?” she asked. “You went to bed. There was never enough electricity. You just dealt with it and got on with things.”

Keller also said that though they had a phone, it rarely worked. An e-mail took about 12 hours to reach them and Internet access was very expensive.

“I was expected to know about the Internet when I came to TCU,” Keller said. “I didn’t have access to the Internet so I just had to teach myself when I got to the states.”

Keller said she never regretted growing up in Nigeria, though.

“I knew my parents were there for a reason — to reach out to people,” she said. “That made me feel like I had more of an important role. When I came to TCU, it made me feel that it was my own place to be my own mission field.”

Keller said she is unsure if she will get to go back to Nigeria, because of the dangers there.

There have been riots and conflicts between the Muslims and Christians, which has made it hard to travel back.

“I really want to be there suffering with my homeland,” Keller said. “But I am grateful that I am in a country were it is safe.”

Meanwhile, Keller said she will continue to adjust to American culture without forgetting her heritage, which makes up such a huge part of who she is.

Erin LaMourie
E.M.LaMourie@student.tcu.edu

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