Despite being called Biko for most of his life, his full name is Dyujae Bantu Biko Gayman, reflecting his father\u2019s heritage as a native of Liberia. But \u201cBiko\u201d was more easily pronounced and remembered, so using it became a practical consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gayman is now embracing his given name of Dyugae after recently accompanying a group from Clark led by Kamaro Abubakar<\/a>, associate dean for student success-community living, to Abubakar\u2019s home country of Ghana. Gayman is pictured above with Leyla Knight \u201924 and children they met in Ghana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBeing in Ghana made me appreciate my name more; made me more confident with who I am,\u201d Gayman says. \u201cI understand why my father gave me this name, and I appreciate my West African heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abubakar organized the Ghana trip to give the participants an experience of \u201ccultural immersion,\u201d something that he\u2019d experienced when he immigrated to the United States in 2004. He lived in the Bronx for years before attending the University of Vermont \u2014 an experience, he says, that \u201chelped me understand who I am as a Black person in America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While still a student, Abubakar became intrigued by those who mistakenly assume that African immigrants to the United States necessarily share the same set of experiences as African Americans. How these two groups are distinct, how they interrelate, and how they live with common misconceptions remained a source of curiosity for him \u2014 so much so that he made it the central theme of his doctoral dissertation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I first came to the United States, I had challenges with people who, based on what I looked like, expected me to think and act a certain way,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI didn\u2019t have the same experiences with race and racism as African Americans, and I wanted to explore the stereotypes surrounding both groups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His ongoing fascination with this cultural divide \u2014 and desire to bridge it \u2014 inspired Abubakar to organize the Ghana excursion as a way to immerse Clark students in an unfamiliar setting \u201cto learn about it, but also to figure out who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the assistance of Mosakowski Institute Director Nadia Ward<\/a>, he formalized his vision for the trip and enlisted Mosakowski student fellows to help create an application process and interview students interested in participating. During spring break last month, 11 students and alumni, along with Margo Foreman, vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion; Kathy Esparza from the Mosakowski Institute; and Ward joined Abubakar in Ghana, where he\u2019d flown ahead to make arrangements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The travelers were greeted at the airport with traditional dance and music, and then embarked on 10 days of discovery, learning, and sharing with the people of Ghana. They met with educational, political, and business leaders, as well as with fellow students; explored a wild animal preserve; and visited a school in the northern part of Ghana, where, with Clark\u2019s financial backing, he was able to secure a donation of 100 much-needed school desks. At every step, Abubakar notes, participants were able to build a cross-cultural understanding with their hosts, exploring differences and identifying areas of commonality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Memorable touchpoints were visits to Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle, former strongholds for the West African slave trade. Captured Africans were brought to these coastal fortresses, where they were imprisoned and forced onto boats to begin their torturous oceanic journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kennedy Messado, a sophomore psychology major from Kingston, Jamaica, who is a fellow at the Mosakowski Institute, found the Elmina visit particularly wrenching. Jamaica and Ghana have a long, entwined history, she says, with many enslaved Ghanaians sent to work in the Jamaican sugarcane fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve learned about the struggles, but at the castle where they punished the slaves you could feel the suffocation and the pain. That was unexpected,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m not a crier, but I shed a lot of tears that day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like Abubakar, Messado felt a personal disconnect coming to the U.S. to study, noting that Jamaicans don\u2019t share the same cultural and historical narrative as African Americans, and she has sought to better understand and acknowledge differing perspectives. Messado worked to achieve similar awareness in Ghana, where she and the Clark group navigated an unfamiliar culture. Conversations with university students in Ghana revealed an intense interest in the U.S. and specifically in Worcester, because of its large Ghanaian population, she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jasmin Blanco-Zapata, a junior from Westchester, New York, described the \u201ceffortless\u201d conversations with her peers in Ghana. \u201cThere was genuine curiosity about what it\u2019s like to go to school in the United States, and we were curious about their institutions and their daily lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She says the trip gave her deeper insight and appreciation for her parents, who grew up in Honduras and who, like Abubakar, had to readily adjust to an entirely new way of life when they immigrated to the U.S. \u201cThis really helped me to value their experience,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of the students they encountered, many were studying environmental science with a singular goal. Their intention \u201cwas to make sure their community had clean water,\u201d Blanco-Zapata says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abubakar said he wants to extend this experience in several ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m interested in what we can bring back to the Clark and Worcester communities through this,\u201d he says. \u201cHow are we connecting to the community we\u2019re in? How can we learn about the differences between the two places and build mutual understanding?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He says his ultimate goal is to make Ghana a regular destination for the University\u2019s Study Abroad<\/a> program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Ghana](\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/Ghana-group-at-school-1.jpg\")
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