Moving to America

Brian Lehrer (0:10)

It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. We'll get a take now on what it's like being an international student in the US, both what it takes to get here and what it's like to be here, especially during times of social and political upheaval.

Before beginning her master's degree in the fall of 2019, the Ugandan writer Ber Anena wrote an article in The Atlantic, headlined, I'm emptying my bank account to go to Columbia, where she wrote about the huge uphill battle she faced trying to finance her education. She managed to fundraise and crowdsource enough funding to cover her first semester at Columbia University's creative writing MFA program, but money was tight. Also, the first Trump administration was in full swing. The pandemic was just around the corner, as were the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 So it wasn't exactly a quiet time. Ber Anena is with us now to talk about her new book that came out this week, called The Lies We Tell for America, which chronicles her journey from Uganda to the US as an international student pursuing a career as a writer. I should say while some of the frame here is about being a student, Ber Anena is already an accomplished and celebrated writer and performer. For example, her debut poetry collection, A Nation in Labor, won the Role Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa in 2018

Anena, thanks for joining us with your new book. Welcome to WNYC.

Ber Anena (1:42)

Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.

Brian Lehrer (1:45)

Set the scene for us a little bit. What made you want to come to New York and go to Columbia for an MFA in the late 20 teens?

Ber Anena (1:53)

I've always wanted to write, write when I was a young girl growing up in Northern Uganda.

I believed that attending a writing program would improve my craft and provide me the networks, the opportunities, the connections to get my work out in the world. And because Uganda doesn't have creative writing programs, journalism was the closest I could get. And so I started with a journalism degree, but I always felt the need and desire to pursue an MFA. And when I got admitted to Columbia, I knew that I had to take the chance because by 2018, I had already been applying to different schools for more than five years without funding. And so I thought I could do this through any means possible. And so the blatant fundraising, the GoFundMe, and yeah, that's how I ended up in New York.

Brian Lehrer (3:04)

How did you process that you were coming to an environment where Donald Trump was president and he had already been reported to have made the infamous statement that Haiti, El Salvador, and many African countries were so-called bleephole countries?

Ber Anena (3:21)

Yeah. It actually didn't hit me when I was still in Uganda. My mind was focused on getting my degree and just getting on with my writing. But once I came to New York and I started experiencing things up close, notably by the end of the second semester of the program, when I needed to get out of the university housing, that's when the administration was saying, if you are an international student and you're studying online, then you should leave and go back to your country because it was COVID. And I think part of our visa requirements was that you're supposed to attend classes in person. And because in-person classes are already not happening, that was something that was on the table. And I just thought, wow, this is really serious now.

And so it became a very isolating situation, not just physically, culturally, too, and politically.

Brian Lehrer (4:36)

Listeners, we can take your phone calls with Ber Anena. Who goes by Anena, right? As if it's your first name. I'm not calling you by your last name. In case people, you know, you're not calling me Lehrer. I'm not calling you Anena. But listeners, we can hear some of your stories. If you're an international student or are right now in the United States, what part of being in the US surprised you the most, good or bad? What cultural things are Americans totally unaware of that feels or felt completely foreign to you? How can you help us see ourselves perhaps be kind of a modern de Tocqueville in that respect? And as it relates to mass politics and social movements for sure, but also the little stuff like how the classroom operates, how roommates operate. A friend of mine who was an immigrant from Ireland said, I never knew any country could eat so many bananas. What did you learn about American culture coming here that you had no idea about, that maybe you want to point out? You can call or text 212-433-WNYC, and particularly if you come from any African country and really identify with what Aneta is saying and describing from her book.