By Gideon F. For-mukwai, MA, CEM; First published in Dunia Magazine print, issue 3

What do you think is common between a boy born growing up in the hinterlands of Cameroon in Africa and another boy born growing up in a sub-urban San Francisco Bay Area neighborhood? If you had asked me that question two weeks ago, I‘d have told you, “NOTHING!”

If you ask me that same question today, I ‘ll say “STORIES!” Yes, I can say stories, thanks to a new realization; I now prefer to call it a new a fascination with stories that connect. Apparently, there is an invincible thread of stories that connect all of us, regardless of whether we were raised in a suburban neighborhood in the U.S.A., an African village or cave in Siberia.

Recently, I was engaged to present a series of African storytelling sessions at local libraries in Washoe County, Nevada. I did not expect to uncover any surprises. All I wanted to do was to tell stories and in the process also listen to my audience share their own stories, and bits and pieces from their pasts. Little did I know I was in for some amazing parallels and poignant moments.

By the end of the second day of presenting the stories, I was dumbfounded by what I found to be invincible similarities, stories and events that have shaped us. Regardless of where participants came from, we observed some very unique details that connected us from America, to Russia, Sierra Leone, Hong Kong; from Cameroon, Egypt, and more. These were not the types of details that we expected.

It all started to erupt when I asked the audience to talk about their personal experiences growing up. I assured them that every single mouth has a story to tell the world and that no one ‘s story was better than another’s. The most important thing is to learn something from every story. That opened the floodgates.

To my greatest delight, both the young and old responded with equal enthusiasm. The parallels and similarities were obvious. As they talked, we all listened and nodded, thankfully, nobody cried. As each talked about their challenges and the issues that have shaped them, the more we saw interconnections between us.

Even though we were all strangers to each other in the room, we were struck by how close we became through our stories. Some members of the audience realized that they had lived in the same towns and cities and walked the same streets with others, attended the same schools and had been in the same departments. Others belonged to the same professional or civic groups.

The Poignant Moments

On the second day of my presentation at Spanish Springs, a sub-urban neighborhood in the City of Sparks, Nevada, there was an American lady in the audience who had lived in my hometown of Bamenda, Cameroon. She stunned me by asking me, “Where in the world can I buy njama-njama?”
Don’t get excited! Njama njama, is not marijuana. It is a Pidgin English (broken English) word for a common vegetable widely eaten in Cameroon known as huckleberry. More importantly, that lady‘s question immediately made me know that I was culturally connected to an American lady by an African foodstuff both of us longed to eat.

Another gentleman in the audience who grew up in sub-urban Bay Area, California told us that his favorite math teacher at college was a man from Cameroon. He said, “He was very strict, but also very nice!” He was shocked when I shared with him that my favorite math teacher was an American Peace Corps volunteer by name, Ms Carol Schnell, who had taught me back in secondary school in Cameroon. It was yet another poignant moment for him and I in realizing that we are culturally linked, thanks to mathematical minds that transcend continents and cultures.

Within every single hour of presenting the past four presentations, I have gone away with at least three poignant coincidences, parallels and similarities that were so striking. It made us wonder, what if there were more people in the room? Perhaps, there would have been more piercing and penetrating details about us.

Clearly, there is a lot that connects us, more than we have ever taken the time to recognize and acknowledge. It also reminded me personally that I carry the burden and the torch of my own people and culture wherever I go. As a torchbearer, I owe it to my people to always give a fair representation of our culture through the stories I share with others. I owe it to others to listen to their stories in order to have a better understanding of their culture and of how we are all interrelated.
Moving forward, I will always pause to look at stories as elements of human and cultural understanding, not only because they have the power to strengthen and weaken our bonds, but also because they can make or break them. I do not know what you think, but for me, I believe that stories are the glue of inter-cultural communication and understanding. They are a powerful currency for every communicator or student of cultural understanding because they have the power to build and bind, notwithstanding the fact that they are invincible and intangible.

Gideon is an entrepreneur, author & speaker. He is the founder of XtraMile Solutions, a training company based in Reno, Nevada. Website: www.1xtramile.com

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