Features

Father Claudes Kisuka, mentoring new Americans

BY JEANITA DANZIK

The growing community of Africans from French-speaking countries has the same needs and concerns as other communities of recent arrivals. Fortunately for the members of Notre Dame d'Afrique, they have an advocate in Father Claudes Kisuka, himself a recent immigrant from the Congo.

On a busy Monday morning, he took time out of his schedule to discuss the needs and triumphs his parishioners encounter as they adapt to American culture.

The first thing he wants to make clear is that he is not a proponent of self-isolation. Instead, he believes the best way to help the members of this group is by encouraging them to embrace their new country as fully as possible.

"When they isolate themselves in their own communities, they become too comfortable. They will sometimes even revive tribal grudges best left behind," he says.

He believes that the best way to integrate is to learn English.

"If a parishioner continues to need everything translated year after year, it's a sign that they aren't making an effort to expand their boundaries," he says.

Housed in Christ the King Parish, Notre Dame d'Afrique provides space for socializing and learning about American society. When Father Claudes first started the parish, he believed its primary purpose would be to create a place where members could bask in their home cultures, but his attitude changed when he saw that his parishioners weren't participating in American culture as fully as they could have.

"The children born in America consider themselves Americans," Father Claudes says. "They are proud of their African heritage and their French language, but it is no longer a shield or barrier for them."

Father Claudes' parishioners come from the Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Senegal, the Congo, Cameroon, and other countries. They have the French language in common, but they also share the bewilderment and alienation common to anyone facing the task of absorbing the tenets of an unfamiliar society. Easing this sense of estrangement is one of his most important tasks.

"What they need most is someone to listen to them," Father Claudes says. "They feel uprooted, and when they encounter someone who has also been uprooted, it gives them a sense of hope that if I lived through it, they will, too. After they have regained a sense that they can effect positive change in their own lives, they can face the tasks that confront them."

Father Claudes offers practical advice as well.

"The very first thing they must do is to acquire the documentation that permits them to work legally," he says, a point on which he will not be moved. "Sometimes people say I am unwilling to help them [find work], but I tell them that when they can work legitimately, they can live their lives with dignity."

Dignity, freedom, and self-respect are themes that consistently recur during the course of the conversation. The last thing he wants for his parishioners is to have to skulk in the shadows. America, he says, compares favorably to some European countries where police officers have the right to demand to see identification for no reason whatsoever.

"Here in America they don't do that. Once you have your documentation, you can live your life freely," he says.

Balancing his concern for his parishioners' difficulties is his obvious pride in their achievements. Notre Dame d'Afrique has a thriving youth group called Elykia, a word that means "new hopes" in the Lingala language of central Africa. Through Elykia, he organizes conferences and lectures to assist the young people in the process of adjustment.

Elykia has a musical group named Stella Gracia. That name, he says, is a reminder to the youngsters to follow their own stars and never give up.

When the members of Notre Dame d'Afrique get jobs and begin to settle in to their new lives, Father Claudes feels a personal sense of accomplishment. He tells the story of a member who recently received a doctorate, after only five years here. And the three young women who have recently graduated from Einstein High School and gone on to college. He quotes Bob Marley, saying, "‘education is the key.'"

It is a suprisingly appropriate reference in a conversation about becoming part of the fabric of American life and culture. Marley, Father Claudes says, said it best when he said this: "different colors, one people."