Leeann Moses
Geography 201-040
Prof. J. McKenzie
Interview with Mohammed Bah

Mohammed Yusuf Bah born November 11, 1982 is a recent graduate from City College of the City University of New York and a cab driver by night within the five boroughs of the city. He is currently studying to take the MCAT exam and hopes to be admitted at the Mt. Sinai Medical School as he aspires to be a Physician. Born and raised in Sierra Leone, Mohammed migrated to the United States in 2002. We became friends in 2005 after we shared the same place of employment for two years. Due to our shared common occupation, interest and some similar demographics, I felt intrigue to find out the dynamics behind my friend's migration.
Raised in the village of Jujuma, the village is located on the eastern side of Sierra Leone which is west of the continent Africa. Its population is very small and is made up of mainly Islamic followers. Mohammed describes his homeland in a memorial state as he painted the picture of detached houses made out of wood or clay and sometimes a combination of both, with some having zinc sheets for roofs and cement to cover the floor and walls. Houses are either round or rectangular and typically offer a veranda with two or three rooms that may function as the bedrooms or as a food storage area. The preparation of meals is done outdoor on stone. For food, rice is the stole staple food, consumed at virtually every meal, Mohammed joked without exaggeration, "If I haven't eaten rice today, then I haven't eaten." Other things are of course eaten; wide range of fruits and vegetables, ground provisions which are all grown by people themselves. He informed me that Jujuma does have a food taboo against pork.
Religion was very important as his family prayed several times a day according to the five pillars of Islam. The style of clothing was that of cultural; majority of the population wear hijabs and the women cover their faces with a veil. A day in Jujuma is well calculated as there is some form of uniformity among the villagers. Mohammed breathed hard as he did a self-analysis and admitted that he misses his homeland and the culture that kept him grounded as a child and a developing young man.
In 1991, a group of armed Sierra Leoneans and Liberians began a 9 year civil conflict. Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives and almost all of the population has at one time been displaced, Mohammed’s family fell within the statistics. He recalled the scariest experience in his life when he witnessed the death of his cousin; one evening while they were walking home, they were confronted by rebels and without warning, his cousin’s hands and feet were cut off, Mohammed stated he dropped to his knee, begging for mercy, he was let off with a warning that his family must leave the country by sun up the next morning. He said that his life was spared because one of the rebels knew his parents. The family hastily packed and left all their generated memories behind as they left Sierra Leone the very next morning in September of 2001 and migrated to Guinea where they lived with relatives. Within couple of months, his father and eldest brother will get the opportunity to migrate to the US, Mohammed couldn’t recall how the opportunity arose and how they migrated as his parents didn’t discuss matters of such complexity and to this day, his family does not discuss the events.
Having the manly duties enlisted to him, Mohammed was forced to stop school, get a job and become the constant sole provider for his family. His father had left behind 2 wives and the 8 children they shared. Mohammed describes this period of his life as very challenging but only as of recent value the skills he learned from taking on responsibility at a non-contemporary age. It wouldn’t be a year and Mohammed’s father will usher him in the US leaving another brother in charge of the responsibilities. Mohammed said he thought the opportunity was his lucky boat to freedom and the enjoyment of life and was more than elated to leave Guinea to come to the US. Remembering the day he left Guinea very vividly, he said he packed nothing but treats to eat during the long plane ride because he was coming to a place that have it all. Mohammed said he felt the animosity and great tension as he was greeted by his senior brother at the airport. Arriving after midnight, the brother instructed him that he already has a job interview for him that very same day and continued to orient and lay out the ground rules such as no girlfriends, no hanging out on the streets and so forth. His father lives in Maryland and is married again to his third wife and has another child with her. This was surprising to Mohammed as he never knew of his father’s latest development. Upset by the news, he resented his father and senior brother who he speculated knew all about it.
Feeling alone and hurt in a new place, Mohammed said he moved to Brooklyn and rented a room from a woman and paid $75 weekly. The job his brother had gotten him was at a children’s department store and it paid $300 per week, he said after sending his mother money and paying his rent, he didn’t even have sufficient amount of money to eat and buy a metro card. It would be at his first job, he would find love and things would begin to look promising. He describes his girlfriend as African –American, very pretty, a girl every guy in the store wanted to be with. Sadly, because of his lack of English, he spoke very little of it and couldn’t read nor write the language, he would later find out that his girlfriend was cheating on him. Mohammed joked as he recalled the incident, he said that he send a series of text message to his phone and consulted with a friend he had made at the store to help him to understand what was the context of her messages. His instincts proved him right and he made an oath to himself that he would go to school to learn English to ensure no one ever take advantage of him again. Over the course of 13 years, he has managed to complete Grammar school, his GED, Associates and Bachelors degrees. Graduated with Honors, he received several scholarships, held the title of VP of his school’s Student Government Association, travelled to Austria for a study aboard program and volunteer at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center.
Mohammed was very commentary when I asked, “What laws should the US have towards immigration and immigrants? Should it be open to all immigrants, or should immigration be limited? He stated that when he migrated his expectations was very high; employment would be easy to find, the housing quality would be that of a five star hotel and that it wouldn’t be as competitive as it is. He went on to praise the U.S for establishing and upholding basic civil laws, he compared the security administration of Sierra Leone to the U.S and indicated that he feels secure and liberated. He considers himself to be a dual-citizen; sharing some of his morals and values he have developed as a child and his new perspectives he have adopted as a migrant. Elaborating, he added that the earth should have no perimeters; the land and seas should be accessible to any human being, animal or living species that wants to circumvent it areal with their available potentials. Migration has been a way of life for human beings from prehistoric times to the present, people seeks better living and working conditions for survival in different time periods of their lives and want to experience what different parts of the world has to offer. Mohammed’s migration is a combination of voluntary, forced, refugee and international. He migrated two times, one being regional and the other being international. His migration from Sierra Leone to Guinea was out of fear for him and his family’s life, thus making him a refugee, his migration to the US was forced as his father ordered him to come to the U.S and lastly it was voluntary as Mohammed stated he was over elated to leave Guinea.
Mohammed at the time of his migration was 20 years old and fit some of the characteristics of Raventine’s law of migration. The laws that he fulfilled are “Most international migrants consist of young males between the ages of 20 and 45, Major cause for migration is for economic reasons and most long distance migrants are male.
According to Rubenstein, author of “Contemporary Human Geography”, More than one-half the immigrants to the U.S. are clustered in 4 states; California, New York, Florida, and Texas. When Mohammed migrated to the US, he stayed with his brother who lives in New York and to present day is part of a large demographic that includes a flock of migrants from African countries. The fact that his senior brother and father migrated prior to him and paved a way for him to migrate fits into Rubenstein’s definition of “Chain migration” which he defines as “The migration of people to a specific location because relatives or members of the same nationality previously migrated there.” Without scholarly research, one can vividly observe with their naked eyes how migrants from a particular region settle in an area, form a tight-knit community and create a realism sense depicting their culture from their native lands and sharing it with the many dual citizens and citizens of the land, hence we have developed nickname for some places, such as China Town and little Italy.
Raventine’s theory of Migrants proceeding long distances generally go by preference to one of the great centers of commerce or industry was applicable to Mohammed as he migrated to an inner city where it is poverty stricken but have tons of employment opportunities. Even though, the jobs aren’t high paying, for Mohammed when calculated, he saw it as a win…win situation for him.

Migration Path

Work Cited

Rubenstein, James 2013 Contemporary Human Geography, 2nd Edition
E.G. Rvenstein Journal of the Statistical Society of London Vol. 48, No2 (Jun.,1885), pp.167-235
Oral interview- Mohammed Yusuf Bah