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A Young Black Man, raised in the rurals arrives in Europe…

  • Mnqobi Banele Njoko
  • Jun 20, 2016
  • 4 min read

For many years I have had a dream of going to study in Europe or the United States. I would get consumed by my own imagination of what it is like, how I would be like and what it would mean to me. I didn’t have a friend or family member who has lived abroad for me to get a realistic picture of what it is like. Perhaps this was a good thing because I kept this dream based on my imagination and basic google search results. In 2014 a scholarship was advertised and like others I applied. I never even stressed about it after sending the application as I was just taking a chance. The news that I have been accepted came and now I had to think about it and I was so excited.

One of my dreams was now a few doors from reality, I had to make plans for that to materialize. I had kept it low key because of fear of disappointment so much that I only told my mother 2 weeks before departure date. The visa was not frustrating as I had imagined but again perhaps that is because it was not my first visa so I was familiar with the processes now. One of my biggest concerns though was how will I relate to fellow South African students. I wanted to live my life as I please, without having anyone to explain myself to like when I am here, yet I didn’t want to be a loner. Well, I ended up being best friends with a Jozi girl who had same concerns.

Arriving in Germany… that was surreal. Everything is different and no one speaks English and it is not because they cannot, they just choose not to. So that was the first challenge; language barrier. The only way to overcome this and for you to be integrated into society is to learn their language and their ways. For a long time I was convinced that Germans don’t like foreigners but only later on to discover that that is not entirely correct. They are rather reserved people. So for me as a South African it was difficult getting used to people who do not smile, don’t greet neighbours, and don’t offer to help and so on. You will get in an S-Bhan (street train) and no one will greet you or smile at you and sometimes even sit next to you. Eventually we got used it and soon we didn’t even notice it. For people who live in such a great country (socio-economically), they are not happy people.

After that one had to get used to how efficient everyone is. Having travelled to other EU countries while living in Germany I still have not been to a country where everything runs as smooth as in Germany and where people are that efficient in what they do. In Germany when the train is said to be 2 minutes late, it really is 2 minutes late. When you have an appointment at the Ausland Burö (Foreign Office) your number will be called on the exact scheduled time. In fast food places even like KFC and Burger King, when they say 3 minutes, they mean 3 minutes. This fascinated me and made me appreciate everyone I dealt with. It is one of the things we need to work on as a country.

Because of how efficient the transport system runs going out is so stress free. There is trains and buses till the morning and you just use your Student Semester ticket. Germans have no stress of driving home drunk or having to call a cab and it makes going out more enjoyable. On top of this, it is so safe… walking home alone after a night out is not testing death like in our country and our cities. For two year Kiki and I walked home after nights of clubbing and nothing ever happened, not even intimidation. Instead, once people have had a few drinks they get guts to approach you and ask about where you come from and your culture and how they love your brown skin. Again this needed some getting used to because it was annoying that only once in clubs and drunk do they speak because on campus no one will ever stop you.

Though all of this was great, there also is the reality that you miss home, your family, your friends, familiar environment. It does not matter how efficient, how safe, how clean the country is there is always that feeling of not belonging. As a people we can have everything but if we don’t feel like we belong it doesn’t matter. It was because of this need to belong that we ended up forming a small South African community and it made such a huge difference. We understood each other and we were there for each other. Europe is amazing but it could never be home and the only way to understand that is to go experience it yourself.

There is so much to say, but we leave here for now.

Mnqobi Banele Njoko.

Rhur-Universität Bochum, Germany.


 
 
 

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