Seeing More West African Foods In Grocery Stores? Thank Co-Founders Of AYO Foods For The Shift

Ayo Food Founders Perteet and Fred Spencer

BY DARCEL ROCKETT

CHICAGO, IL (CHICAGO TRIBUNE) -- The frozen meals that AYO Foods creates and markets sit next to P.F. Chang’s food in Target’s freezer section.

But AYO Foods founders, Perteet and Fred Spencer, would prefer their fare be next to Amy’s Kitchen, the organic packaged and prepared foods giant.

“If you look at our caloric intake, our protein content, our fiber content, it’s very comfortable, if not better than some of the other kind of ‘better for you’ frozen items out there,” Perteet Spencer said. “And I can guarantee you it’s going to be much more flavorful.”

The Spencers launched AYO Foods, an array of West African frozen meals and hot sauces, in July 2020. In two years, they’ve expanded into stores nationwide, including Chicagoland Mariano’s, Heinen’s and The Fresh Market stores.

Frozen options range from jollof rice to cassava leaf stew, egusi seed soup just begging for some doughy fufu to sop up all the rich flavors, and chicken yassa, a popular dish of slow-braised chicken thighs with lemon and caramelized onion.

The couple partnered with “Top Chef” alumnus Eric Adjepong and chef Zoe Adjonyoh — cookbook author and founder of Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen, to promote West African cuisine through the brand. As the daughter of a Liberian immigrant, Perteet Spencer said she believes everyone deserves to see themselves when they walk down the grocery aisle.

“We’re talking about an entire continent not represented in grocery stores,” Perteet Spencer said with an incredulous tone. “It’s not a monolith; we’re talking about 17 different countries (in West Africa). Every tribe, every country, they all have their unique way of doing things.”

The regional cuisines share similar ingredients, and “it’s just the process of cooking — the different seasoning and flavors that you use — that separates them,” her husband said.

Before making fresh egusi stew with egusi seeds, chicken, onions and collards, Perteet makes her way to an African market on Foster Avenue and Broadway to gather dried crawfish and shrimp powder, seeds, and iru, also known as locust beans. Now, a version of the same dish with such hard-to-find ingredients is available at dozens of stores across the country.


“We’re really excited to take people on this journey through West Africa to allow them to experience the flavors and ingredients,” she said. “The common mark that unites the food are these really slow-cooked, layered flavors ... that’s pretty consistent with everything, whether it’s the dough rising on the puff puff, or the stew simmering on the cassava leaf.”

Fred Spencer likens the AYO Foods process to cooking soul food, with big pots, layered flavors and hearty, traditional fare.

But finding ways to retain the depth and quality of those slow-cooked dishes on a mass production scale took serious effort, Perteet Spencer said. At one point, she brought in her mother so manufacturers could shadow her preparation in order to do it properly and not rush the process.

“We have lots of horror stories early in our journey of partners that didn’t work out because they wanted to speed up the process,” she said. “If you have a pot of greens, the best ones are those that cook low and slow. We needed to honor that process as we found partners to scale this up.”

The result are ingredient lists that are familiar and alluring: roasted garlic puree made of simply garlic, extra virgin olive oil, and thyme accents the chicken yassa; just five ingredients comprise the fried puff puff bread.

“We’re using fresh vegetables, we’re doing that slow-cooking process. We’re not cutting corners,” she said. “It was really important for us to honor the process and not short change it as we went through our journey. It’s just how we operate.”

That operation began three years ago, when the Spencers, DePaul University college sweethearts, noticed market trends changing.

“We saw this huge rise in global flavors, a massive gap in flavors of the continent in total,” she said. So she left her corporate job as a brand manager with General Mills to bring joy to the world — ayo means “joy” in Yoruba — full time, with Fred’s urging and support.

While she takes credit for introducing her husband to Liberian food, she said she learned how to cook from her father. He i emigrated from Lofa County, the northernmost portion of Liberia, to the Twin Cities in Minnesota at age 17, bringing with him cooking that reminded him of home. Her parents would eventually meet in Minnesota.

Perteet and Fred’s large families serve as inspiration to the food brand, but it’s the pair’s love of food that is the nexus of AYO Foods. Fred, a real estate developer, opened a restaurant when he was 24 years old (something he said the couple might get back to someday). With a grandmother from Alabama, the Roseland native recalls cooking as a childhood chore, because he would get all the tedious food prep duties. But that’s changed since he’s gotten older.

The family affair that cooking has always been is now one the youngest Spencers are picking up. Perteet and Fred’s daughters, 11 and 8 years old, like the kitchen so much, sometimes they have to be pushed out of the space. Their oldest tries to get her biscuits as flaky as her father’s, and she’s currently working on perfecting her macaroons, said Perteet Spencer.

“They love being involved in the kitchen with us,” she said. “I didn’t start cooking until college, and to see them start so young, it’s exciting to see. You can’t have family together without a ton of really incredible food.”

The first AYO Foods dishes were those the couple personally love — jollof rice, egusi soup and cassava leaf stew. The couple prides themselves on AYO Foods being rich in nutrients and low in sodium.

“Obesity is at an all-time high, diabetes is at an all-time high, hypertension is at an all-time high. We couldn’t in good conscience put out a product that was a contributor to all of that,” Perteet said. “I think one of the things that AYO does really beautifully is prove that food can be good and tasty, but still be good for you. We wanted to really be able to set a model for that.”

The plan for the brand is to expand beyond frozen foods to bring greater inclusivity and diversity to shelves. AYO Foods already has pepper and shito sauces — the former is habanero-based, the latter has a seafood base, complemented by hot peppers, tomatoes and caramelized onions.

“We started with frozen primarily because it’s the easiest transition to have authentic ingredients — not adding preservatives or anything like that — to bring the true essence of the food,” Fred Spencer said. “But we want to make this a broad brand, as opposed to just frozen.”

The self-described “big dreamers” know the platform AYO Foods allows has a lot of wingspan to make an impact above and beyond celebrating the culture through packaged foods. The Moonboi Project is the Spencers philanthropic effort born from that platform — one that enriches the West African culture.

In December, AYO Foods partnered with Girl Power Africa, a nonprofit committed to empowering women and children impacted by civil war and Ebola in Liberia through entrepreneurship. AYO is supporting the cultivation of 15 acres of Liberian farmland, the Spencers said.

“Part of what we’re doing with these dishes is bringing awareness to these crops, to this food, which we hope in turn creates increased demand and economic change in West Africa,” Perteet said. “Already we’ve built three homes, fully cleared the land, (and) we’re starting to see the first crop yield. And the yield of that is actually being used to give back to women who were victims of either Ebola or the Liberian civil war as seed capital to start businesses of their own.”

Seeing the impact the food brand is providing in such a short time has the Spencers excited about the potential of AYO Foods to not only change the lives of their immediate families, but other communities in desperate need of help, as well.

“If anything can get across from any of this is that, AYO was created as a family company,” Fred Spencer said. “We’re doing this as a family together, and that’s what’s going to make it successful.”

Illinois Historically Black College To Close After 157 Years

The campus of Lincoln College is shown Tuesday, April 12, 2022, in Lincoln, Ill. The historically Black college in central Illinois named after Abraham Lincoln and founded the year the former president was assassinated will close this week, months after a cyberattack that compounded enrollment struggles due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)/Chicago Tribune via AP)

BY DON BABWIN

CHICAGO (AP) — A historically Black college in central Illinois named after Abraham Lincoln and founded the year the former president was assassinated will close this week, months after a cyberattack that compounded enrollment struggles due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Lincoln College, which saw record enrollment numbers in 2019, said in a news release that it scrambled to stay afloat with fundraising campaigns, a consolidation of employee positions, and exploring leasing alternatives.

“Unfortunately, these efforts did not create long-term viability for Lincoln College in the face of the pandemic,” the school, which opened in 1865 in Lincoln, about 170 miles southwest of Chicago, said in the release.

Then, as COVID cases fell and students returned to schools across the country, the college was victimized by a December cyberattack. It left all the systems needed to recruit students, retain them and raise money inoperable for three months.

Lincoln’s president, David Gerlach, told the Chicago Tribune that the school paid a ransom of less than $100,000 after an attack that he said originated in Iran. But when the systems were fully restored, the school that had just over 1,000 students during the 2018-19 academic year discovered “significant enrollment shortfalls” that would require a massive donation or partnership to stay open beyond the current semester.

A GoFundMe campaign called Save Lincoln College was launched with a goal of raising $20 million but as of this week, only $2,352 had been raised. And Gerlach told the Tribune that the school needed $50 million to remain open.

“The loss of history, careers, and a community of students and alumni is immense,” Gerlach said in a statement. The school did not immediately return a call Tuesday from The Associated Press.

The school also announced that the Higher Learning Commission had approved what are called Teach Out/Transfer Agreements with 21 colleges. The school held a college fair last month to give students a chance to learn where they might want to transfer.

WEST AFRICA: Where Democracy Is Failing, Coups Are Happening

BY ELIZABETH SHACKELFORD

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

The latest blow to democracy is the explosion of coups around the world. Weak democratic governments that are failing to deliver are being overthrown. This global phenomenon has been most evident in West Africa.

In the past 18 months, coups have occurred in Burkina Faso, Guinea and Chad. Mali has had two in that period, and Niger and Guinea-Bissau have narrowly escaped coup attempts. More coups occurred in 2021 alone than in the prior five years combined. Africa has been no stranger to coups since the postcolonial independence period began in the 1960s, but they had been on the decline for 20 years — until now.

This uptick in coups has occurred at a time of democratic decline globally. The specific circumstances of each of the recent coups are different, but two factors consistently have contributed to an environment conducive to military takeovers.

First, weak democratic governments have failed to demonstrate that they can deliver security or services for their citizens. In Burkina Faso and Mali, people have lived in fear under an increasingly violent insurgency that has killed thousands and displaced millions across the Sahel, and their governments have been incapable of getting it under control. Military governments are no panacea to insecurity, but the public has become receptive to the idea that strongmen and hard power can save them.

In some ways, international assistance has taken this approach, too. International partners have responded to the uptick in violence with a focus on military solutions at the cost of strengthening democratic institutions. France has led this with a counterterrorism operation in the region that began in 2014, but the United States and others also have been deeply engaged.

Look no further than the generals who led the coups. Since 2008, military officers trained by the United States have attempted at least nine coups across West Africa, eight of which succeeded. Many of the U.S.-trained military units across the region have been implicated in serious human rights abuses as well.

As a way of addressing terrorism, this might make sense. But the conflicts in the Sahel are driven by underlying grievances that fueled local insurgencies well before the Islamic State group and al-Qaida entered the scene. Without addressing inequality, endemic poverty, scarce resources, ethnic conflict and poor governance, counterterrorism campaigns on their own are little more than whack-a-mole.

The West helps these militaries get stronger while democratic institutions struggle to gain a foothold, leaving populations disillusioned with their leadership. Improving institutions and governance is slow, making it an unsatisfying approach for donor countries seeking results. But leading with a security focus has failed. They should prioritize reinforcing democracy instead.

Second, international partners, including regional multilateral bodies, have been loath to take meaningful action against undemocratic acts in recent years. This has created a permissive environment in which strongmen have felt free to seize power with little concern for facing meaningful consequences.

This differs significantly from even a few years ago. In 2015, a coup attempt in Burkina Faso was met with uniform pushback, the threat of international intervention, and outcry not only from regional bodies like the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States, but from the United Nations as well. African political leaders intervened to hold talks that ultimately resulted in an agreement for a return to civilian rule.

This kind of response has been missing from subsequent coup attempts. The U.N. Security Council, for one, has lost its bite. In 2015, both Russia and China joined the rest of the U.N. Security Council members in condemning the military junta in Burkina Faso. This strongly reinforced the acts of ECOWAS and the African Union, whose actions alone do little to impede military strongmen.

Changing geopolitical realities make it harder for the leading multilateral institutions to act in unison over even the most extreme offenses against international norms. In January, Russia and China blocked the U.N. Security Council from supporting ECOWAS’ decision to sanction Mali’s military leaders after they announced that elections would not occur for five years. The body could not even muster enough support to release statements against the 2021 coups in Chad and Guinea. If the leading democratic nations cannot rely on global consensus, they must look for other ways to discourage democratic backsliding.

The future of democracy depends on its ability to provide security and prosperity for its people. Those who want democracy to succeed must help make the case. The United States and its democratic allies must work to reinforce democracy in those places where it is getting a foothold, rewarding leaders who make it work and helping them where needed.

We also must stop unintentionally undermining it with a fixation on short-term security. This means not only condemning coups but also discouraging other undemocratic acts. For example, international partners can use carrots as well as sticks to persuade long-standing strongmen to give up power and open the door for democratic change before circumstances invite unconstitutional ones.

If this administration really seeks a renewal of democracy worldwide, it must put its money where its mouth is on democracy and human rights.

Elizabeth Shackelford is a senior fellow on U.S. foreign policy with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She was previously a U.S. diplomat and is author of “The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age.”

Don't Make African Nations Borrow Money To Support Refugees

BY ALEXANDER  BETTS

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Alexander Betts

The European refugee crisis has deluded many voters into believing that most refugees are coming to rich countries. They are not - 84 percent are in low- or middle-income nations. Tanzania is one such country; it hosts over 350,000 refugees mostly from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has had a long-standing commitment to offering sanctuary to persecuted people, despite being among the poorest 30 countries in the world.

In contrast to other countries in the region such as Kenya, Tanzania's reputation for hosting has been generally positive; it pioneered rural self-reliance programs for refugees under its founding president, Julius Nyerere, and offered naturalization to tens of thousands of Burundians under President Jakaya Kikwete from 2005 to 2015. Recently, though, it announced its withdrawal from the so-called Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), a centerpiece of the United Nations ' current reform plans for the refugee system. The CRRF is the operational pillar of a new U.N. Global Compact on Refugees, and one of its main aims is to better support refugee hosting countries like Tanzania, including through greater development assistance.

After months of discussions, Tanzanian President John Magufuli rejected a bill on the compact. The apparent sticking point was that the country would have to borrow money from the World Bank in order to support greater opportunities for refugees. As part of the bank's annual lending window for poor countries, known as IDA18, Tanzania was offered $100 million, split between a loan and a grant. The idea that a country like Tanzania should have to borrow, even at preferential rates, to host refugees on behalf of the international community was roundly derided by Magufuli when he addressed foreign ambassadors in Dar es Salaam on Feb. 9. The government has been clear that it supports refugees but rejected the plan on principle because it wants rich countries to pay Tanzania rather than forcing it to borrow.

U.N. officials in Geneva and New York perceive the Tanzanian decision as an attempt by a nationalist leader to elicit more funding. But it is about much more than money. It is clear to me, having recently spoken with government officials and leaders of nongovernmental organizations, that Tanzania is a country committed to supporting refugees but which feels that international lenders and the United Nations have consistently let it down. The government worries about the security implications of small arms coming to the camps from Burundi and Congo, environmental degradation around the camps, and competition for resources. Above all, what stands out is a sense of historical injustice. Tanzania, having consistently upheld its end of the bargain, has been disappointed by donor states not delivering on their funding commitments.

Tanzania may be a small country, but its reaction has wider ramifications for the global refugee system. Western leaders are especially focused on finding solutions for refugees in havens like Tanzania that are close to conflict zones. And yet, if donors are not even prepared to adequately fund them, there is a real risk that other host countries may follow suit.

Tanzania has been hosting refugees continuously since 1959. During the anti-colonial liberation wars of the 1960s and 1970s, Nyerere offered an open-door policy to hundreds of thousands of people fleeing southern African nations including South Africa and what was then Rhodesia. Tanzania's government gave refugees access to land, making it one of the most progressive refugee-hosting countries in the world. But when Tanzania finally approached international donors for support to make this approach sustainable at the first and second International Conference on Assistance to Refugees in Africa in 1981 and 1984, major donor countries made pledges but failed to deliver. In the mid-1990s, when Tanzania received mass influxes from Burundi in 1993 and then more than 250,000 Rwandans in just a matter of days in 1994, it faced criticism for its forced repatriation of many Rwandans but received only limited support. In 2008, Tanzania announced that it would naturalize 162,000 Burundian refugees who arrived in 1972. Once again, commitments of international support went unfulfilled.

Today, less than 40 percent of the humanitarian budget for refugees in Tanzania is being met. Local concerns from district and regional commissioners in the border regions feature prominently on the radar of the government. In regions such as Kigoma, they have consistently expressed anxiety about the destabilizing effects of small arms and environmental degradation. In this context, and against the backdrop of history, it is understandable that the request to borrow money to implement a plan agreed far away in New York and largely delivered as a fait accompli feels like another bad deal.

Most of the other 12 countries involved in the CRRF rollout seem likely to stick with the process, but there are still broader lessons for refugee politics. Tanzania's central message to international lenders is: Don't be so arrogant as to believe you don't have to build partnerships among equals. Inevitably, a fundamental feature of the refugee system is its glaring power asymmetry. Rich donors fund at their discretion, and poor countries in unstable regions face an international legal obligation to admit refugees. Unlike a growing number of rich countries, poor countries rarely shirk that responsibility or try to weasel out of it. Their willingness to offer sanctuary on their territory risks being taken for granted. Tanzania's announcement is a reminder that if the refugee system is to be sustainable, distant donor states must listen more attentively to the concerns of host countries.

A new approach will require systemic improvements to the refugee system - beginning with more engaged humanitarian diplomacy, better political analysis to understand local and national interests, and more creative financing models.

The World Bank's role in responding to refugee crises should be welcomed. But asking Tanzania to borrow in order to assist refugees is a mistake. Debt forgiveness would be a better way to support host states, especially given that structural adjustment programs and the accumulation of debt underlay Tanzania's shift toward more restrictive refugee policies in the 1990s.

Elsewhere, partnerships have been built with major host countries based on mutual respect. In Jordan, for example, a combination of trade concessions from the European Union and loans and grants from the World Bank and bilateral donors led Jordanian politicians to make it easier for Syrian refugees to work.

If the rich world wants countries adjacent to conflict zones to continue hosting refugees, it needs to begin by recognizing that African politicians face the same constraints as their European or North American counterparts and that they cannot bear the financial burden of accepting refugees alone.

Betts is a professor of forced migration and international affairs at the University of

Kennedy Targets Gun Violence In Illinois Governor Campaign

Democratic Illinois gubernatorial candidate Chris Kennedy, left, gathers with community leaders to discuss gun violence in Chicago at a press conference accompanied by, from left, Chicago Alderman Rick Munoz, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, Rev. Paul Jakes, and U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush in Chicago. Few people running for public office have been more personally affected by gun violence than Chris Kennedy. Now the 54-year-old Democrat has made the issue a centerpiece of his campaign for Illinois governor. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune via AP)

CHICAGO (AP) — Few people running for public office have been more personally affected by gun violence than Chris Kennedy, who was a child when his father and uncle, Sen. Robert Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy, were assassinated.

Now the 54-year-old Democrat has made the issue a centerpiece of his campaign for Illinois governor, talking often about growing up without a father and family trips to Arlington National Cemetery, and saying too many people in Chicago and elsewhere in Illinois are dealing with the same kind of pain.

The move has brought endorsements from African-American leaders, including U.S. Reps. Bobby Rush and Danny Davis, and could help Kennedy earn support in the March primary from black voters who have been disproportionately hurt by gun violence.

But it's also put him at odds with Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and some others and prompted accusations of race baiting, after Kennedy said much of the violence is due to systemic disinvestment in black neighborhoods. He accused Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff, of pushing black people out of the city through a "strategic gentrification plan" that includes cutting funding for police and public schools.

"Our government needs to be held accountable for subjecting our communities to a life of crimes of survival," Kennedy told supporters. "We can reduce and control gun violence in our communities, but we need to be honest with ourselves about why it's happening."

Emanuel called the comments "hallucinatory" and said he would like to hear "ideas, not insults," while a mayoral spokesman said it was "a direct assault on one of this city's greatest strengths — our diversity."

Kennedy's other critics, including campaign rivals, called the comment hypocritical, noting he was praising Emanuel not long ago and even donated $5,000 to his campaign. The Chicago Tribune, in an editorial, called it "a cynical and divisive pitch for votes."

Kennedy is one of six Democrats seeking the party's nomination March 20 for the chance to unseat first-term Gov. Bruce Rauner, who's widely considered one of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents up for re-election this fall. Among the other Democrats running are state Sen. Daniel Biss and billionaire businessman J.B. Pritzker, who's scooped up endorsements from Democratic county officials and major unions, including the Illinois Education Association.

Rush and Davis, who have both lost family members to the city's violence, said they're backing Kennedy because he's put violence prevention and gun control at the top of his agenda. Speaking at a campaign event this month at a church in a west side Chicago neighborhood where homicides have spiked in recent years, Rush said it was "the first time in my lifetime" Illinois has a gubernatorial candidate who knows how violence rips apart a family and a community. Kennedy's father was killed as he ran for president in 1968, years after John F. Kennedy's assassination.

"He understands. He gets it," Rush said. "We don't have to sit down and go over violence." Joining them was Nate Pendleton, whose 15-year-old daughter, Hadiya, was shot and killed days after returning from President Barack Obama's 2013 inauguration, and Kennedy's running mate, Ra Joy, whose 23-year-old son was fatally shot last summer, apparently by someone trying to steal his cellphone.

Chicago police recorded 650 homicides in 2017, down from the year before but still more killings than in New York City and Los Angeles combined. Kennedy criticized Chicago officials for celebrating the decrease. He said the city is using a strategy of "selective containment" in which violence is allowed to continue in certain neighborhoods and minorities are pushed out Chicago, making the city "whiter."

He says his plan to reduce violence would include more investment in neighborhoods, reducing poverty and tougher gun control measures — an approach similar to that of his opponents. Emanuel said he has worked to reverse the decline in the city's black population and reduce violence across Chicago.

Also seeking the Democratic nomination are regional schools superintendent Bob Daiber, activist Tio Hardiman and physician Robert Marshall. Rauner faces a GOP primary challenge from conservative state Rep. Jeanne Ives.

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An Ode To Chicago: My City Of Refuge

BY UNOMA AZUAH

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Unoma Azuah teaches writing at the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago. Her research and activism focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in Nigeria. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

MARCH 2, 2017

I ran into the welcoming arms of Chicago.

As I look at my life, a particular scene in my childhood stands out to me. I was 9 years old, and I was playing soccer with my brothers. But my mother's voice pierced through that moment of joy. It was at the moment when I was so sure that I would have scored that one goal if her voiced hadn't startled me.

She wanted me to stop playing soccer with the boys. Instead, I was to hasten to the kitchen, wash the dishes and tidy up. I was so mad. I dared to question her. I asked her why I was always the one being constantly called upon to do chores, to cook, to clean and wash dishes, but none of that for my brothers.

I can't quite express the shock on my mother's face after I asked her the question. I had always been the good, obedient little girl. Then she spat these words at me, "How dare you question me? Who will take care of your husband and your children when you get to your husband's house? Will your brothers help you when you get to your husband's house?"

My response was, "I don't want any of that. I don't want to be anybody's slave!" That shocked her even more. She didn't need to waste any more words; instead she dashed toward me and I tore into the wildest race of my life. I believed that the kind of wrath my comment had stirred up in her was enough to make her beat me to a pulp if she had caught me, but I ran. For a long time, I kept running, until I decided to stop and confront sexism, homophobia, and all forms of discrimination and hate.

My mother was like most Nigerian mothers, who raise their girl child to become a potential wife to a man, just as they raise their boy child to become a potential husband to a woman. However, for little gay boys and little gay girls, and for homosexual men and lesbians, there are no easy escape routes out of the prisons of heterosexuality, sexism and homophobia. We never find affirming outlets. This can often lead us to life-threatening paths and possibly death.

I left Nigeria because of my sexual orientation. I left Nigeria because I would not sacrifice my life to please some of my country's cultural norms and new wave religions. I left Nigeria because I rejected the status of motherhood and marriage to a man as the only most important achievement every woman should have. I left Nigeria because I want Freedom.

When I left Nigeria, Cleveland, Ohio, was my first home. Then I moved to Richmond, Va. From Virginia, I moved to Maryland; from Maryland, I moved to Tennessee. I was restless, and the Bible Belt of the South threatened to choke me. I didn't have all the rights I wanted, so I left the choke of the South and ran to Chicago.


Chicago was waiting for me with open arms. Chicago gave me all the rights I deserved. Chicago reassured me that love is indeed love. Chicago gave me the honor to marry the woman I love. Chicago with a warm embrace said, "Welcome home."

It was the only city at the time to tell me that I am as good and as equal as every man and woman of this great country, that marriage equality was worth celebrating. Chicago gave me the beauty of a new set of wonderful friends and wonderful families. Chicago gave me the beauty of Lake Michigan; it gave me the pulsating heartbeat of Chicago's downtown and many other blessings. But, above all, Chicago gave me the beauty of being. Chicago is indeed my city of refuge.

Unoma Azuah teaches writing at the Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago. Her research and activism focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in Nigeria.

In Farewell Speech, Obama Warns Of Threats To Democracy

BY RICK PEARSON AND BILL RUTHART

President Barack Obama wipes away a tear during his farewell address Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017 at McCormick Place. Image: Brian Casella/Chicago Tribune

MCCORMICK PLACE (CHICAGO TRIBUNE)--Barack Obama said goodbye Tuesday night to a nation that delivered him a historic presidency and exhorted supporters to work to fulfill democracy's promise as a new era in Washington led by Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump is about to begin.

Even as Obama exits the world and national stage in little more than a week, his nationally broadcast speech to an estimated 18,000 at McCormick Place made clear to thousands of supporters in his adopted hometown of Chicago that his social and civic activism will continue — as a citizen.

Joined by First Lady Michelle Obama, daughter Malia and Vice President Joe Biden, the president credited Chicago with playing a crucial role in his path to public service.

"I first came to Chicago when I was in my early twenties and I was still trying to figure out who I was, still searching for a purpose in my life," Obama said in a speech that lasted about 50 minutes.

"And it was in a neighborhood not far from here where I began working with church groups in the shadows of closed steel mills. It was on these streets where I witnessed the power of faith and the quiet dignity of working people in the face of struggle and loss," said Obama, a South Side community organizer. "Now, this is where I learned that change only happens when ordinary people get involved, and they get engaged, and come together to demand it."

Obama's comments about Chicago came as a woman shouted at him from the audience, holding a sign saying, "Pardon us all now." That prompted supporters to try to shout down the protester by chanting, "Four more years." Police removed the protester.

The farewell speech demonstrated that while Obama is leaving the White House, the 55-year-old president is not headed to quiet retirement amid one-party Republican control of the nation, a controversial successor in the White House and a Democratic Party that finds itself in disarray and without focused leadership.

Instead, the onetime University of Chicago law lecturer delivered a lesson on what he perceives as dangers to democracy, including rising economic inequality, growing racial tensions, fear of terrorism and a fracturing of media that allows people to exist in their own political preference "bubbles," regardless of fact or science.

And while he only mentioned the incoming president once by name — discussing the peaceful transfer of power that will come on Jan. 20 — Obama's message sought to combat some of the concepts and demographic appeals that Trump embraced to win the White House.


Citing the growth of automation in displacing middle-class jobs in the future, Obama called for a new social compact "to guarantee all our kids the education they need, to give workers the power to unionize for better wages, to update the social safety net to reflect the way we live now and make more reforms to the tax code" so corporations and wealthy individuals don't "avoid their obligations to the country."

"We can argue about how to best to achieve these goals. But we can't be complacent about the goals themselves. For if we don't create opportunity for all people, the disaffection and division that has stalled our progress will only sharpen in years to come," he said.

While Obama said his election as the nation's first black president inspired optimism toward a "post-racial America," he added that such a vision "was never realistic."

He also warned economic divisions have intensified racial divisions, particularly at a time when the growth of the nation's Hispanic population continues. To be serious about race, Obama said laws to fight discrimination in hiring, housing, education and criminal justice must be upheld — and "hearts must change."

"For blacks and other minority groups, that means tying our own struggles for justice to the challenges that a lot of people in this country face," Obama said, including "the middle-aged white man who, from the outside, may seem like he's got all the advantages, but who's seen his world upended by economic, cultural and technological change."

For whites, Obama said, "it means acknowledging that the effects of slavery and Jim Crow didn't suddenly vanish in the '60s, that when minority groups voice discontent, they're not just engaging in reverse racism or practicing political correctness; when they wage peaceful protest, they're not demanding special treatment but the equal treatment that our founders promised."

Noting the increasing partisanship that marked his tenure as president, Obama warned another threat to democracy was the trend of people becoming "so secure in our bubbles that we start accepting only information, whether true or not, that fits our opinions instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that's out there."

"Without some common baseline of facts, without a willingness to admit new information and concede that your opponent is making a fair point and that science and reason matter, we'll keep talking past each other, making common ground and compromise impossible," he said.

In what may have been his most direct criticism of Trump, Obama spoke of the threat of terrorism, the vigilance of first responders and the military and vowed "ISIL will be destroyed."

But the president also warned that "democracy can buckle when we give in to fear."

"So just as we, as citizens, must remain vigilant against external aggression, we must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are," Obama said.

"That's why I reject discrimination against Muslim Americans," he added, drawing loud applause. "That's why we cannot withdraw from global fights — to expand democracy and human rights, women's rights, LGBT rights — no matter how imperfect our efforts, no matter how expedient ignoring such values may seem."


Obama also warned of complacency and urged all Americans, regardless of party, to "throw ourselves into the task of rebuilding our democratic institutions. The potential of democracy only works "if our politics better reflects the decency of our people" and if everyone helps to "restore the sense of common purpose that we so badly need right now."

As expected, Obama briefly touched on a list of accomplishments during his tenure, including the Affordable Care Act, which has provided health insurance to 20 million previously uninsured and that the new GOP administration and leadership in Congress has promised to dismantle.

Obama took credit for rescuing the economy he inherited in 2009 as the Great Recession deepened, noting a gradual jobs recovery along with wages that have increased in recent years at a pace faster than at any time in the last four decades.

He also talked up a foreign policy that he characterized as sharply curtailing, but not totally ending, U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan; killing Al Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden; restoring relations with Cuba; and featuring U.S.-led multinational efforts to curb Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons.

"That's what we did. That's what you did. You were the change," he said in summing up his accomplishments. "You answered people's hopes. And because of you, by almost every measure, America is a better, stronger place than it was when we started."

As he began to close his speech, the president recognized first lady Michelle Obama and wiped away a tear.

"You took on a role you didn't ask for and made it your own with grace and with grit and with style and good humor," he said.

Chicago has held special meaning to Obama, where he moved after serving as the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review to become a community organizer, then to serve as a state and U.S. senator and ultimately for eight years as president.

The city served as the base of his presidential campaigns and was a source for his top White House aides. And it helped provide him with the ambition to seek out a career in politics, even as he suffered his only election loss here in a failed 2000 primary challenge to South Side U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush.

Obama has acknowledged had he defeated Rush, it might have changed his political trajectory to a point where he would not have even sought the presidency, let alone win the White House.

Long lines of supporters looking to see Obama's last major presidential speech gathered in the rain and wind hours before the event to undergo airport-style security screening.

The Windy City's wind-swept weather on Tuesday night forced the presidential entourage to travel by motorcade to McCormick Place, which included shutting down the in-bound Kennedy Expressway and portions of Lake Shore Drive during rush hour after Air Force One landed at O'Hare International Airport. Usually, the president uses the Marine One helicopter to travel from O'Hare to downtown.

Prior to arriving at McCormick Place, the presidential motorcade arrived at one of Obama's favorite restaurants, Valois, in Hyde Park. He did an interview with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt, who previously was an anchor and reporter in Chicago.

Among the dozens in the crowd outside was Jessica Simmons, 38, a marketing manager who works in the neighborhood. Simmons said she waited for two hours on a sidewalk along Harper Avenue to catch a brief glimpse of Obama's motorcade.

"He served the country and the people for eight years, and to show my gratitude I can stand out here, wave, send him off and wish him well," Simmons said. "It's absolutely a whole new meaning to 'Thanks, Obama.'"

rap30@aol.com

bruthhart@chicagotribune.com

African immigrants hope for a Chicago community of their own

One of the city's fastest-growing immigrant groups seeks a Chicago community on par with Chinatown, Hispanic enclave at 26th Street

Marie Ngom, a Senegalese immigrant who owns a hair braiding shop on East 83rd Street, works on client Jennifer Kpaduwa on Friday. Africans are among the city’s fastest-growing immigrant groups, and the newcomers are hoping to establish a South Side community on par with Chinatown and Little Village’s Latino enclave. (Terrence Antonio James, Chicago Tribune / January 14, 2013)

Over the past decade, the 700 block of East 79th Street has undergone a transformation that points to another shift in Chicago's ethnic landscape.

First came Yassa, a Senegalese restaurant whose spicy, rich cuisine has garnered attention from foodies across the region. Then Mandela, an African grocery store, opened next door, followed by two hair braiding shops and a Senegalese tailor across the street.

Now, the colorful business strip lies at the heart of hopes within one of the city's fastest-growing immigrant groups for an "African village" that can stake a claim to a neighborhood in the same way that newcomers have shaped pockets of Chicago for generations.

"We see this as an anchor around which we can see other community development aspects flourishing and, over time, use it to create our resources and, hopefully, our political power, just like in other communities," said Alie Kabba, director of the United African Organization, an umbrella group that has been scouting the 79th Street area for property to use as an African community center.

Since 1990, the number of African immigrants in the Chicago area has quadrupled to an estimated 42,300, now the country's fifth-largest African population behind New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Minneapolis, U.S. census figures show.

The growth comes as older immigrant groups like the Italians and Irish that once dominated certain city neighborhoods shrink, and as members of larger groups such as Mexicans and Poles move to the suburbs or return to their native lands in search of better opportunities.

For decades, African immigrants have been concentrated in North Side neighborhoods such as Uptown and Edgewater, where refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia moved to be close to the many social service agencies based there.

While those communities continue to grow, Africans from Senegal, Nigeria, Mali and Ghana have been moving to the South Side, where rents and home prices are cheaper, community leaders say. Others have been moving to the southwest suburbs.

The community's growth on the South Side can be seen in hair braiding shops that do brisk business among soul food restaurants and sneaker stores in Bronzeville and Chatham or in the clusters of taxicabs parked outside mosques and churches in the shadow of the Chicago Skyway.

Ousmane Drame, the imam at a mosque named Al-Farooq in Greater Grand Crossing, said 600 to 700 Africans from several countries attend weekly prayers there, most of whom live nearby.

The mosque was started in 2002 inside a 73rd Street storefront building for a handful of Mali immigrants, Drame said.

After more Africans began attending, the group purchased a sprawling brick building on Stony Island Avenue. "We moved to this place in December of 2010, and now after three years, we're almost about to outgrow the place," Drame said.

The Senegalese shop owners on 79th Street want to reinvigorate their Chatham neighborhood business district and give it a distinct identity.

Keba Mbungue, 58, who moved to Chatham in 2007, said he envisions an African version of Chinatown or Little Village's 26th Street shopping district around his shop, which sells both West African and American fashions.

"When you go to a Chinese neighborhood, they got it. When you go to a Spanish neighborhood, they got it," Mbungue said, his deep voice competing with the sound of a French news anchor on a radio in his shop. "Why not African people?"

The vision held by Mbungue and others remains far from reality. The 79th Street strip where they've staked their dreams also includes a currency exchange and vacant buildings including an old grocery store.

But Kabba said his group is convinced this is where Africans will make their economic and political presence felt in Chicago. With many African families now established on the South Side and providing a foothold for fellow countrymen, he sees the potential for a solid and thriving African stronghold.

"Where others see blight, we see a future, a bright future," Kabba said.

Much of the hope on 79th Street is built on the success of Yassa, a modest restaurant that features African artwork on its walls and a framed poster of a young Muhammad Ali scowling over a toppled Sonny Liston in their 1965 heavyweight boxing match.

Madieye Gueye and his wife, Awa, opened the restaurant in 2004.

----------ANTONIO OLIVO/CHICAGO TRIBUNE