You have left your home country with the promise to arrange for your fiancée or fiancé to come over for marriage and settle down as soon as things improve? Akobo, our reference point’s dilemma is very instructive: Koko, that is the name of his wife to be, had been waiting in Africa for two years for his invitation so that the two could tie the nuptial knot and start a family in America but things had not improved satisfactorily for Akobo so getting Koko to the US was not yet feasible. The following representative dialogue may ensue:

                            ‘I know Koko but it’s not easy.Marriage cost money, besides, I just

                            rented this apartment. I don’t have things in place yet.’

                            ‘That is okay, as long as you have a bed, we will be fine.’

                             ‘You don’t understand.’ Akobo said…….

                              ‘It is not easy, Koko.’ He continued.

                             ‘Well, why don’t you return home if it is not easy?’

          The last statement from Koko, a challenge if you like, must have jolted Akobo because his next utterance which was a monologue was: Did Koko or anybody for that matter, think I will return home without some achievements? Then we begin to wonder what ‘achievements’ entails. Akobo we are all aware had a good job, a car, and he had just rented a new apartment in Lagos before the news of his success at the visa lottery was brought to him. So, what achievements could he have been referring to in the monologue quoted above?

         Maslow’s theory of needs may be relevant in providing a satisfactory answer to the riddle. Self actualization can manifest in varying dimensions. The fact that a man has a job that could afford him to rent a three bedroom apartment in Lagos of year 2008, has a car and other indications of success and material well being does not assure that the man is satisfied with the quality of life he his living. Other basics of life such as security, constant supply of electricity, good roads, availability of portable water, access to health facilities, qualitative education, and above all sound, reliable economy which culminates in strong currency may count more than all the rented apartments and cars in this world, in some people’s estimation of good life and good living. And this list of the basics is what the developed countries have never and will never take for granted.

        The argument is simply this:  both African and the developed countries have schools and system of education, they provide jobs for their citizens, the citizens ride cars, build houses, they enjoy health facilities and have hopes, ambitions, and aspirations. But given a chance like the one Akobo had, the citizens of the developing world will prefer the developed countries health facilities, cars, system of education etc to the ones obtainable in their countries of origin simply because the ones in their country are inferior in quality and inadequate in quantity.     

       While our Akobo was still making up his mind on when to bring Koko to the US, another man who was ready for a wife snatched her from him. That was the end of his dream of marrying the lady he had invested so much time and money on. So when the door closed on Koko, it opened on  Keisha, a black American damsel, and, in entered Akobo; a relationship that actually led into marriage thus ensued.

             After the initial shocks and discomfort of adjusting to a new life, a novel culture, which may include subsisting with the knowledge that the man sitting next to you on a bus might have just left the bedroom of his ‘wife’ who may happen to be another man! Two women may kiss passionately in the streets without anyone bothering to ask awkward questions. An environment where gays and lesbians are treated as minorities needed some learning especially when one is coming from an African country where homosexuality is regarded as a crime punishable with instant lynching.

          One may learn that it is not all pains and pressures: some exciting freshness may crop up in one’s linguistic competence. American English is different from British one. So like the author exemplified: Men’s trousers are called pants; car booth is called car trunk and the bonnet becomes car hood it is flash light and not touch light… soccer is called football and a game many Africans knew as rugby is called football. And, if the immigrant’s first language is French, he must start to learn American English afresh.

               Care must be exercised in the choice of words and expressions. Stupid instruction one might say, but the protagonist’s experience when he chose ‘drugs’ instead of ‘medications’ might prove very enlightening: He had just negotiated the purchase of a second hand car and he was test driving it at speed of 37 in an area where he should be doing 35. A police officer stopped him. One would have thought that the difference between the speeds was negligible but Akobo was actually booked. A dialogue ensued between Akobo and the cop:

                                    ‘…what do you have in your glove compartment? the cop asked.

                                     ‘The only thing in the glove apartment is my drugs.’ Akobo said.

                               It was a huge mistake. A bell must have gone off in the police

                               man’s head. ‘You have drugs in the car?’

                               ‘Yes, my drugs and the book to the car,  let me show…’ Akobo

                               reached to open the glove apartment, but the cop stopped him. ‘Hold

                              it. Keep your hand on the steering wheels   where I can see them. Do it

                             now.’ He barked at Akobo, pointing the flashlight straight in Akobo’s

                           confused face.

             The cop then went to his car and invited an anti-drug cop who soon arrived with his trained dogs and a thorough search of Akobo’s car soon commenced. After some time of a fruitless search for the drugs, the cop went back to Akobo who had been ordered to sit on the bare floor beside the car:

                                            ‘Where is the drug?’ he asked.

                                            ‘In the glove compartment like I told you’ Akobo, muttered

                                              his voice shaking from all the confusion.

                                            ‘Is this what you are talking about?’ the anti-drug policeman

                                            produced the box of Tylenol tablet

                                            ‘Yes, sir that’s it,’ Akobo answered, bewildered. The anti-

                                              drug cop looked hard at Akobo and shook his head.

                                           ‘In this country, you don’t call these drugs; you call it

                                           medication. Do you understand me?’

                                           ‘Yes,  medication.’ Akobo said.

              From every indication, Akobo would have saved himself all the embarrassment and discomfiture he experienced in the hands of the cops if he had armed himself with the appropriate expressions and not transferred the diction appropriate in his country to the US. So, the prospective immigrant be warned. Be fast with learning the dichotomy between the brand of language peculiar to your country of birth and your country of immigration.                                       

                  You should be ready to cope with scenes like this: Akobo was returning home from a visit to a bar, suddenly a van loaded with some white students stopped beside him. And a voice yelled out: ‘What are you doing here nigger? Go to the west-side where you belong. Better still go back to the jungle in Africa.’

     That was an instance of an age-long infamy that has plagued humanity. It is called racism and, it is festering in the United States of America judging from the protagonist’s experience quoted above. How to eradicate it? It is impossible to eliminate it from the human psyche. How to contain it then? That’s a better way of dealing with the scourge. The first step is being sure that it exists and be ready to be at the receiving end, may be once. Secondly, the immigrant should choose his friends from among the whites who are not racism-inclined. Discuss its consequences with his chosen friends just like Akobo did. You may be sure to get the required relief from the therapy and even get to meet your wife from the group, if you are a prospective bachelor like Akobo. And if you are an eligible bride like Keisha, your husband may be the searching protagonist.       

                   Some of the instances the author raised tended to tell rather than show the realities. The racism scenes are filled with adequate dialogue to do justice to the telling with just two physical presence of the showing. One can even argue that the

first example—the suspect line up following the robbery—did not ring true of a racism incident. Again, readers should be more interested in the showing details of the lots of failed marriages especially the one between African male or female resident of the US who decided to ‘import’ a male or female from Africa for marriage. The dialogue-shrouded instances of Demola and Anthony are too relishing to be told and not shown.

             However, it must be emphasized that Awoshakin has successfully brought the realities of being a legal immigrant to the doorstep of all of us. The remaining gap in the 360 degree of the success of the story is for the prospective immigrant to get hold of a copy of Lost and Found in America and digest the lush yarn. With Lost and Found in America, no longer would a been-to paint a hazy, disjointed picture of the ups and downs of the life of an immigrant settling down in America and Europe, not any longer.

                                                   References.

               1 Otonti, Nduka.1964, Western Education and the Nigerian Cultural Background. University Press Limited, Ibadan. Ibadan Nigeria  

                     2   Awoshakin, Tokunbo. 2007 Xlibris  Corporation. USA.