Africa Is a Country

The Bronx, Ghana

The Bronx, Ghana

By
Sean Jacobs

From a New York Daily News story (from earlier this year) about Twi (Ghanaian language) courses being offered at Fordham University in the Bronx:

The Bronx boasts 43,000 African immigrants – up from 25,000 in 2000 – and nearly 20,000 are from Ghana, according to census reports. Many others are Mandingo, West Africans who are primarily from Senegal, Gambia and Guinea. “Mandingo speakers are the fastest-growing African immigrant community in the Bronx,” said [Mark] Naison [professor of African-American studies and history at Fordham University]. “I bet at least 15 mosques have opened here in the past 15 years, founded by Muslims from Mali, Senegal, Gambia and Togo.” Fordham’s Twi course was widely reported on the radio and television news in Ghana last year … ]Mike Mohigh, a Fordham student from Ghana] said he expects demand for the course to grow. “When I take the bus and subway, everywhere I go I hear people speaking Twi,” he said. [Fordham sociology Prof. Bernard Hayford, who teaches Twi]says the Bronx and Ghana are now so closely linked that a suburban housing development near Accra, the African country’s capital, is named after the borough.

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