“Words are not enough to express how
happy I am to be at ALU,” she says, “I
grew up in an environment that did
not give me room to dream or aspire. I
used to look at a big picture and people would say, “you cannot do that.” I
now live in a community that tells me
“yeah, you can reach there!”
The first decade after she was born,
Ingabire had moved to four different
countries – unlike any other children
– she had to look over her shoulders
because she was an undocumented
immigrant. In such an environment
“there’s no way a child can dream. All
they can do is hope they can wake up
the next day, have three meals, and
sleep peacefully. I couldn’t dream to
become a pilot, or doctor, or a writer
because I was not encouraged to do so.
No one told me, you need to study
hard become a writer, or an actor. All
they told me was to get a job and survive; that I would go back home and
have a life,” she recalls.
Fatuma doesn’t see herself teaching forever. “What a crazy job!” she says. “I’m
enjoying it more now that I see it as
something I’ve been fortunate to do.
Maybe in the next few years I’ll focus
more on writing and directing. I’ll be
happier behind the camera,” she continues. “I am proud to be African and I
want to tell a story of an African child,
woman, and society.”
No one told me, you need to
study hard become a writer,
or an actor. All they told me
was to get a job and survive;
that I would go back home
and have a life.
2013: Fatuma, Karim and Fadhia
12