Africans in the San Francisco Bay Area

Being a devotee of African travel, I was interested to note in today's Oakland Tribune some statistics about the number of Africans from various nations who now live in the San Francisco Bay Area. According to the Tribune, there are:

7,500 from Ethiopia

5,130 from other parts of Eastern Africa (not Ethiopia or Kenya)

3,850 from Egypt

3,770 from Nigeria

3,700 from other parts of Northern Africa (not Egypt)

2,940 from South Africa

2,480 from Kenya

1,200 from Ghana

Once in downtown Oakland when I was photographing someone originally from Africa, a fellow walked across a parking lot within our sight, and my model said to me, "He's African. I can tell just by the way he looks and walks." At that point I had only been to The Gambia for about 10 days and was not able to distinguish by sight between Africans and African-Americans. Having spent about five weeks in Cote d'Ivoire since then, I have become fairly able to distinguish by sight between Africans and African-Americans. In fact, I am getting accustomed to being able to identify what country many Africans are from.

At one of the Safeways I shop at, I always have a conversation with one of the security guards, who comes from Kenya. At several other stores, I have been able to tell that the security guards are from Nigeria. I am glad to see Africans here in Oakland. At the high school where I teach, I have had students from Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Cameroon and Ghana. These students are always polite and well-behgaved, and come from backgrounds where education is valued. They are a pleasure to have in one's classroom. We are all the richer for having Africans among us.