For many Nigerians, especially those in the middle and lower classes, getting a US visa is a life’s dream.
But what do you think will happen if you are attacked for speaking your dialect or language, be it Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Fulfulde, or whatever yours is, in dear old Uncle Sam?
A Kenyan woman had to answer that question in the state of Minnesota recently when she was attacked by another woman in a restaurant for speaking her language – Swahili.
Asma Jama said she was considering leaving Minnesota after she was attacked on October 30 by a woman wielding a beer mug which she smashed on her face, leaving a deep cut on her lips and causing her to get several stitches.
She said she was talking to her family in Swahili, one of three languages she speaks, when the woman later identified as Jodie Burchard-Risch attacked her.
Jama, an ethnic Somali, migrated to Minnesota in the United States from Kenya in 2000.
Although Burchard-Risch has been charged with third-degree assault, the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for the suspect to be charged for hate crime.
Prosecutors said additional charges could still be filed. The suspect is expected back in court on December 7.
Source: News24
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