Facebook user James Eze shares this story alongside the video of his interview with Sefia Ali
I was a Stranger and you Welcomed me.
Sefia Ali has a smile that can stop the moon in its tracks. Yet she bears the heavy burden of raising eleven children on her drooping shoulders.
She is Fulani from Sokoto State but her Igbo is so fluent that she sprinkles a fair dose of proverbs when she speaks.
For Sefia, Enugu is home. Igboland is wonderful. Igbo people are kind. In fact, she lives rent-free in a nice neighborhood of Enugu where her Igbo landlord extends occasional gestures of kindness to her.
I was at the cashpoint in an Enugu mall at the weekend when I heard a voice behind me. I turned to see a Northern woman, fully dressed in Islamic clothes. But she spoke flawless Igbo. My curiosity kicked in. For although Ndigbo proudly speak a thousand foreign tongues, rarely do you find any of their neighbours speak Igbo language.
It is a sad reality that many Nigerians who have never set foot on Igboland instinctively believe that it is a hostile place to live. They see how aggressive we are outside our home and imagine that flowers don’t grow peaceably in Igboland. But Sefia thrives here among us. And once she followed her husband to Abuja, she quickly ran back to her beloved home…Enugu.
Luckily, as I walked out the mall, I spotted her burly figure ambling down the ramp behind me. I slowed down my pace and quickly struck a conversation with her in Igbo. Her face brightened instantly and her eyes twinkled with excitement as she told me her story.
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