First Interview:

1. Preparations:

Preparations for the interview

For my interview, I first came up with a list of 12 questions. I knew as the interview went on, I would develop more, but I wanted to have a solid 10 to start out with. I also developed a list of objectives that I wanted to achieve by the end of this interview.  I wanted to learn about Mali, learn how we differ in things such as school and politics. I wanted to know the experience about coming to America. And about their culture as a whole. I first started out by doing a little research about Mali, just to gain some idea on what to expect.

How Did You Approach People?

To find 3 people from Mali to interview, I first went straight to one of my best friends for help. He is a Malian student and I know he could help. I asked him if I could interview him for my paper and he agreed. He also gave me the list of some of his friends that I could email and come in contact with. From there I set up times and places to meet for my interviews.

When, Where, and How did you Conduct the Interview?

I conducted my first interview with Mohamed C. We met at Caribou in Atwood on Monday evening and started the interview from there. I arrived 10 minutes early to make sure everything was perfect. I got a good spot at a table, and I bought us both a coffee, to ease the interview.  Caribou was perfect, it was quiet enough for the interview, but just enough people around to now make things super awkward.

Whom did you Interview?

I interviewed Mohamed C, who is a first year student here at SCSU. He is 21 years old and is from Mali.

2. Interview Report:

Describe the Interview

 I thought the interview went very well. He spoke very well English and was quite easy to understand. We didn’t have any awkward pauses and the conversation flowed very nicely. He wasn’t super quiet either, which made things go smoothly. You could tell he liked to talk about his country as well. He got really excited and smiled often when talking to me about his country and back home.

It surprised me how different and yet how similar we are in cultures. When he was talking to me, I found several similarities between the two I did not expect. I also found it surprising how open to talk to me he was and how well he responded to my questions. It was effortless for him.

3. Country Report:

            Mali is located in Western Africa. It is quite a large country, about the size of California and Texas combined. Mali’s capital is Bamako, but it also has several other large cities, such as, Segou, Mopti, Gao, and Timbuktu.  Mali has quiet a large population; it inhabits over fourteen million people. Most of these people belonging to the ethnic group called Bambara, Fulani, Saracole, Manka, Songhai, Tuareg, and Maur. But Bambara is the largest, having fifty-two percent of the Malian population.  The main religion of Mali is Islam, having ninety percent of the population, but some people identify themselves as Christians, or have indigenous beliefs. French is the “official” language in Mali. But Bambara is spoken by over eighty percent of the people.

            The government in Mali is considered Republic.  They have there three branches, executive, consisting of the president (head of state) and a prime minister (head of government). The second branch is legislative. The National Assembly is the only legislative arm of government. And it currently has 147 members. The third branch is the judiciary. It has the Supreme Court and the administrative powers. Mali is a multiparty democracy. Sixteen political parties are represented in the National Assembly, but there are others that are active in local government. Mali received their independence on September 22, 1960.

            The economy is not the greatest in Mali. It is extremely poor. The annual income per person is only $691, and for a skilled worker is $1,560.  Mali has many natural resources though, such as, gold, phosphate, salt, and limestone. They do a lot of agriculture work in Mali as well.

            The people of Mali consists of a diverse sub-Saharan ethnic groups, all having similar historic, cultural and religious traditions. Some exceptions to these would be the desert nomads.  Each ethnic group speaks a different language, but most can communicate with each other through Bambara.

Resource
Paraphrased from:1. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2828.htm , October 8, 2012  and October 22, 2012

4. Transcribe the interview:

Interview with Mohamed

Me: Hello, first off thank you for meeting me here this evening; I am just going to start with asking you a few questions.

Mohamed: Ok

Me: Could you tell me about yourself? What is your name and where are you from?

Mohamed: My name is Mohamed C and I am from Africa.

Me: Where in Africa are you from?

Mohamed: I am from Bamako, which is the capital of Mali.

Me: Why did you choose St. Cloud State University?

Mohamed: I chose to come here because my family. My brother and sister go to school here and they told me it is big and a good place to study.

Me: What are you studying?

Mohamed: Now I am learning English classes, but when I start university I will study accounting and finance.

Me: Would you like to tell me about your country, before I start asking specific questions?

Mohamed: People love white people, they like the white people. They are lovely people in my country. They take care of people, and will take care of the tourists that come.

Me: Can you tell me about activities that young people like to do in your country?

Mohamed: They like to play football (soccer), basketball, they like to party, some like to study, hang out with friends, traveling, same as here right?

Me: It seems like we all do the same things

Me: What are major holidays in your country?

Mohamed: Um…. The major one would have to be Ramadan and Tabaski (feast of sacrifice). But we also celebrate Independence Day (September 22) and the New Year

Me: What is your traditional food?

Mohamed: We eat a lot of rice, most foods we eat with rice. Things like: Diabadji

Me: What is that?

Mohamed: It is meat in like ahhh an onion sauce

Me: Ok, what else do you like to eat?

Mohamed: Fakoye, which is lamb, Sauce d'Arachide, which is another kind of meat we eat with rice. We also eat things like Dégué  and Moni, which are like hot cereal or porridge. We eat couscous too.

Me: You might need to help me spell out those names.

Mohamed: No problem, I will write them down.

Me: How is the political system of your country structured?

Mohamed: We have things like president and prime minister.  We have many, many political parties and we vote.

Me: What are your country's major religions? 

Mohamed: Many people are Islam. But some people are Christian.

Me: Are they are people that still practice the traditional belief system?

Mohamed: Some do, not many. Some people also have no beliefs in god.

Me: What’s considered offensive in your country?

Mohamed: Ummm What do you mean?

Me: For example, if I walk down the street and use my middle finger people take offense.

Mohamed: Ahhh yea, we have that to. It means the same thing. But also cursing at people. People don’t like that. Also many girls cover themselves more.

Me: What do you perceive as differences between your culture and the American culture?

Mohamed: There is a lot of things that are different. The food is very very different. America doesn’t have as many markets as Mali. There are a lot of markets and boutiques on the street, people set up tables and sell goods on the street. Some of these are huge markets.

Me: What do you buy at the markets?

Mohamed: You can buy fruits and vegetables on the street. But the markets aren’t as clean as your grocery stores in America. You must have cash in markets, most people use cash versus cash.

Me: How is your transportation system?

Mohamed: We have more motorcycles versus cars. And most families do not have as many cars like here. But my family, my sister has a car, my dad, my other sister, me and my brother all have cars But in the villages they walk or use horses.

Me: I know this question is random, but I am curious, When I was in South Africa, no one wore shoes, is that common is Mali as well?

Mohamed: When I was young I never wore shoes, but when you get older you wear shoes, I remember being young and not wearing shoes and my mother and uncle would yell at me to wear shoes.

Me: How does your school system work like from preschool to university?

Mohamed: We have several schools in the capital that have dorms and so does the university. But the dorms are not as good. Most people don’t live in dorms unless you live far away or you live with your parents. My sister started school at the age of 5 and I started at the age of 6. But there is no specific start year. Not all people go to preschool, I did 3 years and my sister did 2 years. It all depends. After that you start grade 1,2,3,4,5 and at 6 you graduate. Then you go take 3 years again and then graduate, after that you take 3 more years, then after that you go to graduate and start university.  The school before grade 1 is all depending on how ready you are and how much you understand.

Me: Oh ok, so How are your houses?

Mohamed: In the cities there are big house and some small. Some houses are big, big, big but ugly, mine is very beautiful. In the villages they live in one-room huts or mom and dad live in one room and children have another and some have no electricity. But in the capital and in the city, all houses have electricity. You need need mosquito nets around the beds so the mosquitos don’t kill you.

Mohamed: But in my house, we don’t use nets; we have spray that kills them.

Me: Is there anything you would like to add before we end our interview? Or anything else you want me to know about Mali?

Mohamed: Yes there is still a few things.

Me: Ok talk to me, tell me anything

Mohamed: There is a lot of different languages. Only me I speak 4 languages in my country, I speak 2 very well, but I understand 4. But the main languages are French and Bambara.

Me: Wow, really. I wish I spoke more, I can only speak English

Mohamed: Also people in my country like the big trucks in my country, but we have small cars too.  You need big trucks in Mali though. Not all the roads are real roads so you need big trucks or you won’t make it through some roads. Sometimes you can’t even see behind you cause it is all dust. But I like it, its freedom.

Me: Anything else?

Mohamed: Yes one last thing, there is a war in my country now, the rebels are killing people, especially in Timbuktu. They are burning buildings. Timbuktu has a lot of gold.

Me: Oh really?

Mohamed: Yeah, some parts in my country are not safe, especially in the North; it is not safe to travel there right now.

Me: That is not good.

Mohamed: Nope

Me: Well, do you have any questions for me, now that I have had the pleasure of asking you about so many things?

Mohamed: Yeah, I have a question for you, why did you want to know about my country?

Me: I want to know about Mali because I think African countries have a unique history and I love to learn more about African countries. Any others?

Mohamed: What are you going to now, after this interview, what are you going to do with this information?

Me: After this interview, I am going to transcribe it and write everything down and write a report about it.

Mohamed: Why?

Me: It is for my English 191 class

Mohamed: Oh ok

Me: Thank you so much for meeting with me today. It was a pleasure to talk to you

Mohamed: Your welcome