My Initial thoughts about the Cosmopolitan Club, at the University of Illinois, were strongly biased. The only sustaining clue of the bias was the consonance of the modifier of the Club’s name: “Cosmopolitan.” Instead of taking it to mean “international,” “multicultural,” Multi-ethnic, etc, I rather took it to mean “SOPHISTICATED,” “classy,” “chic,” “refined,” etc. And when the lady who was telling me about the fall 2003 new students reception at the International students’ orientation kindly invited me to show up at the YMCA, I simply thought that it would be crazy, for me to show up at such a classy rendezvous, while I was still groping for cultural and financial adjustment. I told her I would be there, but silently prayed to the Lord to spare me from going there. So, I refused to go.
It was later, then, that I met my friend Moussa Koné telling me where he was living that I recalled the film of my initial encounter. I went to his house with the secret objective of making sense out of the “mysterious” cosmopolitanism that was in the Club. On our way to the 307 East John address, Moussa was expanding on his good luck for living there, lauding the warm humanism and friendly atmosphere from everybody at the Club.
We arrived there, and he introduced me to a floor mate, Sharyl. She turned out to be the anonymous graduate student in history who gave me a microwave at my request, as she asked another friend and me whether we had some urgent needs, during orientations. That was a good start. Seeing Sharyl confirmed tremendously what Moussa said earlier.
Then he decided to introduce me to the Manager of the House. I was a bit hesitant, knowing not how she would welcome me. At the introduction, I first recollected meeting “this lady” during the new international students’ orientation, the one who convened me for the dinner earlier in the fall, Andrea Shields. I was both “shocked” by her warmth and humility, as well as her inquiries about my adjustment process on campus and in Champaign-Urbana, how often I was in contact with family, and so on. This extreme interest in me as a human being, in a society that is commonly believed to materialist and capitalist gave me confidence. I decided to take part in the events of the House as far as my schedule would allow.
My first participation at an event of the Cosmo was in January, 2004, a whole semester after my stay in Champaign-Urbana, at the welcoming reception of new international students. I met so many people, shared the ups and downs of my personal adjustment, and listened to the other students’ “dire” experiences, and the American students’ sympathies and supportive friendliness. At that very moment, I understood that the “sky was not falling on my head.” I had just found asylum in the Haven of Hope.
Simultaneously, I started advising some new students who were worried about adjustment. I was, especially, at ease talking to a group of four French students who were really concerned with adjustment to the language as well as to the academic system that is totally different from theirs. As we resolved to show up at the Club for a break every Thursday, whenever I could, I told them that they were more fortunate than I was because they had found the right place, the Cosmo, very early, to share cultural adjustment problems, any time such problems would emerge.
I also encourage my African fellow students to participate in events. Many of them have been receptive and enjoy the social largesse of the Club at its varied and rich COSMOPOLITAN events. Meeting so many and diverse people redefined the Club’s modifier, whose consonance did not persuade me to connect with it a semester before, in more contextual perimeters. It points to its multi-national, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural objectives and realities.
My participation in events like Emceeing during the 21st International Dinner in 2004, monthly international dinners, and being more regular at coffee hours, allowed me to meet more people and share information about our various countries and people. The basic difference that I notice in people at Cosmo and on campus is that while the latter place stresses them up, sometimes, to despair, the former relaxes the participants, be they US citizens or international students. It is a special opportunity, for people to meet, socialize, and share foods and cultures. It also allows people, especially international ones, to find home thousands of miles from home. It humanizes people that the inclemency of real life exigencies distort. These attainments are in keeping with the motto of the Club:
“ABOVE ALL NATIONS IS HUMANITY”
LONG LIVE COSMO!
Batamaka Somé is from Burkina Faso and a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology. He was honored this year as recipient of the John Price Award at the International Dinner on March 6th. He has received the Due & Ferber International Research Award, the National Science Foundation Summer Research Award and the Joseph B. Casagrande Honorable Mention Award granted by the Department of Anthropology, all in 2005. He is an Officer in the UIUC African Student’s Association.