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From Refugee to Representative, US Candidates Celebrate Election Victories

Salem Solomon

   WASHINGTON/MINNESOTA - Oballa Oballa's trek to Election Day was a long
   and improbable one.

   He grew up in the Gambella region of Ethiopia, where he witnessed
   [1]mass killings that took the life of his uncle and hundreds of
   others. He survived a two-week trek across treacherous terrain to reach
   a refugee camp in Kenya. He spent 10 years in camps where he often
   didn't have enough to eat.

   Now he has been elected to the City Council of his adopted hometown of
   Austin, Minnesota. He is the first refugee, first immigrant and first
   person of color to serve on the council. He said he never doubted he'd
   reach this destination.

   "I'm so proud to call myself an American citizen, whereby I can serve
   and help the community," he said. "The American dream is that anything
   I put my mind into, if I work hard for it, I can achieve it. That's how
   I define my American dream."

   Oballa is one of at least five American political newcomers with
   African roots who won posts in city, state and federal races in
   Tuesday's U.S. elections.

   Esther Agbaje became the first Nigerian-American elected to the
   Minnesota legislature. Oye Owolewa is the first Nigerian-American
   elected to be Washington, D.C.'s shadow representative in the U.S.
   House of Representatives.

   Liberian-American Naquetta Ricks of Aurora, Colorado, was elected to
   the Colorado House of Representatives. And Omar Fateh, the son of
   Somali immigrants, was elected to Minnesota's state Senate.

References

   1. https://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/ethiopia0305/4.htm

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