Posted on 07/03/2008 12:51:49 PM PDT by buccaneer81
West African bushmen are denied U.S. visas They'd been recruited to build a mud-hut village at a Staunton museum
Thursday, Jul 03, 2008 - 12:55 AM
By CARLOS SANTOS TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER • PDF: Letter
STAUNTON -- Three West African bushmen recruited to build an authentic mud-hut village at the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia were denied visas because they are too poor and inarticulate.
In a letter to Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., Debra Heien, chief of the consular section for the U.S. in Nigeria, said one applicant "could not articulate anything about the project. . . . The only thing he said was that he built his own house."
A second applicant, she said, "had not filled out his form properly. He was told to correct the errors and return before the morning intake was completed at 10:30 a.m. He did not come back."
She advised: "Should the applicants decide to apply again, they must make appointments using our on-line appointment system."
John Avoli, director of the museum in Staunton, said yesterday, "After a monumental effort, we identified three bush people who actually lived in mud huts. You can't imagine how difficult it was to get them out of the bush and bring them to Lagos. We were heartbroken."
The museum has been planning to build a mid-1700s West African Igbo compound to illustrate the history of the slave trade as well as the early American frontier. Many slaves brought to America and to Virginia came from Nigeria in West Africa.
"They were denied because they were considered poor dirt farmers who lived in mud huts and can't speak English and supposedly have no business in America," Avoli said. "They couldn't articulate fully why they were coming here."
But Avoli said the whole point of recruiting the bushmen -- who would of course be poor farmers with no English skills -- was that they built and lived in mud huts and so possessed the skills to construct a real Igbo compound.
At the American consulate in Lagos on June 17, the three bushmen -- Thomas Chukwujekwu Ikegbunam, Pius Chukwunwike Anigbogu and Ambrose Nwancho Nkwuda -- failed to convince an examiner that they only wanted to stay temporarily in the U.S.
Despite efforts by the Warner's staff, the decision was not reversed. In her letter last week to Warner, Heien, wrote that Ikegbunam "has no regular income" and that Nkwuda "is a farmer who ekes out a marginal living" while Anigbogu didn't fill out the application forms properly.
Material to construct the Igbo village is currently on its way to Virginia via ship, Avoli said. The material includes raffia palms for roofing and landscaping as well as pottery, tools and wood carvings that will decorate the mud huts.
An Igbo compound of the mid-1700s usually contained several houses enclosed by a fence of closely planted trees or a wall of compacted earth. Igbo houses were generally rectangular to square in shape, with walls of either solid earth or wattle and daub, and with roofs of palm or grass thatch, according to the museum.
Historically, the Igbo were yam farmers, and the compound of every successful Igbo included a yam barn where the harvested root crop was stored.
Avoli said that despite the setback, the West African village will be built. Umembe Onyejekwe, a former Nigerian government museum curator, will spend four months helping to build the village. She helped recruit the three bushmen.
Two other Nigerians, including an architecture professor from the university in Lagos, will also come to Staunton to help.
"The project will go on," said Avoli, who expects the work to begin the middle of this month and to continue on through the fall. "We're elated that at least we can get those folks here." Contact Carlos Santos at (434) 295-9542 or csantos@timesdispatch.com.
They should just fly to Mexico and come on in with the gang.
Ted Kennedy will find a way to get them in.
(Building mud-huts is a talent that’s going to come in handy soon in this country.)
The laws must be crazy.
Don’t we have enough immigrants here already who can build entire mud-hut villages complete with “infrastructure”?
Did Joe Biden screen them?
But they let illiterates like Pelosi and Reid, and murderers like Ted Kennedy hold public office? What a travesty.
Why is it that I suspect if we let them leave Nigeria and come here it would improve the IQ of both countries?
“Three West African bushmen...were denied visas because they are too poor and inarticulate.”
That covers about 99% of the mutts that cross and have crossed the Rio Grande in the last 25 years.
The Museum should have sent a representative to help these folks thru the system. They’re the ones who should get the blame!
If I am reading this correctly, someone wanted to bring them over so they could create mud huts and a little farm and be some sort of ‘exhibit’? If this is true, that is sick. IF you (individual, not government) are going to sponsor to bring them over, how about give them a Western education so they can take the knowledge back and help future generations not have to live in a mud hut.
Post of the day and you never typed a word!! LMAO
LMAO, after all the multi-cultural clap-trap, these three men who have a valid reason to come here short term for a few weeks or months, and will probably be suppoorted by the concern who has asked for the visas, are denied. At the same time, folks who can’t articulate poop from refried beans and have no business here, will never be able to support themselves, pour across our borders by the millions. And we’ve allowed that for close to two decades.
We have a government that should answer to the public at the end of a... well nevermind. More lunacy from W., D.C.
Best answer
Instead of having them teach us how to build a mud hut, why don't we teach them how to build an actual Western house?
They are from Nigeria - The only computers with internet access there are lined up with people trying to email me the entire wealth of their nation to split 50/50.
But they send me emails all the time asking for my bank account numbers so that they can send me unclaimed $$millions.
Great line. :-) The problem is geography. The bushmen don't share a border with us. Otherwise, 12 million could walk right in.
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