Early last year, it was a great privilege to be invited by an editor of
a book publisher to write about how I came to Canada. I was told then that her proposed project was to invite 36 other writers, novelists, poets, journalists and scholars to write about how they came to Canada.

Their fascinating stories, expressed with joy and humour, have
been published as a book entitled, The Story That Brought Me Here: To Alberta from Everywhere, edited through the hard work of a former Edmonton Journal reporter, Linda Goyette, and published by Brindle & Glass, which last month held the book’s launch in Edmonton.

The writers, who contributed to the book came from every corner
of the world. They came from Iraq, Brazil, Hong Kong, Mexico, Sudan,
Afghanistan, Hungary, Nigeria, the Netherlands, the U.S.A., South
Korea, Sierra Leone, Peru, India, South Africa, Vietnam, Ireland,
China, Burundi, England, Poland, Singapore, Australia, Scotland,
Lebanon and yours truly, from Tanzania.

Each one of us were given a passage selected beforehand by the
editor to read from our chapter in front of an audience packed into the theatre of the Edmonton Public Library.

Judging from the thunderous applause that followed each
presentation, the audience simply loved the readings, which were
collections of happy, and some sad, but memorable stories of some
recent Alberta settlers. A few years from now, the book may be a
valuable historical document or a prescribed book in some history
classes, but the initiative taken by an aggressive former reporter is
highly commendable.

Jalal Barzanji, from Kurdistan, Iraq, who had the distinction of
being the first PEN Canada Writer in Exile, talked about how he lived
as a writer under Saddam Hussein’s totalitarian regime. Never having
used a gun in his life, he says, “my pen was my only weapon to fight
for a better world,” which eventually brought him to Canada.

Thuc Cong from Vietnam described how her husband, Sonny,
escaped in a boat with 14 other people and when the captain became
severely seasick, without any knowledge of navigation, had to grab the steering wheel and managed to take the boat to safety in Malaysia, where they stayed as refugees at Pulau Bidong. Sonny came to Edmonton and was later joined by his wife Thuc, who got a job in the library of a college.

“I wish I had come to Canada sooner. There was so much to learn,
so much to do, and so much to enjoy. I regretted all the activities and
opportunities that I had missed. I had to catch up with the lost years. I
had to race with the clock, taking any chance to live my life to the
fullest.”

“I wish I had come to Canada sooner. There was so much to learn,
so much to do, and so much to enjoy. I regretted all the activities and
opportunities that I had missed. I had to catch up with the lost years. I
had to race with the clock, taking any chance to live my life to the
fullest.”

“My feet could not carry me but still we carried on. Our souls
needed peace and safety,” he writes.
It took the Garang family four months to cross Sudan to reach Ethiopia, where they were placed in a refugee camp. But then there
was a change of government in Ethiopia and they were sent back to
Sudan. As the war was still on, Athiann and his family went to Kenya,
where they were placed in another refugee camp. From one refugee
camp to another, they were finally granted permits to come to Canada.

“Here in Canada, life is tough, but at least I have found a place I
can call home, where there is some peace. I plan to finish school, find
a way to serve my new community and my people back in Sudan.”
A.K. Rashid, an intellectual from Afghanistan, who had to flee his
country due to the atrocities brought about by the feuding warlords
and the mujahedeen. “Kabul was burning; hunger and death ruled the
city,” he laments and under these terrible circumstances, he and his
family took refuge in India. In 1996, they were about to go back when
they heard that the Taliban had taken over. Under the new regime,
music and dancing was banned, theatres and television stations were
closed. Men were ordered to grow full, untrimmed beards, and women were forced to cover themselves completely. They were not allowed to be seen on the streets without a man who was a near relative.

They came to Canada in 2002, but sadly, writes Rashid, “in terms
of finding jobs, up until now I have noticed that no place except
McDonald’s welcomed us.”

I recall my own experience, narrated in the book, in the early ’70s
when it was impossible to get a job without Canadian experience,
making many immigrants wonder if employers were using it as an
excuse to bar them from getting jobs.

Newcomers and refugees from every country around the globe
have been fleeing from totalitarian regimes, wars and famines to
better their lives and to find peace and prosperity in Canada. Canada
has provided refuge to them. They have been welcomed with open
arms. Some do very well, others not so well, but that’s part of life.

These are personal stories of joy, sadness, regret, humour, homesickness, sacrifices and new beginnings of Alberta’s new Canadians and a testimony to Canada’s pluralistic society.