We were lucky to catch up with Zekeh Gbotokuma recently and have shared our conversation below.
Zekeh, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?
Hi! Hola! Bonjour! Buongiorno! Guten Tag! Nihao! Jambo! Losako!
Please allow me to start by saying something about my profession. I have been teaching philosophy courses at Morgan State University for almost three decades. In addition to my teaching duties, I was the original director of the Center for Global Studies at Morgan State University for ten years (2000-2001). #Cosmoportism is my philosophy of international education and world-ready education in today’s spider’s weblike, complex, complicated, and competitive world. This is “the World 4.0.” It is characterized by “The Fourth Industrial Revolution” a.k.a. “Industry 4.0” and the Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The change about the educational system anywhere must start with acknowledging that (quality) education is and must be treated as a basic human right. This acknowledgment is apparent in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG#4). To this end, basic education should be free. Moreover, post-secondary education should be affordable. Quality higher education should not depend on whether it provided by an Ivy League or private institution or by a public and poorly funded. In the USA, quality education should not depend on whether it is provided by a historically white institution or by a minority serving institution ( e.g., HBCUs or Historically Black Colleges and Universities, many of which continue to be poorly funded).
In our (U.S,) diverse society, the commitment to equality, equal opportunity, racial and gender justice must be clear in the way we educate the current and future generations. We cannot expect our students to grow up, work together, and live harmoniously while perpetuation the separate but equal educational system. Education apartheid is detrimental to and at odds with the supposedly self-evident truth about human equality and the enjoyment of the basic rights to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
To prepare students for a more fulfilling life in today’s diverse and globalized world, it is imperative to take international or world-ready education into account. To this end, study abroad and fluency in a foreign language should be mandatory and required for graduation. This is of utmost importance for #Cosmocitizenship or global citizenship. The U.S. global leadership cannot and should not be a function of it economic and military (hard) power. It must also be a function of its soft power, public or people-to-people diplomacy. This cannot be fully effective without global understanding, cross-cultural and international communication skills. These skills can be acquired through STEM as well as multilingualism and humanities in general. Let us do something about monolingualism that continues to be detrimental to national security as demonstrated by numerous studies and reports on the September 11th terrorist attacks on the U.S. It pays to speak in tongues.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a globetrotter, polyglot (Ngbaka, Lingala, French, English, Italian, German, and some Spanish), multilingual lexicographer, and a US citizen of Congolese descent. I proudly refer to myself as a ‘cosmocitizen’ or globla citizen. This reference led me to come up with my philosophy of international education and global competency known as #Cosmoportism. I earned a Doctorate in Philosophy from Gregorian University, a post-doctoral Diploma in International Studies from the Italian Society for International Organization, a BA in Theology from Pontifical Urban University, all in Rome, Italy. I also hold several Certificates (English as Foreign Language from St. Luke’s Priory, Wincanton, UK; Certificate in French, Advanced Level, from the Institut d’Etudes Françaises de Touraine, Tours, France; Certificate in Deutsch als Fremdsprache (German as Foreign Language), from Goethe Institute Boppard, Germany; and a Certificate in African Studies from Yale University’s PIER-African Studies Intensive Summer Institute on “The Teaching of Africa.” My fluency in German helped me work as an international student worker in Germany for six summers. THat is how I was able to support myself financially while completing my Master’s degree and doctorate in Rome. After twelve years of education and work in Europe, I am currently an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Morgan State University (MSU) in Baltimore, Maryland (USA), and the founding President of Polyglots in Action for Diversity, Inc. (PAD) and organizer of Baltimore Polyglots Meetup Group. I am the former Director of the Center for Global Studies at MSU. My “extraordinary commitment to global learning and international understanding” made me the recipient of the prestigious Dr. Sandye Jean McIntyre, II International Award 2008. I am also one of Afrimpact Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People Awards 2017 & 2021 recipients as well as one of “the Key Figures in the African Intellectual Revolution” (QUORA, “Who Are the Key Figures in the African Intellectual Revolution?” I am married and step-father of two daughters. I love writing. I am the author of numerous multilingual publications (written in English, French, Italian, and Lingala), including, among others, “Obamanomics and Francisconomics (Europe Books London/Europa Edizioni, 2022. This book won the Second Place in the MILANO INTERNATIONAL LITERARY PRIZE 2022);
“DEMOCRACY AND DEMOGRAPHICS IN THE USA” (2020);
“A Polyglot Pocket Dictionary of Lingala, English, French, and Italian” (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016 www.cambridgescholars.com/a-polyglot-pocket-dictionary-of-ling%C3%A1la-english-french-and-italian). BestReview has ranked this reference 3rd among “10 BEST POLYGLOT DICTIONARIES 2020.” The 3rd place ranking was based on 4,587 Reviews of Polyglot Dictionaries Analyzed.
“Global Safari: Checking In and Checking Out in Pursuit of World Wisdoms, the American Dream, and Cosmocitizenship” (CSP, 2015 http://www.cambridgescholars.com/global-safari. This book is one of “10 BEAUTIFUL BOOKS TO HELP YOU ESCAPE TO A BEAUTIFUL PLACE NOW” (BeautifulNow, Dec. 2015);
“A Pan-African Encyclopedia (Edwin Mellen Press, 2003 https://mellenpress.com/book/Pan-AfricanEncyclopedia/5394/).
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
For your information, I told my life journey in my memoir-travelogue titled, “GLOBAL SAFARY: Checking In and Checking Out in Pursuit of World Wisdoms, the American Dream and Cosmocitizenship” 2015). This book is an account of my intercontinental travel and life experiences from my local village to the more global village, from Africa, a.k.a. “the Cradle of Humanity” to Europe (especially Italy, Germany, France, England), the Americas (U.S. and vacation trips to Canada, Mexico, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Barbados, and Asia (Business trips China and South Korea). My journey is the account of the quest, request, and difficult conquest of a new self or new citizenship that I call ‘cosmocitizenship’ through a series of transits, transitions, and translations. I am talking about maritime and airport transists. I am talking about cultural transitions due to moving or navigating from my native Congolese/African languages (Ngbaka and Lingala) to colonial/European languages (French, English, Italian, German, and even the dead language known as Latin). And I am talking about the translations through which I went whenever I shifted from one language to another. My journey is a story about courage to keep moving and facing realities in a foreign land, international and interracial friendship, survival, and hope for a better life. When I left my native land – the Democratic Republic of Congo – to study in Rome, Italy, I did not know Italian except for a few words such as Ciao, grazie! buongiorno, buona sera, arrivederci. I left in September 1978 and the academic year started in mid-October of that year. Lectures were in Italian. I had three weeks to learn Dante Alighieri’s language. That’s kind of tough. I was told that Italian should be an easy language for me because of my solid background in Latin and French. Even better, someone told me that Italian is very similar to French, “a bad/broken French.” Just add an “a” to feminine singular French nouns, and “o” to masculine singular nouns, and work on verb conjugations and tenses. I tried some of these things and realized that they did not always work. It is an understatement to say that the first semester was very challenging. I remember taking most of my class notes in French. Most professors were multilinguals. They allowed international students to take oral exams in languages other than Italian, if the professor knew that language. My professor of Canon or Church Law knew only two languages, namely Italian and Latin. He asked me to take the oral exam in Latin, since I told him I was not comfortable doing it in Italian. My high school heaving training in Latin prepared me to translate texts from Latin to French and vice versa. It did not prepare me to take any oral exam in Italian based on three weeks of Italian classes. I nervously took the oral exam of Canon Law in Italian. The score was surprisingly high. The professor told me that my Italian was not bad at all. It took resilience to go through and overcome my series of transits, transitions, and translations. It took resilience to move from Africa to Europe and the U.S. It took resilience to teach in English what I learned in Lingala, French, and Italian. The human brain is a powerful machine. I wish we used it more than we do.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
In light of my journey, I believe in the power of multilingualism and multiculturalism in our diverse and interconnected world. They gave me the kind of tools or skill necessary to compete globally. Multilingualism allowed me to complete my higher education in Italy, get jobs in Germany and the USA. That is why in addition to being a philosophy professor, I have assumed the mission of educating about the importance of multilingualism. I have tried to realize it through Polyglots in Action for Diversity, Inc. (PAD) and Baltimore Polyglots Meetup Group. More importantly, I showed my commitment to this mission by publishing ITALIANO-LINGALA/LINGALA-ITALIANO Dictionary (1990) and A POLYGLOT POCKET DICTIONARY OF LINGALA, ENGLISH, FRENCH AND ITALIAN (2016).
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zgbotokuma/
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/zekehgbotokuma
- Twitter: Zekeh Gbotokuma @GbotokumaZekeh
- Other: https://zekehinc.com/bandzoogle.com
Image Credits
ZEHEH I certify that all images are mine and I have the right to use them