Behold the Dreamers

Jende is miserable. He worries about what work he will be able to do if he is forced to return to Limbe. It will be menial work, if anything at all, since he is not politically connected. Jende has done everything right, and Liomi is “an American boy now” (70), so Jende is unsure of what he should have done differently. Maybe he could tell Mr. Edwards about the problem with his immigration status, he thinks, and maybe a new lawyer is in order for him if he can get the money together.

When Jende calls Bubakar the next evening to ask what’s going on, Bubakar tells him that nothing is happening and may not happen for a year because of how slowly things move through the ICE courts. Jende should simply live his life as he normally would, barring going out the country, as he would not be allowed to return.

When Jende asks Bubakar what he should do once his work permit expires, Bubakar counsels him not to say anything about it. Bubakar also tells Jende to avoid getting into any trouble that will bring him into the eyes of the law, since the law is not for black men. Besides, maybe one day a good immigration bill will pass, or Hillary Clinton or Obama will pass a law legalizing Dreamers and undocumented people like Jende. Obama is a child of an immigrant, after all. Amnesty happened once in 1983, under Reagan, so maybe it will happen again. Imagine, Bubakar tells Jende, how untouchable the Jongas would be if they became citizens.

On another day, Neni meets with her math professor to get help with pre-calculus. They meet in a café, and Neni takes Liomi and her friend, Fatou, with her. When the professor shares his background story, Neni and Fatou are shocked to discover that the instructor is gay. The instructor tells Neni that he and his partner want to adopt one day. Fatou is amused, but Neni is still uncomfortable with her teacher's sexual orientation. Afterward, Fatou challenges Neni by saying that this discomfort is really because Neni is attracted to her professor. Neni denies this argument, but Fatou points out that Neni did not tell Jende that she was meeting with the professor. In Cameroon, a woman could be beaten for such a thing.

As the cold of winter descends, Jende wonders once again why he had not moved to a warmer city like Phoenix or Houston, places where he has friends and there are larger Cameroonian communities. Arkamo, a friend in Houston, has even managed to secure a mortgage for a large home. Jende envies him but realizes that this friend and others have their green cards, so they can have such things as high-interest loans to pay for their houses. Before the bad news about the asylum case, Jende had dreamed of moving and having his own home, too, Neni's dreams of a suburban condo around New York notwithstanding. Such dreams are over. Now, Jende “couldn't imagine a city more beautiful, more delightful, more perfect for him than New York” (82).

Late in May, as Jende drives Cindy across town, he receives a begging call from his brother, whose children have been expelled from school for failure to pay their tuition. Jende apologizes to Cindy for taking the call and complains that his brother—a poor man—had no business having five children he could not afford to support. Cindy replies that “‘[c]hildren should never have to suffer because of their parents’” (84) and tells Jende that she is sure everything will work out. Even better than this platitude is that she gives Jende a check for $500, to help, before exiting the car.

When Jende picks up Cindy twenty minutes later, Cindy calls a friend to gossip about the friend she just left, a woman whose husband is divorcing her after thirty years. Cindy tells her friend that she just knows her husband will leave her for a younger woman once she gets older. Why, she was with Clark at a dinner with an attractive woman whom Clark ogled all throughout the dinner. The flirting had been humiliating for Cindy. Cindy would die if she found herself in the same situation as the soon-to-be divorced friend.

Neni and Jende go to Winston's birthday party, which he holds in the Hudson Hotel bar, despite having an apartment that could fit plenty of people. When they arrive at the crowded bar, Jende wanders off, and Neni is astonished by the sheer number of white people with whom Winston seems to be friends. For her part, Neni is only friends with people from African countries and has no white friends. Nevertheless, Neni decides to watch her behavior. While African Americans “embarrassed themselves in front of white people left and right and didn't seem to care,” Neni had too much pride to be anything other than dignified in front of whites (91).

Neni receives a shock when a white woman named Jenny introduces herself to Neni as Winston's girlfriend. Neni pities the woman. Winston runs through girlfriends all the time, but Neni is sure that ultimately, Winston will marry “a good Bakweri girl” (92), or a woman from another tribe, if one is not available. A man like Winston “needed a woman who understood [him], shared his values and interests” and valued tradition (93). Only a Cameroonian woman could do that. Jenny drifts away to talk with another white woman.

Neni finds Jende and insists that it’s time to go. They walk to nearby Columbus Circle, and Neni notices “people walking with their kind,” even though New York is “a place of many nations and cultures”(94). There is nothing wrong with this, Neni concludes. It is an efficient approach and made possible because the city “had a world for everyone” (94).

The couple sits under the statue of Christopher Columbus (for whom the circle is named), and they reminisce about how Jende would call Neni from this very spot before he had been able to bring her and Liomi over to America. Jende tells Neni that they are sitting in the “‘center of the world’” (96).

One day, Jende overhears Clark having a contentious conversation with Tom, another Lehman Brothers executive, about Clark's desire to disclose to the SEC and the shareholders that their investments and bookkeeping strategies are subpar, and perhaps even illegal. Clark wants Lehman to change direction; Tom is angry that Clark would even consider it. Clark warns Tom that it’s just a matter of time before word gets out. They would be better off coming clean now and assigning blame. Their legacy is as stake, Clark tells Tom, and Tom should think about “how history's going to judge [them]” (100). After reassuring Tom that he will not quit, Clark hangs up.

Jende and Vince talk about the state of the country one day as Jende drives Vince around. While Vince is convinced that the country is hopelessly corrupt and that Jende needs to be deprogrammed to escape “all the lies [he] has been fed about America” (102), Jende still believes that “America is the greatest country in the world and Barack Obama will win the election and become one of the greatest presidents in the history of the United States” (102). Americans are hung up on working for material successes, something Vince sees as immoral. Jende points out that people like Clark really just want the best for their children, something Vince will never understand until he becomes a parent.

Vince discloses to Jende that he has decided to quit law school and go to India. Jende is surprised but concludes Vince's problem is not that he hates law school or American capitalism but that he wants to become “a whole new person” (105), someone with an identity that is distinct from his parents’ identities. Jende tells Vince bluntly that such talk and actions would merit a whipping back in Cameroon. Vince says that Jende seems to be like his parents in so many ways, despite the obvious differences in their stations in life.

Jende remonstrates with Vince: Clark and Cindy are nice and deserve some credit for supporting Vince. Vince replies that Jende is mistaken; the only path forward for a person is to “‘embrace Suffering and surrender to the Truth’” (106). Jende laughs again. Jende would never allow Liomi to throw away such opportunity. Nevertheless, Jende feels a certain sense of pride in what Vince is attempting to do.