Aminata Sy was the featured speaker at the Black History Month Luncheon at CCP.
Photo credit: Constance Garcia-Barrio
By Constance Garcia-Barrio
The Black History Month Luncheon at the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP), which took place on February 4, featured African drumming, quiz questions, prizes, and a compelling presentation about an inspiring rise from poverty to prominence.
The featured speaker, Aminata Sy, a former CCP student and author of the just-published memoir “Destined: A Story of Resilience and Beating the Odds,” spoke about her journey from a destitute childhood in Senegal to a successful career in the United States Diplomatic Corps.
At age 10, Sy, born in central Africa’s Democratic Republic of the Congo, was sent by her parents to live with an aunt in Senegal, West Africa. Her parents may have made that decision because of their native country’s political unrest, instability, sexual violence, and a desire for Sy to have a better education.
“I was lonely, confused,” Sy recalled of that separation.
Sy’s aunt, though poor, fought for Sy’s wellbeing.
“She asked for school supplies and clothes from friends and neighbors,” Sy said. “She [also] asked neighbors to braid my hair.”
Neighbors often provided school lunch for Sy.
“I would eat lunch at four or five different houses during the week,” she said.
Sy’s aunt hunted for a school where Sy would flourish, enrolling her in school after school, but to no avail.
“By the time I was in 10th grade, I couldn’t learn,” Sy said. “It wasn’t about intelligence. There are so many things that pull and tug at you.”
Sy dropped out of school.
Married at age 20, Sy came to the U.S. in 2001 to be with her husband. When she arrived, she spoke Pulaar and Wolof, languages spoken in Senegal, the Gambia, and other parts of West Africa. She had also learned French in school but knew no English. The language barrier intensified her struggle to adjust to the U.S.
Motherhood also shaped Sy’s life.
“I had my first child at 21, another child at 24, and my third child at 32,” she said.
Being a parent led Sy to confront her childhood trauma.
“I began the process of healing,” she said. “When you are separated early from your parents, you question your self-worth.”
If her parents valued her, she asked herself, why did they let her go, she wondered — even while acknowledging their difficult circumstances. It was a time for forgiving those she felt had wronged her, Sy said.
“People cannot give you what they don’t have,” she said. “Even those who have the willingness to help may find themselves barred [from doing so].”
In 2001, Sy and her husband, then living in West Philadelphia, took a leap and opened a restaurant — Le Dakar, the name of Senegal’s capital — on Baltimore Avenue. They offered traditional Senegalese dishes like thieboudienne — a sumptuous combination of fish, rice, vegetables, and spices — jollof rice and yassa chicken, which includes braised chicken, citrus juices and caramelized onions. Their clientele included many West Africans.
Aminata Sy stands with Dr. Donald Generals, president of Community College of Philadelphia (CCP), and faculty members who led the program.
Photo credit: Constance Garcia-Barrio
“One day, a white man came in and ordered five or six different dishes,” Sy said, recalling her surprise. On another occasion, he visited with a friend, again sampling a variety of dishes. He began asking about the spices and ingredients. Sy’s husband refused to answer until the man identified himself. The mysterious patron turned out to be Craig LaBan, restaurant critic and drinks columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
LaBan’s story on Le Dakar, which ran in March of 2003, drew droves of new customers.
“We were overwhelmed,” Sy said. “We [only] had seating for 28. We added a server and a cook.”
Other critics and publications also praised the restaurant.
Sy found, after a time, that she wanted to continue her education. She says that her children’s books provided her earliest introduction to formal English. Her children’s kindergarten teacher suggested where she could work on her GED. Adding education to her schedule meant juggling it with the demands of home and hearth. The prior closing of Le Dakar made things easier.
Sy’s resilience served her well. She failed the GED math test twice, she says, but passed it the third time.
Hungry for further education, Sy enrolled at the Community College of Philadelphia in 2012. She realized, with heartbreak, that she would need a babysitter for her youngest child in order to attend classes. She still speaks with gratitude for her child’s acceptance of the babysitter.
Sy mentions early trepidation about navigating academic life at CCP, but that’s not the way some former teachers remember her.
“You only had to give her a hint, for example, suggest that she flesh out a paragraph in an essay, and she would run with it,” said Vicky Swartz, a retired tutor of English in CCP’s Learning Lab.
Sy submitted outstanding work, according to Ravyn Davis, a professor in CCP’s English Department and one of Sy’s former teachers.
“She won an award for her writing,” Davis said, who led the discussion of Sy’s memoir.
At CCP, Sy earned an associate’s degree in international studies in 2015. She continued her schooling at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in international relations. A few years later, she got a master’s degree in public policy from American University.
Now a member of the U.S. diplomatic corps, Sy served in Brazil and is now stationed in Kenya.
Her climb was neither easy nor planned step by step, she said.
“I would try one thing, see if it worked, then take another step,” she said. “One must trust in life’s unfolding and take a lesson from each stage. If you’re in pain because you can’t see tomorrow, it doesn’t mean that tomorrow doesn’t exist.”
Sy also mentioned never giving up on oneself, as well as the importance of following James Baldwin’s dictum of not letting others define one’s identity.
For more information, visit: https://aminatasy.com/.
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