UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #355
MALWAL, AKUEI

MALWAL, Akuei (1959- )
Graduate Student
At UW: 1986-1988

Interviewed: 	1988	
Interviewer: 	Paul Landau
Length: 	2 hours, 27 minutes

Background; Reasons for coming to UW; Experiences as student in Center for Development; Housing; Social life; Foreign students office.

Tapes 1 and 2: June 8, 1988

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:00	Start of Interview.  Interviewer’s introduction.  Background in Sudan.  Schooling in boarding schools and Catholic institutions.  Civil war in Sudan.  Living in Khartoum.  Challenges to get accepted into Khartoum University.   

00:16:00	Visit to U.S. in 1979.  Impressions of the United States.  First visit was to New York City, staying with a relative in Manhattan who was part of the Sudanese mission to the United Nations.  

00:18:40	Malwal ended up at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  Experiences there.  Very lonely, not a lot of foreign students, and many transient students.  Comments on American students' (white and black) attitudes.  

00:27:17	Differences between African American students and African students.  Africans are not conscious of American problems of race.  More on relationships with American students.

00:29:28	More observations on American students white and black.   

00:39:14	Food.  Cooked at home, trying to cook something similar to Sudanese food.  

00:40:41	Why came to UW-Madison.  Why into Center for Development.

00:43:07	Faculty and courses.  Criticisms of the Center.  John Strasma; Peter Bloch.

00:47:21	Discussing teaching of subject of development in Third World countries--causes of famine in Sudan, etc.  Very cynical about western development projects being practical in the Third World.  

00:57:57	How found housing.  The Saxony.  Lack of good advice on renting apartments.

01:02:05	Wanted to organize a campaign against the Saxony apartments.  More on housing.  

01:03:45	Spare time activities.

01:04:44	The African Students' Union (ASU).  There was a lot of good ideas within the organization but also a lot apathy in the ASU; it was not very active.  The Saxony as meeting place.  M. Crawford Young.  

01:10:30	Rock concerts.  Interest in American sports.  Interest in meeting non-African students.

01:15:45	His girl friend.  Education in sexism.  Women in the Sudan.

01:19:50	Differences between women in North and South Sudan and the United States. Relationships with women while in the United States?  Women very reserved towards him; was not “easy to be themselves.”

01:26:39	Best and worst things about UW.  Academics are better.  Size and diversity of campus.  Worst was Center for Development.  Little in common with other students.  Would have liked to be in a discipline. 

Tape 2/Side 2

01:32:05	Father a publisher of daily paper in Khartoum, The Sudan Times, an English daily paper.  It is the only representative of the southern movement in the media.  Father also does business consulting on the side.  

01:33:42	Have you done well as a student?  Did better at UW than at Santa Barbara.  He feels that academically he does not have the same motivations as other students.  Not committed to full-time academic studies at expense of his other interests. 

01:36:32	Q. Anything you want to talk about?  His criticisms of the Foreign Students Office.  Intimidating, not helpful, adversary position on questions of fees, jobs.  Santa Barbara much better.

01:47:49	End of first interview session.

Tape 3: June 16, 1988

Tape 3/Side 1

00:00:00	Recounting his schooling.  Exams.  Not accepted to Khartoum University.  Father sent to school in England, 1980-81.  Then to Santa Barbara City College, 1981-84.  Transferred to University of Santa Barbara, degree in 1986.  UW 1986-88.

00:04:31	Discussing decision to go into Center for Development.  No faculty advice on subject.  Discouraged at Center.  More technical than academic.  Various courses suggested.  No solid background.  Writing papers not hard, but grading hard.  Could pick own subject.  Encouraged to go and talk to professors but   AM  didn't do that.  Wrote papers at last minute.  Only two of the papers interested him--had to do with the Sudan.  Was not interested in 

00:13:20	Most students in Center married, older, government officials, hadn't been in U.S. before.  Very little social life in Center for Development.  Felt the students at the Center followed too closely the instructions of their advisers.  

00:15:00	Use of libraries: Memorial, Steenbock, Helen C. White, and the Land Tenure Center.  Went to periodical room frequently to read foreign newspapers.   

00:19:07	Question regarding student housing office.  Didn't check listings the first year, but the following year found housing with friends.  Lunch at Memorial Union.  In evening, band concerts at Union, then to disco, then to private party.  Differences of views between Africans and American blacks as to music played for dancing.  

00:24:27	Center for Development should encourage American students to enroll.  Recommends that students should have 2-3 years of government experience since everyone is coming from a different background.  Most go to Land Tenure Center or Agriculture Economics or Environmental Studies.  

00:27:14	Traveled to Chicago, St. Paul, Milwaukee, La Crosse.  Traveled to Chicago’s South Side and downtown Chicago and learned about racial tension in the city.  

00:30:23	Interviewer's comments.  Very genial person who shows a remarkable ability to adapt to American culture and blend in.  His attitude towards learning is more typical of an undergraduate student than a ‘typical’ foreign student.  Seems a little bit younger than his age.  He breaks several stereotypes: foreign students on scholarship.  He is able to attend graduate school through his father’s prominence in Sudan; however, his father, as a newspaperman, is not immensely wealthy.  

00:35:25	Interviewer’s comments continued.  Dislike for Center for Development—a professional training ground for foreign students rather than it is an academic program.  Criticisms of Foreign Students office.

00:37:42	Interviewer’s comments on why the interview with Malwal is useful to understand the cultural experience of African students in the United States at a university campus.  His views cannot be taken as representative of all African students.  

00:40:00	End of tape 3.  End of second interview session.  End of Oral History #355

END