While research literature on faculty of color in predominantly White U.S. academe is growing, very little exists on international faculty from sub-Saharan Africa. The research literature on faculty of color teaching in predominantly White U.S. academe is generally limited to the narratives and experiences of ethnic minorities of the U.S. The quest to qualitatively document the experiences and perspectives of faculty of color in predominantly White U.S. universities cannot be complete without capturing the experiences of sub-Saharan African professors whose presence in predominantly White U.S. universities is growing due to socioeconomic and political challenges in Africa.
This study is a phenomenological inquiry into the experiences of sub-Saharan African professors teaching in a predominantly White university in the Midwest of the U.S. The rationale for the study is to gain understanding of the experiences and challenges of sub-Saharan African professors through their narratives. The study investigated the reasons for migrating to the U.S., classroom teaching experiences, experiences with students, other faculty members, and administrators; experiences with tenure, promotion and professional development; experiences with race and racism; experiences with the university academic culture, and coping mechanisms used to deal with challenges.
The study revealed that factors such as political instability, better career opportunities, and personal reasons underpinned their reasons to migrate to the U.S. It also revealed that sub-Saharan African faculty had to put extra time and effort into their preparation towards teaching in order to prove themselves competent. The study also shows that sub-Saharan African faculty experienced occasional racist comments from students and complaints about their accent. The study found that while sub-Saharan African professors had congenial and friendly working and social relations with their White peers, they were unsuccessful in forging research collaborations. Some of the sub-Saharan faculty that had African American colleagues indicated having sharp differences in spite of tracing their descent from the same African roots. The study also revealed that 50% of the sub-Saharan professors tenured had bittersweet experiences with their tenure and promotion. Furthermore, the study revealed that the sub-Saharan African professors suffered from a two-world phenomenon, marginality, and loss of social status. Their coping mechanisms included working hard, developing love and passion for their teaching and research, exercising their faith through prayer, deriving support from family and network of friends and other Africans.