By Gbenga Osinaike
She talks with the speed that keeps your ears in attention. If she tells you she was born and bred in the US, you won’t dispute her claim. But the truth is that she grew up in Orile Iganmu, Lagos, and had lived a good part of her life in Nigeria until 10 years ago when she met her husband, a white man, married and travelled with him to the US. The transition in her tongue happened a few years after she got to the US.
Welcome to the world of Vivian Ezeife Van Gorder. She explains, “I think what accounted for my intonation is the fact that I am married to a white and he tends to correct me all the way making me conform to the way they speak in the US. Naturally, I had to fall in place because of our union. And I must say it has been a pleasant experience married to a white”
Beyond her elocution, Vivian radiates a pleasant aura. This writer was meeting her for the first time during her visit to Nigeria and it was like they had been friends for years. There were no airs around her and she flowed freely sharing her passion and her concern for the church in Nigeria and the US.
Having experienced the US and traveled to about 12 other countries of the world, she seems to be in a vantage position to talk about the church and raise issues of great concern to the kingdom. She begins, “My experience started before I travelled out of the country. I was a nominal Christian until I met the Lord at a programme that my uncle’s fiancé took me to. It was at the programme that I surrendered my life to Christ and that was it.”
Her experience of Jesus made her to be more active in the church. “I was quite involved in the church called Champions Church based in Orile Iganmu, Lagos. I was involved with the youth. I was a youth leader. I have always had a burden for young people and that has been with me till today. I feel really excited each time I see young people and my heart cry and desire is to add value to their life.”
One of the greatest pains she has had to nurse over the years is to live in a country where racial discrimination is still very strong “The US is the most segregated country. Sunday is the most segregated day in the US; the racial factor is still strong. The white doesn’t worship with the black vice versa. The black church is where they pray, they jump but the white church is more conservative. I invited a white guy to church when he realized it’s a black church he turned down the invitation.”
Does the racial issue affect her relationship with her husband? She responds, “I don’t see colour. I really don’t understand why Christians of different races are not comfortable with themselves. My husband is an African man in a white man’s skin. The more people travel the more they understand other cultures and appreciate people. My husband is flexible. He prefers a black church to white”.
A Graduate student at Tarleton State University, Texas, Vivian engages in cross-cultural talks and talent hunt initiatives to help young people that are just evolving. “We run a yearly festival where we bring African crafts to display and promote African creations. We have been doing that for five years. We are thinking of Craft Fest in Nigeria. We want to target the locals and encourage them to do a competition. We are using that to pursue a foundation to get a winner to come to the fest in the US.”
Having spent ten years in the US, Vivian who is the founder and director of the annual Celebration Africa Film Festival in Waco says “Africa is not represented well in the US. I have had several opportunities to talk about Africa in schools. When you talk about Africa to some white Americans some still think Africans still live with lions and tigers. They see Africa as a jungle where the inhabitants are so local. When you say you want to bring kids to Africa some of them will start crying and say they don’t want to be hurt by tigers. Interestingly the first animal I saw in my entire life is a snake and I saw it for the first time in Texas. I tell them I had not seen a wild animal in my life until I got to the US.”
She said further, “There was an elephant named Bisi in a zoo and I said wao! That is the name of somebody in Africa. We are not being represented well in the US because we are not doing our job. We are not telling our story. We should not sit here and complain. We must tell our story. That is the whole idea about what I am doing. We now go round and try to educate people.”
She observes that many big churches in Nigeria are not doing enough in terms of reaching the poor. “I appreciate the work some of them are doing but I think they are not doing enough. The church is supposed to be where people get help and support. In the US people go to the church for help. The government even makes it easy by exempting people who pay tithe to the church from paying tax. The government sees churches as charity organisations that help in alleviating the challenges and suffering of people.”
She noted that the American citizen may not be given to too much praying and spiritual gymnastics but they are very practical and result oriented people. “When it comes to action the Americans take action. They can sell their houses to give to the needy. It is not that they have excess as many people think in Africa but they have the heart to help. They make do with minimal comfort so they could help others. But we have a different scenario here in Nigeria. There are churches that have too much while some other churches are struggling. Those who go to church must not go through hunger. It is an aberration. Christ expects us to reach out to hungry folks and help the poor.”
Commenting on the recent elections that brought Donald Trump in as president of the US she says, “Many Americans have bitterness for Obama being a black president. But what Obama stood for worked against him. Legalizing gay worked against him. The values he stood for worked against him. And people know Clinton is an offshoot of Obama since they belong to the same party. Trump talks tough and he is uncouth. But the majority still preferred him. Many other people did not show up to vote because of the candidates. They were not passionate about Hillary neither were they passionate about Trump. The idea of Obama imposing gays on the church was quite uncalled for. The majority of the Christians voted for Trump based on the need to preserve Christian values.”
The election of Bush in the US according to her was about value. “It has been so bad under Obama that it is illegal to pray in the schools. You can’t pray at the assembly. There was a teacher who was fired for trying to pray for students who were involved in an accident. They are taking God out of school. Christianity in the US is being squeezed under Obama. It is not only about Trump it is about the Christian value that we stand for.”
Note: This interview was conducted two years ago and was published in the hard copy of the Church Times. It is just being published online