City of Mountlake Terrace leaders visited the Lynnwood-based Washington West African Center last week for a facility tour, brunch and a question-and-answer session between center members and elected officials.

Executive Director Pa Ousman Joof gave Mountlake Terrace Mayor Kyoko Matsumoto Wright, Mayor Pro Tem Bryan Wahl, Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEIC) Chair Scott Matsuda and DEIC member William Paige Jr. a facility tour. This included the media center, where the organization kept the community informed in 10 languages during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Washington West African Center (WAWAC) is a nonprofit organization that has helped more than 20,000 immigrants from West Africa’s 18 countries connect with their local communities in the U.S. The organization also created LUMO West Africa, a food bank, to help its new neighbors.

Further, WAWAC provides social and cultural support to fellow West Africans by providing traditional marriage counseling with the Seattle Gambian Grandmas Association.

“The Grandmas are very important to our culture,” Joof said.

He explained that the group consists of senior women in the WAWAC community. Elders are respected in West African cultures for their wisdom and experience and are often a large part of children’s lives.

The West African Village of the Future is the idea for a facility featuring a day care, office space, an event hall, a cultural and youth center, a food distribution center, a shopping mall and apartments. The organization worked with architecture students from the University of Washington to generate ideas about how to use the facility’s space to achieve their goals with some rooms serving multiple functions.

Pro Tem Wahl said that although he has been to 70 countries, he has not been to a West African nation. An audience member participating in the Q&A invited Wahl to visit her home country of Togo.

The audience’s questions focused on finding work. Wahl explained that although the city is not directly involved in job generation, it can direct center members to resources to help find employment and language education services.

Mayor Matsumoto Wright spoke to the audience about her feeling alienated as a youth after moving to Washington from Japan.

“I didn’t see people who looked like me until I was older,” Matsumoto Wright said.

When she went to college, Matsumoto Wright met a more diverse group, including other Japanese students and people from parts of the Asian continent. As a “small Asian woman” she faced challenges being heard, but persisted.

“It is important that your voice be heard,” Matsumoto-Wright said.

To learn more about the Washington West African Center here.

— Story and photos by Rick Sinnett