Onumba Q & A: An African immigrant from Senegal could make a monumental history as the first to serve on Columbus City Council. His name is Ibrahima Sow. If Sow succeeds, he will not only be the first African immigrant to serve on the council, he will also be the first Muslim to do so.
Sow, 24, is profoundly determined in his historic bid to serve his community as a councilmember, but he also knows it is going to be an uphill battle unseating the incumbents on the council, all Democrats, all supported by a very popular Mayor Michael Coleman.
Recently, Sow took time out of his busy schedule to visit Onumba Media Group (OMG) office on East Dublin-Granville Road where he spoke about his campaign, his vision for the city, and for the immigrant community and above all why he decided to run for city council.
The interview: Columbus city council candidate Sow in his own words
Onumba.com: Thank you for coming. What is your name? Tell us about your background?
Sow: My name is Ibrahima Sow, originally from Senegal in West Africa. I came to the United States with my two brothers when I was 8 back in 1988. I came here at that young age, started at Independence high school after finishing elementary and middle school. Graduated from Centennial High School and then went to Ohio State where I graduated with a dual degree last year in political science and international studies. After that, I was working at the Ohio House, working first for Representative Devila of the 7th House district and then Speaker Batchelder, Speaker of the House before he retired. And then after that, I was made aware of the Columbus City Council race that was happening. I was already involved in a lot of non-profit civic work. I am not alien to a lot of the problems people face in the city, and so I decided that, why not put my name on the ballot and we see what happens. I am doing it for all the right reasons, so we will see from there, and by the grace, I was able to pass the primary in May and so I am the first African to ever make it on the November ballot in any municipal race in Ohio, so I feel like we are setting the stage for historical moments already – so anything that happens in November, we have inspired a lot of people. And so I am looking forward to winning, though. That’s my goal.
Onumba.com: How old are you?
Sow: I am 24.
Onumba.com: Are you a Democrat?
Sow: I am endorsed by the Republican Party in Franklin County but it is a non-partisan race. Everywhere I go I tell them that this is what I do and this is the kind of person that I am. I am not defined by my party or people that support me. No, I am defined by my character, my experience and what I bring to the table.
Onumba.com: And speaking of bringing something to the table, what is that? What exactly do you bring to the table? Why should people vote for you out of all the folks in race?
Sow: There’s whole bunch of reasons why. I would be a great person on the council. The first two are: I am the first immigrant to make it on the November ballot and if elected, I would be the first new American to ever make it on the city council. That’s a huge population in the city of Columbus that does not have proper advocates, proper representation at the city Hall, period. That would be one thing to bring to the table. Just allowing for that kind of advocacy and that kind of representation gives people access to resources, we are going to bring city Hall to the people that needs it and make the city Hall work for the people that pay for it. That is what I will bring to the table. I am just a millennial, a small business owner. My mom owns a small business (Sope Nabi African Imports, LLC) on Livingston and Courtright down far east side (3657 E. Livingston Avenue) so I know what it is like to be a small business owner and there are a lot of small business owners in the city and they are the ones that run the city – they are the ones that pay taxes, pay fees and create jobs, allowing for them to be able to expand and grow; allowing for them to be able to have the confidence to just open a small business is something that we would need more of in the city, and millenials like myself, recent graduate from college, we want them to be able to stay in Columbus and open businesses here. You can work for other people, but if you work for yourself you get a lot more kind of independence feeling, a feeling of ownership, so we want to be able to create those opportunities for those millenials, those recent grads, those small business owners and the immigrants that have played such a huge part in Columbus economy and Central Ohio, period, from Dublin to Worthington to Upper Arlington to Grove Port to Grove City. There are a lot of people who put a lot in the city but don’t get a lot back, and not just living here but investing here. If you live here, you pay taxes here, that’s investment, and you should be able to get a return on your investment and a lot of people don’t. So we are going to make the city work for the people who pay for it.
Onumba.com: With the Columbus City Council loaded with Democrats, how do you plan on fitting in and working with them to get things done?
Sow: Even how it is looking now, we are going to get a Democratic mayor, regardless. So that’s never been an issue for me. It’s not a new question that I have heard. My thing is, when it comes to local politics, when it comes to underground making politics work that affect people, and how they live, their daily lives, politics does not matter, it’s all about policy, it’s all about the person with the best idea, that is affordable and feasible and sustainable, that meets the needs of the people, and what at the end of the day gets the job done. During the race, during the campaign, you might hear Republicans and Democrats, but when it comes to the city level I don’t think it has a big effect, if you may, but the higher up you go, you more polarized you get, the more partisan people get, but when it comes to what is dearest to the people in the city, people don’t care what party you are from, they care whether you are going to put street lights on their streets so their children are not walking to school in the dark, they care about if you are going to fix their street when it has holes in it, if you are going to make sidewalks so their kids or their neighbors can walk safely, those are the kind of things that people are worried about that has nothing to do with party and everything to do with policy.
Onumba.com: With the recent deadly incidents involving cops and African-Americans across the country, what should be done to improve Police – African American relations?
Sow: It is a generational problem that has not been tackled effectively since Jim Crow, since reconstruction, since slavery, even in this city. We have not had a problem like Baltimore, Fergusson, God forbid we have those problems, but we have the circumstances and the environment that allow for those things to happen in Columbus and other cities that have urban populations. The level of segregation here where you have poor whites in the west, Blacks in the far east, those are the kind of segregations that we still live through. Segregation is illegal now but the realities of it and the construction of it is still around and those breed the kind of problems we might not be able to fix, so dealing with the problems that allow for those things to happen, I feel it is better than dealing with the problem once it becomes a problem. So allowing for our police force to ensure that they understand different cultures and religions, to understand that not every new American speaks the kind of English that they would expect them to, so having that kind of understanding, compassion and competency allows for them to approach people that pay their checks with dignity and so that not every confrontation ends in ways we don’t want them to, ensuring that not every Black man from the far east side, not all of them are drug dealers, ensuring that police know that shoot first and ask questions later is a bad policy for any Police Department. It is bad. Making sure that our good police force, it is one of the best in the country, but anything good can always be better, and making sure we can continuously improve our police force, is something that we will tackle once I am there. You (police officers) are expected to be expert in what you do, you have a job, you have a badge, you have a gun, and that automatically makes you different from anyone else.
Onumba.com: Why did you decide to run for City Council?
Sow: To be honest with you, there is no one thing that clicked in my head and said maybe it’s not a bad idea to put your hat in the ring and start this race because looking back to February when I decided to run, I told only a few people. It was a conversation I continuously had with myself that you will be the first of a lot of things if elected to the council this year. I would also be the youngest. I would be the first African, the first Moslem and the youngest ever on the council. So we are making a lot of strides, we will be making a whole lot of history, not just in the city of Columbus and Central Ohio but the state of Ohio. And so it was just something that I felt was time to do, it was one of those things you never really get a clear answer for, you are kind of guided towards something and you say this is what I am leaning towards. So lets see if we go this direction how it will play out. I am faithful, I am praying, we have a lot of support behind us, so we see if we made the right decision.
Onumba.com: You have not won the race, but can you wrap your mind around the reality of having an African immigrant on the city council? It’s never been done before?
Sow: It hasn’t happened. I don’t know how I will think or feel but I feel that we would have done a good service for the people that cast their ballot for us because anyone that votes, either in the primary or in the upcoming general elections on November 3, you would have shared the vision that I would have that there is a lot of people that the city isn’t working for, from the New American, whether it be Nigerian, Senegalese, Ethiopian, even as far as Bangladesh, Burma, people in this city that call this place home, that are starting families and businesses in this city don’t have representation in this city and we have a lot of homeless people, a lot of hunger in the city, we have a lot of streets that are not done right, we have a lot of problems that are not being tackled effectively and so being exposed to different kind of things and challenges that incumbents are not exposed to, that gives me advantage to know something they don’t know, and I will do something that they won’t do because I have information that they don’t have access to. And so, it will be that kind of thing we would bring to the table, something different, we would make the city work for the people that call it home. It will be exciting, it will be historic and I am looking forward to having an African on the Columbus City Council.
Onumba.com: What are your three biggest priorities as a candidate and as a potential councilman?
Sow: Before the primary and going forward, resource access is one thing that’s near and dear to my heart; it’s something that I will make sure that everyone, no matter what your background, no matter what neighborhood you live in, no matter what your economic circumstances are, your city has to work for you. Having things that are available doesn’t mean they are accessible, and we are going to make sure that things are accessible to people that need it, to the people that are paying for it and to the people that want it. And safety, a lot of people were telling me that they want street lights on their sidewalks because they don’t feel like their children are safe; so that kind of things that the current city council and mayor’s office take for granted. No one should be feeling insecure in their city if you are paying for things, so making sure that people are safe. And lastly, ensuring that we inspire enough young people to do more in their city and more wherever they live. I am always adamant on having young people volunteer to go and do different kind of things, run for different kind of things. As I do it, so can you. It is a message that I hope will resonate.
Onumba.com: What should government do to address the issue of too many Black kids dropping out of school?
Sow: This has been a conversation that we have been having for decades now among the Black and African communities. More people are dropping out of school and that’s why more low income adults now are returning to school because they were dropouts. It’s a continuous cycle of generational poverty, generational circumstances that allow for those kinds of things to happen. But I feel like tackling kids not being interested in school is not the way to start. If you are going to start somewhere, you start from the beginning and not the middle or the end, and so allowing for going to people’s home and seeing if their kind of environment is conducive to having them not only interested in school but also understanding the importance of it because you have to know if it is worth your time in order for you to be invested into it, so allowing for them to not be able to go hungry, not be able to be in a neighborhood that’s crime ridden, not be able to go to school that’s old, a school that doesn’t work, teachers that don’t care, a school board that doesn’t really pay attention to how you live, it’s those kind of things that when combined together, and a whole bunch of other things like poverty and crime, that allows for young people to say education doesn’t matter because adults that are the decision makers don’t care, that are supposed to inspire me to like school don’t care about my education. Just like my little sister school at CAHS, the AC doesn’t work, at a high school, that is embarrassing for our city, that’s embarrassing for school board, and hopefully, we can have some new faces on the school board, changing those circumstances allows for the end result to be different.
Onumba.com: What would you suggest as solution to ensure that the true Islam is projected to eclipse the violent image of the faith being professed by terrorist groups?
Sow: It is one thing we were talking about on our way here. Usually, the loudest get the most attention, and unfortunately, it is the minority, the small group of people that are doing all the wrong things, that believe in all the wrong things, that are projecting all the wrong kind of messages to people about the faith that has been hijacked. If more people that know all the right things, that are doing all the right things, and have all the right messages, aren’t doing enough to counter that message, its that message that will go through, it’s the reality of it; If more people that are doing the right things are not saying that’s bad, if ISIS is the ambassador of Islam that any news outlet can get, that will be the only ambassador that we get. So more people that are doing the right things, more clerics, more Imams, more Moslem communities up and down the world, need to be able to counteract that message, be louder than the bad people are, because people only know what they hear, people only know what you tell them. Islam is a faith of good people. Enough people need to say that. Muslims need to be good ambassadors for the faith. People killing people, people beheading people is not what Islam represents.
