“It was amazing to me how actors like Denzel Washington could reach out and affect people, even in The Gambia where I lived. So I decided I had to be an actor. My father prayed for me for 5 minutes on the runway. He was holding onto my hand and praying over and over, and I could see everyone watching from the windows of the plane. It was a little embarrassing but he would not let go. Finally he told me: ‘Now go to America. But do not forget where you came from.’ I first flew to Oklahoma, because I knew other Gambians there, but I was running out of money, and I was eating nothing but noodles, and one day it got so bad that my nose started bleeding. And I said to myself: ‘How am I going to be an actor in Oklahoma? If I’m going to be hungry, I’m going to be hungry in New York.’ So I borrowed money for a Greyhound bus, and I rode for two days on that bus. And for the whole ride, I had nothing but water.”

***Photo Credit

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