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Part 1: Introducing Sh. Abdullah Oduro | A Muslim Convert Story
#ConvertStories | Am I Muslim, Ghanaian, or American? How I Learned To Be All Three
Sh. Abdullah Oduro describes his early life growing up detached from his Ghanaian roots, and how he found Islam. Follow along as he recounts his journey to connect with his culture, and how his spiritual journey inspired it all.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. In this video, we will discuss the Qur'an and its verses. 1971, a man from Kumasi, Ghana, in a small area called Ashtown, decides to come to America. He finds the opportunity, gets a visa, and arrives in Chicago. Whereupon, he says to himself, I want to study. I want to try to obtain this American dream. And he starts to study at the University of Chicago. Two years later, he brings his wife, Ya Aman Kwa. You see, this individual, his name was Kwajo Kumati. Now Kwajo is someone that is born on Monday, a young boy born on a Monday. And Ya, which is wife that he brought in 1973, is a young girl born on a Thursday. These two individuals, young, vibrant, newly married, are in Chicago trying to find the American dream. Whereupon, he finds opportunity working at a print and press in Arlington, Texas. Now 1973, they're in Arlington, Texas. They both end up going to the University of Texas, Arlington, working late nights. 1977, a young man by the name of Abdul Habib Oduro is born. July 14th, 1977. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the beginning of my life when I was born in Arlington, Texas. Young, first generation American. I was the only baby amongst a small group of Ghanaians in Arlington, Texas. And being the first baby, it was kind of like a prize. You're the first American amongst these West Africans that are coming in the 70s. Around that time, because there wasn't a lot, especially in Texas. So I was someone that was the trophy, if you would, that some even told me later in my life.
Well, growing up as a young man eventually took a toll on me. Being that my father moved from Arlington, Texas, and my mother to Houston, Texas around 1979. Well, one of the things that happened was they decided not to speak the language too much to me. They wanted to make sure that I adopted the English, that I didn't have an accent, that I didn't get intertwined with the culture that could possibly hold me back from a professional career, etc. They also felt that it may be confusing if I was to join the languages together. So I grew up Americanized. But at the same time, I grew up what one could possibly consider culturally apostating. Because when I was at middle school, in high school, I did not want to be associated with anything that had to do with Africa. Because at a young age, kids were making fun of me, very dark complexioned, making fun of me being African. Jokes, I have pages of jokes about the tone of my skin and how they would make fun of me. So I didn't want to be seen wearing a daishiki, coming from church on Sundays, going to the grocery stores. I didn't want to be seen with my mother wearing her garments. Cultural apostasy. I had no idea of what I represented and what that meant. I was in Ghana for about two weeks when I was two years old, but I really never knew my roots. I really never knew where I really came from. And growing up as a teenager, seeing that was something that heavily affected me. Because when rap and hip hop came in the picture, I was someone that was deeply involved. Fifth grade comes around. I'm introduced to British knights, troops, Adidas shell toes, Adidas sweatsuits, jeans, the Jeboa jeans, Z Cavarachis, pullover jackets.
You know, these things were coming around in elementary and high school, but in particularly elementary school is when I first encountered hip hop. That's when I adopted the hip hop culture. Now, some may say the American culture, but some may say, no, it's the hip hop culture from the American fabric. I took on all of the styles. I took on the beatboxing, the music, the DJing, the breakdancing, the elements of hip hop. As some say, nine elements of hip hop. I took it all on. I embraced it. I loved it, especially during the time of the era when it was African consciousness, recognizing your roots. You had public enemy. You even had, dare I even say, you know, poor, righteous teachers. They had the song self-destruction. You're headed for self-destruction in the West Coast. So it was really about recognizing your blackness and who you were. At that time, I was considered a little popular because I was from the motherland. I was first generation. My parents came straight from Africa. So embracing the American hip hop culture was something that was easy for me. And not recognizing the African culture was something that was, dare I even say, natural for me. So when coming and realizing Islam was also a process. When I heard about the nation of Islam was something that was intriguing to me. When I heard about blackness and I heard about Malcolm X and I read about Martin Luther King, that was something that I heard about and read about a little, but I didn't get too involved into. I was deep into hip hop and art because my mother was a very spiritual woman and artistic. And my father was a very intellectual athlete musician. Waking up on Sunday mornings and seeing my father pull my mother out the kitchen and start to dance to Bob Marley. From Bob Marley and the Wailers all the way to Andy Gibb and the Bee Gees, all the way to Earth, Wind and Fire.
All of these artists that we would see and I would see growing up dancing and cheering and having a good time. So I grew up in this kind of environment of people that were spiritual and also people that loved music and the arts. So hip hop was natural for me. When getting involved in hip hop and consciousness was something that I really, really had a lot of involvement in. To the degree that I would go on and try to battle people in rap and hip hop and get really involved into it. Until a little before me embracing Islam, I had a lot of questions about the purpose of life. Why am I here? Because I got involved in a lifestyle that some would consider dangerous. And that lifestyle led me to ask a lot of questions of like, is this all it's about? The money, the cars, is that all it's about? There were times in high school where one of my closest friends, he had a drop top Cutlass, cut the top off, put candy paint on it, had some McLean rims on there, for those of you that know what that is, and rolled it with hydraulics. After school, we're in front of everybody, the car bouncing with hydraulics and we're playing Nintendo with bucket biscuit seats. If any of y'all know what that is, a royal blue car with white bucket biscuit seats, playing Super Nintendo while hydraulics are going. Three wheel motion. Ladies and gentlemen, this is 1994, 1995. So we reached a level to where it was fun, but the question kept pounding my brain in my heart. Is this what it's all about? Around 1996, I was really involved in battling. I was really involved in rap. We had a little group and we would go around Houston, go into certain clubs. And, you know, we opened up for a couple of groups that were kind of known in the past, certain clubs. And I was really indulged into the lifestyle and also the culture.
So there was one time, SubhanAllah, I used to, I knew some brothers from Brooklyn and they were Sunni Muslim brothers. And one day I was involved with them on a certain issue and we started to talk about Islam. Now, the whole time they're talking about Islam, I'm thinking the nation of Islam. So then I said, oh, so you're talking about the nation? They said, no, no, no. We're talking about worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by himself, saying that he has no partners, no son, no daughter. And that Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, who was in Saudi Arabia, he was the man that received prophethood. And that message was universal with all of the other prophets. The more they spoke, the more I was blown away. But I didn't want to show them that. But I realized that the doctrine that they were talking about is exactly what I was looking for. So I eventually embraced Islam. But upon embracing Islam was another interesting tale.
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