Born out of struggle, West African Center flourishes in Lynnwood

LYNNWOOD — Excitement was in the air Saturday as people gathered to talk, eat and celebrate the opening of the new Washington West African Center headquarters in Lynnwood.

It was a packed program. Music filled the room at 19203 36th Ave. West as a children’s choir sang songs. In another performance, Pa Bobo Jobarteh strummed a traditional West African instrument called a kora.

Lynnwood Mayor Christine Frizzell was among the speakers.

“Thank you for bringing Africa to us,” she told the crowd.

The move is going to make a big difference for the nonprofit.

At the old location, which was much smaller, there were “people lined up outside” to get in, Board Chair Gloria Walton said. “If you don’t have enough room to support them, how can you do your job effectively?”

The center provides many services for the local West African community: rental assistance, food and an after-school program for kids, among others.

It’s all part of Executive Director Pa Ousman Joof’s vision.

For Joof, coming to the United States from The Gambia meant years of obstacles.

Food and rent were a struggle. At one point, he was incarcerated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for four months. When he was released, he was placed on electronic monitoring for a time.

That period of hardship led Joof to found the Washington West African Center in 2017.

“The struggles I went through is what inspired me,” he said. “I didn’t want my community to go through the same and not have resources.”

Cultural services the center provides are “not available anywhere else,” he said.

Local food banks, for example, used to not provide the kinds of culturally specific foods that people with West African roots would want, he said. Now, the center provides them with lists of food to fit the community’s appetite.

Census data shows Lynnwood is the most diverse city in Snohomish County: 17.4% of the population identifies as Asian or Pacific Islander; 13.9% as Hispanic or Latino; 11.8% as multiracial; and 8.8% as Black or African American — all well above the average countywide.

Five years from now, Joof wants the West African center to own its own land with a daycare center, event hall, temporary housing and a West African mall.

It was Joof that brought together local West African “grandmas,” said Suntu Camara, vice president of the Seattle Gambian Grandma’s Association.

Before, the community was disjointed, she said. After Joof organized a meeting of grandmas, they got to know each other.

The association has grown to over 100 grandmas, she said. If someone organizes an event now, “everybody will come.”

“We are happy,” she said. “And (we’re) just praying for him to just expand more and more and more. The sky is the limit.”

Sophia Gates: 425-339-3035; sophia.gates@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @SophiaSGates.