Immigrant overcomes racial slurs, earns degree in electrical engineering

Komivi Akengue’s life has always been about moving forward.

When the embattled African nation of Togo, where he was born, dissolved into political violence, his family moved forward.

When a stranger shouted “white power” from their car as Akengue walked down the street in Battle Ground, or his classmates yelled racial slurs down the hallway, he moved forward.

When one career path, then another, wasn’t quite the right fit for the Washington State University Vancouver senior, he moved forward.

Now, Akengue is moving forward onto the next phase of his life. On Saturday, the 26-year-old will graduate with his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. This spring, 1,014 students are graduating from the Salmon Creek campus, and 700 are expected to walk on Saturday, university spokeswoman Brenda Alling said.

‘How you react’

The first thing you’ll notice about Akengue is his broad grin. It would be easy, after hearing about the adversity he’s faced, to assume success may not have come easy for the West African refugee.

But the way Akengue tells it, he’s taken struggles in stride.

“I find it easy to be successful, as long as you’re driven and have a goal,” Akengue said. “Ultimately, it comes down to how you react.”

As detailed by The Columbian in 2004, Akengue’s family moved to the United States as refugees from Togo, a small West African country where his father served as a guard in the presidential palace, protecting President Gen. Gnassingbe Eyadema. When the now-dead Eyadema resisted democratic reform with bloody militaristic force, Akengue’s family fled to nearby Benin, where they spent eight years in a refugee camp.

Akengue said he remembers little about that time. He does remember, however, taking apart radios, televisions and other small electronics to see what they looked like inside — and getting in trouble when he didn’t put them back together.

“I wanted to know how things work,” he said.

They were resettled in Portland in 2000, eventually building a home in Battle Ground when Akengue was 12. Akengue’s family was one of very few black families in the north Clark County city. He stood out, he said.

“You imagine walking down the street, people shouting ‘white power’ out the car,” he said with that same easy smile.

The trick, he discovered, was not to react. Eventually, the comments stopped.

“By reacting to stuff, you tend to give people power,” he said. “Words are just words.”

Aredha Abu-Nawwas, who owns a real estate company with his wife in Battle Ground, met Akengue in 2007 when their children became friends with him. Akengue said Abu-Nawwas has been like his “second dad,” helping mentor him through the years.

Abu-Nawwas is an immigrant himself, moving from Oman to the United States to attend Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He’s lived in the Pacific Northwest for 28 years.

“It’s not an easy thing,” to be an immigrant, Abu-Nawwas said. “You keep your head high, you do the right thing, you treat people fairly and equally, and you can definitely do well.”

Akengue, he said, has done that.

“He’s one of those kids I thought would do really well,” Abu-Nawwas said. “I’m really proud to see his accomplishments.”

‘Curiosity engaged’

Akengue’s passion for understanding how things work carries through to today. There was a brief period Akengue thought he might be a neurosurgeon, then discovered he didn’t like blood. Then there was a period of time he wanted to be a personal trainer, but he didn’t need a college degree to do that.

It was a physics class, Akengue said, that rekindled some of his original excitement for electronics, leading him to pursue his degree in electrical engineering. After graduation, he’ll be moving to Boston, where he’ll work in silicon fabrication for the Raytheon Co., a U.S. defense contractor that manufactures missiles and military electronics.

Lonny Morgan, a mechanical engineer at Camas firm Sigma Design, has been friends with Komivi for about six years. They met playing indoor soccer, and Morgan was struck by Akengue’s easy-going nature and his optimism.

“He doesn’t dwell on bad things or trials he’s had,” Morgan said. “He just keeps going and moves on, which is a great thing in a person.”

In time, Morgan began helping Akengue with homework, or advising him on how to pursue a career in engineering.

“Some engineers are out-of-the-box thinkers. They can make new inventions. Others like to keep things the same,” Morgan said. “I think he’s more in between those two extremes. I think he’s going to bring stability, but he has a mind that can reach beyond what’s just there and solve some problems.”

While Akengue’s eager to start his new career, his ultimate goal someday is to open a series of science and technology schools in Africa, offering a free education for students, he said, who may be a little bit like himself: smart and engaged, but just in need of a spark of opportunity to show it.

“There’s a lot of kids who are curious who just need opportunities,” he said. “Someone who needs their curiosity engaged.”

Added Akengue: “What can I do to make a difference?”