November 2005

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

International Family Makes Home in Diversity of South Africa

How many languages are enough? Ask multilingual Holger Wagner, SIS/MS '02, how many he wants his daughter to learn, and it seems there is no limit. Wagner is German and his wife, Andrea Gommans, is Dutch. Their 1½ year-old daughter, Zoë, is already trilingual, understanding German, Dutch, and English.

The international couple has chosen to make their home in South Africa, rather than the more obvious choices of their homelands, or even the United States where they both studied. When Zoë begins kindergarten she will also begin learning Zulu, and by the time she graduates from high school, her father proudly expects that "she will be able to communicate in at least two, if not three" of South Africa's eleven official languages.

The story of how a couple from Germany and the Netherlands ended up feeling most at home in South Africa begins in Wagner's hometown, Freiburg, Germany. After high school, he began an apprenticeship with a travel agency in Freiburg, which gave him the opportunity to travel and see more of the world. "Those travels made me think that staying in one's own country for an entire lifetime was not really an option for me," he says.

Following his apprenticeship, Wagner made his first international move, enrolling in the undergraduate program at Northern Michigan University, where he met Andrea. When they travelled together on a student trip to South Africa in 1995, Wagner says they felt an "instant and inexplicable connection" to South Africa. "I knew then that I had to spend more substantial time there."

After graduating, Holger and Andrea moved to Durban, South Africa, to work. They stayed for three years, during which time the connection they felt to their adopted country grew even stronger. Reluctant to leave, they returned to the U.S. in 2000 to pursue graduate degrees. Holger enrolled in AU's International Development master's program at SIS, and Andrea began her PhD in Higher Education Leadership at the University of Maryland, College Park. But Holger says that in spite of enjoying their studies in Washington, D.C., the desire to return to South Africa grew even stronger.

Wagner's first job after graduating in 2002 was a practicum in Ghana with the Academy for Educational Development (AED). He and Andrea got engaged while he was working in Ghana, and he returned to Washington in 2003 to work for a development NGO managing grants, organizing training seminars, and monitoring the financial side of projects related to Ethiopia. Although he was " glad to put some of the skills learned at AU to practice," he and Andrea were homesick for South Africa the entire time they lived in Washington. They got married in Germany in August 2003, then returned to the U.S. long enough to make use of all their contacts and circles of friends in South Africa to find jobs there. In 2005, they moved back to Durban, South Africa, with Zoë, happy to "start raising a family in this amazing and beautiful country."

Today, Wagner is the development and partnerships manager for Mangosuthu Technikon, a technical university outside of downtown Durban. Wagner says it's been a transition going from grassroots development work to his current focus on development in higher education, but he enjoys his role in helping higher education institutions develop their surrounding communities.

Holger and Andrea feel that South Africa is home for the two of them, and is also the best place to raise their daughter. They "love the energy in the country, the dynamics, the progress that has been achieved since 1994, and just the overall attitude toward life." In Durban they have found, "a truly African city with a melting pot of cultures, religions, and beliefs," says Wagner. "We feel [at] home here because we feel that we are part of the great diversity and part of making a difference every day in moving this country forward. We appreciate its history and are excited about the potential it has to become one of the best places on earth at some point in time. We are aware of crime, corruption, and other areas in which South Africa has a long way to go and do not want to create a picture of paradise. But as far as our idea of paradise goes, we are not sure how much closer we will ever come to experiencing it."

The Wagners hope their daughter will "grow up as a tolerant and open person embracing the great diversity of this country." They aspire to provide a home that is welcoming, open-minded, and appreciative of everyone who lives in this country and of the different economic backgrounds from which people come.

Growing up in South Africa, they believe, "Zoë will learn about real poverty and unimaginable wealth, which exist here side by side. She will learn about areas with no running water and no electricity and she will learn about the biggest shopping mall in Sub-Saharan Africa. She will learn about black economic empowerment as well as about corruption and crime. She will appreciate cricket and rugby and cheer for soccer and surfing." Their greatest hope is that raising Zoë in Durban will give her an appreciation of "its great diversity and the humongous challenges and great opportunities such diversity can bring."

While Wagner says he may have found a home he can stay in for a lifetime and considers the move to Durban "rather permanent," he keeps an open mind toward whatever happens, a philosophy which he says has served him well so far. For now, he says, life is really good, so he is enjoying it, but trying not to become complacent.

-Kristina Thompson, CAS/MA '00

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