Sitting inside the Carleton University library, Roger Etienne sighed deeply. When he opted to study in the South End of Ottawa, Province of Ontario, he didn’t know his life would get this complicated. Seriously. A lot of those complications had to do with Azeeza Balaam, his Somali girlfriend. Leaving the City of Boston, Massachusetts, was starting to feel like the worst mistake the twenty-year-old Haitian-American student ever made. As he looked at his assignment on WebCT, something caught his attention. A six-foot-tall, blonde-haired and green-eyed young White woman walking by. He saw White women every day, this was Canada, after all. Yet there was something different about this one. For starters, she had a thick, round booty that would be envied by most Black girls for its thickness and perfect shape. White women in Canada had just as much booty as Black women. And far less attitude. Hmmm.
Something jolted Roger out of his pleasant reverie, and it took him a moment to process what. A loud smack made by Azeeza’s hand as she hit Roger upside the head. The big and tall young Black man yelped in surprise, and whirled around to confront his attacker. He barely restrained himself in time. It was Azeeza. The short, slim young Black woman chuckled softly as she brushed some imaginary lint off her hijab. Roger rolled his eyes, and for the thousandth time he warned her not to hit him, even playfully. Not she was the one rolling her eyes. For the hundredth time, Roger wondered why he even bothered with her. The more he thought about it, there were so many downsides to dating this Somali chick, and he couldn’t even think of an upside.
When he first came to Ottawa as an international student, Roger didn’t know anybody in the capital of Canada. Carleton University was a big school, but he didn’t know any Haitian students. Most of the Black students were of African descent, and there weren’t that many of them to begin with. Nigerians. South Africans. Somalians. Ethiopians. Liberians. Congolese. And so many other nations he was barely aware of. The African students at Carleton University were nothing like the African-American students at his old school, the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. The Black students at UMass-Amherst stuck together, and believed in each other. Black Americans had a lot more unity than Africans in Canada. There was a lot of infighting among the Africans in Canada. The Nigerians didn’t much care for the Congolese people, who in turn disliked the South Africans, and nobody liked the Somalians. When Roger began dating a Somali gal at Carleton University, he turned heads. The Somali guys weren’t happy about it at all. All Somali men and Somali women were Muslims, as far as Roger knew, and Muslim men didn’t like it when Muslim women dated Christian men. However, Muslim men felt free to date women of whatsoever faith they chose. And Muslim women never protested that double standard.
At first, Roger Etienne was drawn to Azeeza Balaam. At five-foot-six, slim and curvy, with light brown skin, almond-shaped brown eyes and a sort of radiance about her, she seemed really special. Roger had never seen a Somali woman before he came to Canada and he was fascinated by them. Back in Massachusetts, he dated women of all races. Mainly he dealt with White women, Asian women and the occasional Hispanic chick because Black American women were too much trouble. Yet Somali women in Canada were different. They were really sexy, took care of themselves, and respected men because the Muslim culture emphasized respect among the sexes. Azeeza seemed like a dream come true. A beautiful young Black woman who loved Black men and didn’t act like a shrill bitch all the time. So why was she acting like a bitch now, after three months together?
Looking at her boyfriend Roger Etienne, Azeeza Balaam felt frustrated. The first time she saw the six-foot-two, broad-shouldered and muscular Black American stud from Massachusetts, her heart skipped a beat. He was as handsome as her favorite football player, Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Michael Vick. Azeeza had a thing for Black American guys. Her cousin Amina often teased her about it, saying that she would end up like their aunt Soraya, a Somali woman from Toronto, Ontario, who walked away from the Muslim faith to marry Dexter, a Black guy from Detroit, Michigan. The Balaam family loathed Soraya, and her very name was considered haram or dirty. Azeeza had no intention to end up like that. So she kept her romance with Roger Etienne secret. She was risking much by being with him. Her older brothers Mohammed and Ahmed were fortunately at the University of York near Toronto instead of Carleton University. Had they seen her walking around hand in hand with a non-Somali male, they would have been pissed.
Yet her relationship with Roger Etienne was kind of in a rut. Black guys from America had a reputation for being wild, fearless and super sexual men. So different from the repressed, stifled men from the Muslim world. And yet it seemed she landed on the one Black American guy who was painfully shy and never once made a move on her. As she recalled, the only time he took the initiative was the time he asked her out. Azeeza Balaam was one frustrated sister. Muslim or not, a woman is a woman and she had her needs. Needs that Roger Etienne seemed determined to ignore. She tried everything to stir his desire. She took him to her bedroom, to ‘study’. Imagine her surprise when he actually wanted to study! By Allah, what was to be done with him?
