Unprompted, Fifelo Aganga ’13 turned to me and declared, “If I had to sum myself up in three words I would have to say black, British – and I’m torn between two words now: drunk or lackadaisical.”
More than a tad off-color, Aganga definitely gets noticed at a place like Middlebury, a place he says shocked him with its apparent homogeneity upon arrival.
Known as one of a few resident Brits on campus and in town as well, he complains that the crew down at Dunkin Donuts is still struggling to understand his pronunciation of the word “doughnut.” Aganga grew up a deathly shy kid in London with Nigerian parents.
“If two people were in the room I couldn’t talk. It slowly got better over time and then around 16 I was touched by a priest,” Aganga said adding that this did not really happen. “People don’t like when I make comments like that. It gets very awkward.”
While most of us have come to know him as Fif or Fifelo, neither of those names will help you find him in the college directory as his birth certificate spells his name with two “I”s rather than one. Fifelo is also know as Pip, Fil (pronounced Phil), that “drunk British black guy” and Baba Dudu. The last one, which comes from his aunts, leaves him lamenting that “even [his] own family is racist toward [him].” Although he voices his outrage with good nature, Aganga doesn’t shy away from admitting, “I attribute a lot of things to the fact that I’m black.”
Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that a European would come to the U.S. and make note of American race relations but it seems that Aganga feels his time is better spent misinforming people about European traditions.
“I once convinced an American that we don’t have telephones in London and that we use carrier pigeons to communicate, or shout,” Aganga said.
Nonetheless, Aganga feels he has overcome any racial barriers that may exist at Midd and has carried on several interracial “bromances,” with such characters as Brendan Scully ’13 and his old roommate Nathan Rudd ’13. “We [look] totally different when we’re together because he’s a ginger and I’m black,” says Aganga. “He’s muscular and I’m scrawny.”
However, Aganga would like to confirm that though it may come as a surprise, he is straight. Too bad his mother still has her doubts after finding his yellow “Legalize Gay” underwear, one of a now-retired pair that he and a friend debuted over spandex at last year’s 80s Dance and then took to wearing around campus all year.
“I have three sisters,” Aganga said. “That’s why I’m so feminine.”
At the close of our interview Aganga was off to work on his costume for this year’s 80’s dance and fill out medical forms for soccer try-outs. Other current projects include turning his single in Forest Hall into a “pink palace” and picking up a Southern accent.
“If I could go anywhere I would go to the moon or Alabama,” Aganga said. “The moon, so if I ever meet Buzz Aldrin or Neil Armstrong I don’t want them holding it over me that they’ve been to the moon and I haven’t, or Alabama ‘cause I love the way they speak.”
Aganga is currently studying Chinese with hopes of returning to China for study abroad. Before coming to Middlebury he spent a gap year in China, where he enjoyed being so gloriously different that a crowd of people watching a show of performing bears stopped to turn around and watch him instead of the animals. Completely baffled by his presence a little girl asked simply, “Why?”
Although Aganga claims to be “a very simple person with a simple mind” most would agree that his gears are turning just a little differently than the rest of ours. Being this unique individual that he is I figured that Aganga would have some very poignant life advice to offer, maybe along the lines of how to learn to embrace one’s true self, but the most he would say was, “When things get hard, have a drink or take naps. You get the best naps in class because you feel naughty.”
Quick Facts:
Signature item: The thing around his neck, which he likes to call an opium container, but whose contents shall be kept secret.
Found Middlebury: via word of mouth during his gap year in Beijing.
Favorite place in Middlebury: The Stone Leaf Tea House.
Campus Character: Fifelo Aganga
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