StoryCorps NTI: Ayodeji Ogunniyi

From: StoryCorps
Length: 02:15

Ayodeji Ogunniyi describes how the death of his father inspired him to become a teacher. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: StoryCorps NTI: Ayodeji Ogunniyi
From: StoryCorps

Ogunniyi_small

In 1990, Ayodeji Ogunniyi left Nigeria, along with his mother and brother, to come to the United States. They arrived in Chicago, joining Ayodeji’s father, Abimbola “Yinka” Ogunniyi, who’d arrived a few years earlier, and was working as a cab driver.

Abimbola always wanted Ayodeji to be a doctor. But while Ayodeji was studying pre-med in college, his father was murdered on the job.

At StoryCorps, Ayodeji talked about how his father’s death changed the course of his life.

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Piece Description

In 1990, Ayodeji Ogunniyi left Nigeria, along with his mother and brother, to come to the United States. They arrived in Chicago, joining Ayodeji’s father, Abimbola “Yinka” Ogunniyi, who’d arrived a few years earlier, and was working as a cab driver.

Abimbola always wanted Ayodeji to be a doctor. But while Ayodeji was studying pre-med in college, his father was murdered on the job.

At StoryCorps, Ayodeji talked about how his father’s death changed the course of his life.

Transcript

Ayodeji Ogunniyi (AO): Eleven o’clock that night, the knock came. They told us that my father was found in an alley and he was murdered.

I remember yelling, “No,” really loud. And my brother was going haywire and he punched a hole in the wall. And then my mother just…she started to pull her hair and she scratched her face.

They found the murderers in four days.

[MUSIC IN]

They were 18, 19 and 22.

I was angry. I was very, very angry. I didn’t want to retaliate. I just wanted to just ask them why. What happens to a person? Where do they get lost to become murderers?

At the time, I was tutoring at an after-school program for some extra money. And these kids came from the same conditions that the people that murdered my father came from.

[MUSIC OUT]

A student came to the after-school program, was probably around 16 years old. We were doing something where everyone had to read out...
Read the full transcript

Intro and Outro

INTRO:

Time now for StoryCorps' National Teachers Initiative.

StoryCorps is collecting stories from America's teachers.. and you can hear some of them on this program throughout the school year.
Ayodeji Ogunniyi (eye-OH-day-JEE OH-goo-NEE-yee), is an English teacher at Thornton High School in Harvey, Illinois. His family came to the U-S from Nigeria in 1990. Ayodeji's father worked as a cab driver in Chicago… and he always wanted his son to become a doctor. But while Ayodeji was studying pre-med in college, his father was murdered on the job.

At that point, Ayodeji tells us, his life changed course...

TAPE: "Eleven o'clock that night…become a teacher."

Ayodeji Ogunniyi at StoryCorps in Chicago. His interview -- along with ALL National Teachers Initiative interviews -- will be archived in the Library of Congress. Get the StoryCorps podcast at NPR Dot Org.

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