The African Identity

Back in December I posted my remarks on the NY Times article discussing African-American experiences as foreigners in Ghana. I noted that:



2)AA’s by and large act just like white tourists when they travel. They are driven around. Few, if any know the language. Few know any of the local customs. Those who try to be “African” often wear the “wrong” stuff. etc. In effect AA’s are “cool” white people. This is a particularly hard pill to swallow for many black folk, myself included.

What would have been informative is if the writer had asked what visiting Nigerians are called or visiting Zulu’s are called. Are they referred to as Obruni or something else? If they are referred to as some other term then how are they “known?”

For example, I, sondjata am routinely approached by Nigerians due to my license plate. Conversation is quickly ended once I open my mouth, but the fact that I am regularly “mistook” for a Nigerian means that something other than “presentation” is the identifying factor.
Also we need to take into consideration that Obruni may have been a general term describing outsiders that was generally used to refer to white people (Yoruba: Oyimbo) and then came to included AA’s and probably “black brits.”

Today I have read a very interesting article in African Studies Quarterly entitled Taking American Race Relations on the Road...to Africa Which I believe underscores my earlier comments on the Ghana situation as well as my ongoing comments about how we define "black", race and racism. In this article two African-American females have their journal entries about visiting Kenya. One reads:

I don't think anybody on this trip understands that my experience is different from theirs, and in what ways it's different. I'm looking at this society and culture through the experiences and eyes of a westerner, but I feel the need and the compulsion to identify with the people. I want to know them, I want to understand them, because I feel like this is my one opportunity to learn about/have a first hand experience with my roots. On the other hand, I'm afraid to let myself just relax and enjoy the trip and feel the culture because I'm afraid of being unaccepted and then really feeling like I don't belong anywhere. Because I'm certainly not fully accepted by these white kids and I know that I never will be. I will always be different, no matter how close or how friendly and understanding we may become with one another. There will always be this blatant, stark contrast that can not be denied or ignored. I guess what scares me most is the fear of not being accepted by my own people, even though in my mind the Kenyans aren't really my people because we share very different histories and lives. Yet, ancestrally they are my people and I've never been confronted with a situation of not blending in nor being welcomed by people who look like me. (Excerpt 4).



I believe this is what happened to Henry Louis Gates on his trip to Tanzania. It is often shocking for AA's and other Blacks born and raised in America to be treated as outsiders in other black countries. Whites are not the only group of Americans that have misconceptions about blacks in Africa.

The entire article is an interesting read. You may find it here:

http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v8/v8i2a4.htm

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