By Peter W.Vakunta
INTRODUCTION
Concepts such as "de-identification," and "anonymization” are highly nuanced and context-specific terms. Oftentimes, the term ‘de-identification’ involves the removal of personally identifying information in order to protect personal privacy. Other instances of de-identification involve the willful obliteration of unique identifiers for individuals in the data set. In the health arena, de-identified information describes data that does not identify an individual and with respect to which there is no reasonable basis to believe that the information can be used to identify an individual (Hubbard, 2007). Anonymization, on the other hand, is a term that describes the act or process of making anonymous, of hiding or disguising identity as a security precaution. In this paper, we shall attempt to explore the psycho-sociological ramifications of de-identification among African immigrants (also called bush-fallers by Cameroonians) in the United States of America and Europe. The terms "de-identification," and “anonymization” will be employed interchangeably throughout this discourse.
Physical estrangement from one’s cradle is a painful experience. More often than not, Africans leave their places of birth to resettle in other climes for a myriad of reasons. We will never fully comprehend the motivations underlying physical exile until we ask immigrants why each and every one of them emigrated to where they now reside. This notwithstanding, one could surmise that Africans who emigrate from Africa to Europe and North America tend to do so for two fundamental reasons: to obtain higher education and to avail themselves of economic opportunities that are non-existent at home. Unfortunately, this home is portrayed derogatorily in the Western press. In the Western media, Africa is synonymous with grinding poverty, internecine wars, corruption, misgovernment, rape of democracy, and human rights abuses. As American blogger, P. Kayla observes, “When you ask a child, "What does Africa look like?" I bet you every single child will respond with something like "skinny kids" or "jungles" because that is what they see of Africa on television. They don't see the big cities and cars and regular families like theirs” (Blog, 2010).Therefore, it stands to reason that bush-fallers easily succumb to the temptation to turn their backs to their ‘dark’ continent in the pursuit of greener pastures in the West, however illusory these pursuits may be.
Research indicates that a sizeable proportion of African immigrants living in the Diaspora find themselves in the throes of self-denial in their attempt to fit into the mainstream (Ngwa and Ngwa, 2006)—a phenomenon labeled the “diaspora dilemma” by Ozodi Thomas Osuji (2006). African Immigrants initially experience physiological and psychological shock as the following statements made by an Ethiopian bushfaller in Germany suggests: “There are a lot of cultural differences that I have already observed: the way they dress; the way the people behave: smokers, small girls and boys kiss on the street, and so on; the way they treat people” (Ngwa and Ngwa, 2006: 94). Regardless of the nature of jobs they are performing, African immigrants soon learn that as far as white folks are concerned they are just immigrants, disposable people. Not many Africans are considered viable candidates for top-ranking jobs in the United States of America. The white man is very reluctant to allow an African with his heavy accent and other socio-cultural idiosyncrasies to rise to the top. Of course, there are exceptions to every general rule; there are, indeed, some well placed Africans in North America. This notwithstanding, the irrefutable truth is that African immigrants are often targeted for acts of racism and discrimination.
Whether they are citizens, refugees, asylum seekers or permanent residents, people of African origin often stand out among the principal subjects of racism and xenophobia in many parts of Europe and North America. In Western Europe, citizens of African origin face ongoing discrimination and violence. In parts of Eastern Europe, immigrants of African origin are highly visible and often vulnerable targets of brutal racism and unfair discrimination. Racist and xenophobic prejudices indiscriminately victimize people regardless of their official citizenship or residency status. Human rights watchdog, Human Rights First notes that discrimination and racist violence against immigrant foreign nationals is generally both under-reported and under-recorded (2008). It further states that in the United States, although the largest number of reported hate crimes continues to be committed against African-Americans, a dramatic rise in anti-immigrant violence accompanied a new mainstreaming of anti-immigrant rhetoric and fears [51]. The rising violence was reflected both in media reporting and in the statistical data available from annual national hate crime statistics.
Xenophobia accentuated by racist sentiments is so problematic that some creative writers have attempted to fictionalize it as seen in the following excerpt from Benjamin Kwakye’s latest novel, The Other Crucifix(2010): “The official stared at me and asked matter-of factly, ‘Where are you going, nigger?’” (7) The protagonist’s head-on collision with savage racism and the contradictions inherent in black and white polarity in America is portrayed as psycho-pathology. This novel is an illustration of the American Dream paradox—an openness belied by obscurantist make-believe.
The question that begs to be asked at this juncture is how bush-fallers react to provocative acts of marginalization and denigration in the Diaspora. All too often, African immigrants in the West suffer from mild psychological disorders as a result of the countless frustrations they face as they go about their business. Pent-up emotions resulting from inability to obtain what is desired (cars, homes, jobs, money, you name it) have driven some immigrants into throwing tantrums at the slightest provocation; they rave and rant. Quite a few resort to homicide as this excerpt culled from a blog indicates:
Another middle class Nigerian American professional has, once again, killed his wife in cold blood. I say once again because it is apparently becoming the pastime of some faceless Nigerian men in the United States to latch unto every imaginable unreason to do their own wives unto death. A Nigerian American man in Texas woke up one day and decided to tie his wife with a long cattle rope to the back of their family car and engaged an entire city’s police department in a street-by-street drag race. By the time he was through all the roads and their stupefied spectatorship were left to bear witness to the battered body of a lifeless woman who was once a daughter, mother, sister, friend, and neighbor. Another man elsewhere tracked and trailed his wife on a rather bright day, ran her car off the expressway into a roadside valley and slugged her at the wheel point blank with a pistol that was specially marked for the hunt. Yet another man in a different state stalked his wife all the way into their family bedroom where he trapped her, following an alleged long distance telephone conversation with her lover in Europe, and proceeded to rain machete blows of unforgettable bodywork – in the very lame tradition of failed artists – all over her face and arms. Till today the survivor woman of that implosion carries her stump and sutures like throwback testimonials from the blood oil and diamond genocides of Biafra, Liberia, and Sierra Leone (Obiwu, 2010).
Others sink into profound taciturnity symptomatic of brewing storms. Occasionally, angst could be misplaced. This happens when the individual expresses angry at a person that is not responsible for his or her predicament. Some bush-fallers are known to vent their anger on spouses and children as seen in the passage above, thus making themselves liable to legal sanctions.
At this point, I would like to shift gears and discuss some less perceptible ways in which African immigrants react to discrimination and denigration in the Diaspora. I will proceed by way of a medical analogy: getting rid of an abcess. An abscess refers to a tender mass of debris and pus that looks pink or deep red, and is easily pressed. Abscesses commonly grow around your armpits, anus, vagina, bass of spinal column, tooth or groin. An abscess is caused by a blockage in the sebaceous glands or sweat glands, minor punctures of the skin, little breaks and inflammation of hair follicles. An inflammation arises once your body tries to fight the germs that penetrate into the said glands. If you open an abscess, you will find bacteria, dead cells and other debris in it. Your abscess will start bothering you as it grows bigger every day. It will completely catch your attention as the presence of tension under your skin can no longer be ignored. To get rid of an abcess, you have to go through inspection to determine if the cause of your abscess is a foreign object that needs to be removed. If the cause is not a foreign object, then your doctor will have to drain the abscess through incision.
I view the symbolism of a malignant body through an abcess as an appropriate description of the malaise in which most African immigrants live in the United States of America and Europe. In an attempt to drain off their Afritude (quality of being African), bush-fallers have recourse to various paradigms. The bush-faller’s abcess is his Africanness—this blackness that constitutes the cause of his very undoing in the White man’s land. Caught in this crossfire of psycho-pathological warfare bush-fallers repudiate the following aspects of their psychological make-up:
LANGUAGE
A great majority of Africans living in the Diaspora feel ashamed to speak their mother tongues. Consequently, they willfully trade off their indigenous languages for foreign tongues. To them, the language of the white man is the language of power; it is the language of science; the language of prestige and accomplishment. As far as these bush-fallers are concerned, African vernacular languages belong in the remote villages they have left behind. Children begotten in the Diaspora are admonished against speaking the vernacular languages of their parents—Swazili, Igbo, Mungaka, Zulu, Medumba, Beti, Meukoh, Vengo, Nsei, and so on. If these kids desire to learn any of these African languages in order to meet college requirements, they will have to learn it at school, preferably from an American professor who learnt the language during one of his safari tours to Africa. I know of a Kenyan couple living in America, both professors who speak Swazili fluently but would not condescend to teach their college-bound daughter their native language. The kid has to learn it in college from a White Swahili professor, because American Swahili is just a little superior to African Swahili, you know. I am acquainted with an Egyptian professor who teaches Arabic at my institution who will not teach her daughter Arabic at home. The poor kid is now taking Arabic classes taught by an American instructor at a community college. See? African Arabic is no match with American Arabic. I see you shaking your head and asking yourself what is wrong with Africans?
FOOD
Our delicious African dishes—ero, ogwono, egusi, koki, ekwang, moin-moin, crayfish, dodo, puff-puff, njama-njama, water–fufu, garri, and more have become anathema in the homes of bush-fallers in America and Europe. Hitherto, eaten with relish, these foodstuffs no longer have space on our dining tables because, as you have rightly guessed, they remind us of where we originate. Our white friends and spouses will shame us for eating stuff reserved for monkeys. I remember bringing some ero and water-fufu from home two years ago for my friend who lives in Chicago. His parents had insisted that I take the precious parcel to their son who had not been home for twelve years. In the words of his mother, “let him eat this food and hear my smell in it.” This is a powerful statement in African cultures, especially if the food is coming from one’s biological parents. To my dismay, when I arrived at my friend’s home with the food items properly packaged, he shouted at the top of his voice: “Eh, eh! Massa, you wan kill me? Ma white nyango go divorce me if dis ting enter dis house. Massa, I don’t eat this stuff anymore. If ma titi put eye dei, ye go broke marred now now.”[Oh, oh! My friend, are you trying to kill me? My Caucasian wife will divorce me right away if this food gets into our house. I don’t eat this stuff anymore. If my wife sees it she will divorce me right away]. So much for cross-racial marriages!
AFRICAN OUTFIT
Like our indigenous foods and languages, our traditional garments—boubou, gandura, agwada, ndikong, dansiki, kabba, and more have undergone asphyxiation. The beautifully embroidered outfits we brought from Africa are gathering dust in our closets and boxes. If we wear them, we will be identified as primitive Africans. Heck! That does not bode well for our upward mobility in the white man’s world. The cool thing to do is dress up in American blue jeans and collarless T-shirts 24/7. While in Rome do as the Romans, you know.
ONOMASTICS
What’s in a name? Did I hear that? There is everything in a name! This explains why the naming ceremony is not a mindless affaire in Africa. We do not simply give names to our children. The names we give our kids are pregnant with meaning. In my village Bamunka, for example, names are communicative labels. For example, ‘Keyeyeng’ means ‘Wait and see’; ‘Wuteh’ translates the concept of being a ‘loner’. ‘Nyibanda’ signifies ‘God’s love for all and sundry’. Sadly enough, for reasons that may not be divulged here, some of us substitute Western names for our African names. For instance, Mohammed Fofana becomes Jim Moore; Ngoran Fondufe metamorphoses intoJem Sparks; Leonie Kandem is transformed into Kassandra Robertson; Mbionyi Tata now goes by the name David Jackson and so forth. These acts of disfiguring and self-denial are not fortuitous. They are calculated tricks to rid ourselves of our African identity. To our minds, these names constitute our most cumbersome source of embarrassment. The compulsive desire to deny oneself is part of the whitewashing scheme that Frantz Fanon denounces in his seminal work Black Skin, White Masks (1967).
CULTURE
In bygone times, cultural literacy was regarded by Africans as a life skill. For instance, the beating of the traditional drum and other musical instruments was a skill passed down from generation to generation. As Burkinabe fiction writer, Nazi Boni, points out in his novel Crépuscule des temps anciens:
http://gan.doubleclick.net/gan_impression?lid=41000000033398705&pubid=21000000000258567Tout jeune homme devait savoir manier avec aisance plusieurs instruments de musique, particulièrement le tian-houn, le kondio, le kokoni, le win’za et toutes les variétés de konkoans ou trompettes. Le tiohoun communément appelé balafon, le donkoho, minuscule tambourin de guerre à la taille de guêpe, le kere’nko, gigantesque donkolo, le kankan, tambour ventru, le ziri’nko, énorme kankan funéraire, constituaient—et constituent encore…des instruments réservés aux chanteurs et compositeurs traditionnels: les kakawa.(30-31)
[Every young man was expected to know how to play several musical instruments with expertise, especially the tian-houn, kondio, kokoni, win’za and all the varieties of the konkoans or trompets. The tiohoun commonly called balafon, donkoho, small war tambourin the size of a wasp, the kere’nko, gigantic donkolo, the kankan, hollow drum, ziri’nko, big funeral kankan constituted—and still constitute…instruments reserved for use by traditional composers and singers: the kakawa. ]
Nowadays, this cultural activity is regarded as decadent culture.Other aspects of our indigenous cultures have had the same fate. Kids no longer stand up to cede their seats to elders. They prefer to sit down while the older folks stand. We no longer eat fufu, ero and njama- njama with our fingers. No! We insist on using forks! Being able to handle silverware correctly at table is a marker of civilization, you know. Never mind these primitive Chinese and Japanese who serve chop-sticks in their restaurants!
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, suffice it to re-iterate the thesis according to which the de-identification of Africans in the Diaspora is not simply a face-saving fad; but rather a survival stratagem. Quite often, de-identification results in anonymization, the highest stage of self-denial. African bush-fallers are not unique in this experience. Other minority groups in North America and Europe—Asians, Latinos, etc, have, to a lesser extent, been subjected to similar psycho- sociological traumas. When dominant and minority cultures co-exist, conflict ensues. I have the conviction that the onus rests upon immigrants to look for less demeaning ways and means to fight back all acts discrimination aimed at cowing them into subservience. They cannot afford to let their cultures sink into oblivion in order to please Caucasians.
Works cited
Boni, Nazi. Crépuscule des temps anciens. Paris: Présence Africaine, 1962.
Fanon, Frantz. Peau noire, masques blancs. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1952.
___________ . Black Skin, White Masks.Trans. Charles Lam Markmann, New York:Grove press, 1967
Hubbard, Michael. “De-identification Data: What Every Privacy Professional Needs to Know.” NCHICA. 13th Annual Conference and Exhibition, September 23-26, 2007.
Human Rights First. “Victims of Violence Based on Racism and Xenophobia.”Retrieved December 12, 2010 from http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/our-work/fighting-discrimination/2008-hate-crime-survey/racism-and-xenophobia/iii-
Kwakye, Benjamin. The Other Crucifix. Oxfordshire. Ayebia Clarke Publishing limited, 2010.
Kayla P. “How is Africa Portrayed in the Western Media?” Retrieved December 11, 2010 from http://www.peacejam.org/projects/How-Africa-is-Portrayed-in-Western-Media-300.aspx
Ngwa, Wilfred and Lydia Ngwa. From Dust to Snow: Bushfaller. Princeton: Horeb Publications, 2006.
Obiwu. “Nigerian American Body Snatchers.” Retrieved July 19, 2010 from http://www.saharareporters.com/article/nigerian-american-body-snatchers
Osuji, Ozodi T. “African Immigrants in America.” Retrieved June 5, 2010 fromhttp://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/ozodi-thomas-osuji/african-immigrants-in-america.html
About the Author
Dr. Peter W. Vakunta is Professor at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey-California, USA.
I am pleased that one of us bush fallers has been able to stand up for the malaisse of our diasporaic habits which I agree with him one million percent. To add to all his remarks, I think that it is also of great importance that our child/ren born or raised up in diaspora be assisted in understanding our culture as it is that which makes us Africans. As an x-High school teacher of 22 years in England, I was never short of shocks from our children particularly those brought into diaspora's very quick lesson at picking up very simple letters of the constitution of four letter words. And ofcourse was I never short of shocks of parents of diaspora who thought that neglecting the child/ren because they have to navigate cleaning jobs for their upkeep was something to be proud of. Our children are our future.They must be raised to understand where they come from to be able to know where they are going to.So, parents of diaspora, please,please, take care of the children particularly those brought into diaspora, as they tend to pick up the worse of the society, when actually, there is alot of good things they they can pick up or copy correctly to improve themselves.
Posted by: Ndedi | Sunday, 12 December 2010 at 12:15 PM
Professor, you are describing extreme cases. Most people try to maintain a link with their origins by eating ethnic foods as much as possible. As you know, it takes some effort to do that. Most people wear ethnic garments when appropriate, belong to "contri" groups and so on. They socialize with their own people. I would say, in America, it is easier to stay connected than in Europe, because blatant discrimination is illegal, and people can assert themselves more easily. In general, my experience with this matter has not been like yours. When I lived in Nigeria for 7 years, my family and friends in Kumba thought I sounded like a Nigerian in my accent and choice of words. Man is affected by environment, and people change to more closely resemble their environment, not always because of a sense of inferiority. That said, people who are more grounded in African consciousness and dialectic, fare better than those who are not so prepared.
Posted by: Oyez | Sunday, 12 December 2010 at 05:02 PM
I am appalled by Prof. Vakunta’s distortion of the truth in this article. At one point I thought he was just showing off his writing abilities than stating facts. I will correct those that I can from my position as a bushfaller like him. But before I go on I don’t speak for the whole of the United States but for Maryland (more especially about Cameroonians) that I am familiar with.
Primo, De-identification is just a big word he uses without any grounding. Citing Fanon is obsolete. We live in an age that people should cite works that are recent. To add to this I don’t know any Cameroonians with the types of names Prof. Vakunta mentioned in the article. Secundo, in every Cameroonian household that I have visited always has a large supply of African food. Even my uncle who has lived here for 30 years still eat fufu and eru and get his clothes sewn in Cameroon. In every neighborhood in Prince Georges and Montgomery Counties with large African Diaspora population there is an African store that sells all the goodies that Prof. Vakunta mentions in his article.
Tertio, people beat up their spouse everywhere in the world be they immigrant or not. What will this learned Professor say about Cameroonians who beat up their spouses in Cameroon or Caucasians who killed their whole family here in the US? It has nothing to do with De-identification. It is just life. There are other things that the Professor could use to show De-identification, but in this article he clearly misses the point and was just way out with his facts (perhaps these facts are happening in Monterrey, California or friends of his).
Posted by: pforkou | Monday, 13 December 2010 at 01:17 AM
Yeah Professor you said it all. We are who we are no matter what we are or want to become. It was not by chance that we were born Africans but by God's wish. You see this is exactly why I joined the Nation of Islam. it helps me re-defined my identy and respect where i come from. It helps me to be proud of being born a black man. You know The Honorable Louis Farrakhan calls this scenario: Crabs in that barrel. he says the owner takes one crab out of the barrel and place it at a clear view top angle spot so the other crabs think they too can get out if they push hard. Illusions. Wannabe Black People think think they can disguise their manners and fit into white man's world perfectly. He talks about a people robbed and spoiled. All we are left with is to deepen each other's misery. When I joined the Nation I realised how long I was living in Darkness. Today I will tell any one who wants to impose any illusionary view on me I know who I am and where I come from. I am not ashamed of it. For those who are still lurking in the wilderness you better Join the Nation because;
I say and I say it again, ya been had!
Ya been took!
Ya been hoodwinked!
Bamboozled!
Led astray!
Run amok!
This is what they do....
I will stay as what I was when i was born: A black African Man. Proud of it.
Posted by: Jibril El Saleem | Monday, 13 December 2010 at 06:23 PM
Islamists are guilty of oppressing Africans too. I see it as pointless adopting an Arab name when there are many good African names.
Posted by: Va Boy | Monday, 13 December 2010 at 07:33 PM
Well done pal.i am a bushfaller too living abroad with my children.I want to thank you for this passage.you have infact said it all.I have met freinds who have been living abroad for over 30 years without going home.some of them have children who have never seen Home and do not even know how their grand parents look like.when i told some of my freinds that as my children reaches the ages of two i am taking them back home to live and in Africa and be a true african,they said they cannever allow their children undergo the same stress that they went through when they were in africa.my children will have to go to the farm,carry fire wood on their heads wash clothes with their handsweed igbo coco and g,nuts too like i did when i used to go to farm with my dad.My children will have to speak our local dialect,and know their uncles and aunts,cousins,etc.My idea of travelling abroad is to take back some of the Gold that the colonialist stole when they colonise our motherland.when i would have taken some of it for my family,country i would return home to live our peacefull,homeland.In Africa our land and home ther is peace.Abroad you are constantly living like a slave.I am proud to say that The African race is the best.i am proud to be an African.Everyday when i call my freinds from all over the world i remind them that We travelled abroad because we want our homeland to be better place.i tell them that ,he who does not know where he comes from cannot also know where he is going too.We Africans should strive hard to protect our culture and traditions.
Posted by: vally china | Tuesday, 14 December 2010 at 09:13 AM
Va Boy, The Nation of Islam (NOF) is very different from main stream Islam. Please, investigate properly before you rant anymore rhetoric. We are Muslim Africans studying both the Bible and the Qur'an. the name is only an identical reference to where and when we were before the captives shoved in. We change for no one, not even you or any caucasian wife. I wish we could meet and talk this 'fox to wolf'. Greater is he that is in us(me) than he that is in the world. Maybe, he that is in you(ur native Afo-akom diety as I will crack that calabash any time, any day, any where, thereby killing the munyungu spirit). Light will always outshine darkness.
Posted by: Jibril El Saleem | Tuesday, 14 December 2010 at 05:59 PM
An admixture of fact and fiction, the juxtapositioning of these raises this piece to the level of drama by the author's penchant for generalization and oversimplification. Granted, some bushfallers may well be relunctant to eat certain African foods, especially if they live in apartment complexes where boiling "stock fish" can in fact cause an international war because of the smell it oozes. But those who live in homes have no such inhibitions because of locale, locale, and locale. Nevertheless, one cannot second guess the author's design, which may well have been to provoke thought. As a man of language, he succeeded in that regard--if that was part of his grand design.
Emmanuel Konde
Posted by: Emmanuel Konde | Wednesday, 15 December 2010 at 09:02 AM
People it depends how you look at this issue, I have just one question to ask,Why are Africans immigrating to other countries? and by the way it's not only us the Africans doing this.The chinese are everywhere too, so are we.
The problem of culture inheritance is a choise,I'm also married to what you call an iyobo or whatever and she eats everything that goes into my mouth and it's the same mouth she can die kissing.People the problem is the way you start off your relationship.I'll take my son to Cameroon to show him where I'm coming from it will be his choice to may be want to live or do something when I must have gone.
On the other aspect of names he got all African names,and here is something funny,he's four,when he upset about something just ask him to tell you his last name,he will smile,stop crying and tells you what it means.
Yes this a good article but, not all cases are the way it has been portrayed .Have fun you all and Merry Christmas.
Posted by: Ngome | Wednesday, 15 December 2010 at 11:49 AM
People adapt to their environments for survival. There is no point being enslaved to a practice that confers little or no survival value to you at a given place and time.
In America you have to look for work and to do so you probably need to go for a job interview. Try putting on your agbada to such an event to show your Africanness and then let me know the outcome of your job interview.
Good luck.
Posted by: John Dinga | Friday, 17 December 2010 at 12:37 PM
John Dinga:
I'm convinced you are a Cameroonian with very low-self esteem, although you go about critizing Cameroonians with nothing to offer in return. I'm convinced that if "Barack Obama", with such a name, had told you a few years ago that he would become an American President one day, you would have been the first to argue vehemently that with such a name, he would never become a U.S. President.
You want to teach? Go look for a big class, but what would be teaching since you have nothing to offer?
As the Native Americans like to say it, "the cowardly coyote barks loudest from the pack", and in this forum, you do it behind pseudo names. Please come forward with your own articles, with "John Dinga" scribbled below them as proof that you've got the guts to stand critisms as you so often want to throw on others. I'm convinced Cameroonians will also have something to say about your articles.
Posted by: Fidelis Asah | Friday, 17 December 2010 at 04:50 PM
Interesting topic. As concluded, the "de-identification" is for the most part a survival stratagem.
How do you maintain your intonation if you carry out a front office job, or your mortgage depends on canvassing for business through cold calling? How do you insist on wearing your dashiki in sub-zero temperatures? As for culinary habits: in the rat race that is Western life, it is difficult to afford the time (and money) to prepare African dishes on a regular basis, not to mention the inconvenience of co-occupants in shared accomodation. My good friend is constantly harrassing his wife for "westernizing" their kids, and I keep reminding him to make up his mind, which is more important to him: culture or economics.
How do you maintain authenticity without inviting accusations of ghettorisation.
Posted by: limbekid | Saturday, 18 December 2010 at 03:50 AM
It seems to me the Mr. Vakunta is writing about the same things that reek his bushfallen ass. Looking at the complexity of his work tells the story of how much time he's put into learning the "whiteman's language". Not that I fault anyone for doing that, but our dear Prof is pointing fingers at others for doing the same thing that he does. Surely he knows what it takes to survive out there.
Posted by: franc | Tuesday, 21 December 2010 at 03:13 AM
what a precise honest and objective analisis.what realy shorks me is the fact some african people turn to deny this simple truth.everthing in this world is about culture .i am convinced if we lose our culture we shall one day cease from existing .culture is what creats the sense of responsibility in us and helps us cultivate a deep sense of responsibility.at least we should be honest with ourselfs and accept the truth in oder operate needed changes.
Posted by: BAH TEBOH ACHO | Sunday, 16 January 2011 at 08:54 AM
Those Africans who have been in North America for more that 25 years will attest to the barriers they encountered because of their names, skin color, race, accent you name it. Like a cameleon you learn to adapt to your enviroment (legitimately). Talking about name change, there is a reason the law allows for it -African or not. Choosing to make a change or abandon your past must not be construed as being self deprecating. It is the reason you left in the fist place - you left your past behind.
Like I said, those coming to American (of which I can speak) in recent years may find that such transformations are no longer necessary to land jobs or get ahead - beacuse there is a lot more acceptance of peoples from different parts of the world for several reasons - the world has opened up more - the technology revolution has brought in the H1 worker who's accent is thicker than the African. I remember I used to be hard to understand back in the 80's - today not so much, not because my accent has changed.
We only seek to introduce the culture that is palatable to the host's house in which we seek shelter, otherwise we stay in our lands and keep all of our cultures.
If a man decides not to adhere to the culture he left behind for reasons of surviving in the culture he finds himself in - grant him that!
I don't know when the good Dr. came to the United States. If during his stay he never found a need to shy from his culture - I say good for him!
I am often asked why I do not teach my kids my native language. If I felt they would need it someday to better their lives I would teach them. It won't - not in the society they the were born and in which they have to compete. It is just one more burden they do not need to shoulder. Amen!
Posted by: Gan Charles | Tuesday, 01 February 2011 at 03:48 PM