I just want to shout out @eclecticspectrum
who seriously fucking had more patience that anyone I know, to be able to reply to some of the ignorance she is receiving. Seriously, some people are living a mythical land that hasn’t moved since the first Portugese ship got to the shores of the Gold Coast. Many people on this site and in the world, are working on levels on some next congnitive dissoance. Best believe some of these people are the first to call out cultural appropriation and silencing. But when an African speaks about their life, experiences and culture they were actually brought up with, suddently they’re the ignorant ones? How many times have we seen this happen in history? What happened to all this respect, understanding some people preach on about? When things get uncomfortable and people have to be held accountable for their ignorance they don’t want to know? That sounds and looks real familiar. Maybe someone should hand out the “cookies” people love to bang on about on this website.
Tbh, fuck all the people that are disrespecting her and acting like she’s a hinderance to the “movement”. What movement? Have any of you been in touch with any actual Africans? Because real talks most people will side-eye this connection that only goes as far as your own needs. If you want to educate yourself on history, by all means yes. If you want to educate yourself on your own history, do that. But don’t start dictating your image of the continent to those who very much live there and know their culture, language, sprituality and heritage. Don’t start leaving people economically disenfranchised by claming cloths as being from specific tribes (while you disregard the meaning and importance). Don’t start treating Africa as a monolith for your mind to wander through and then assume your assertions are 100% true.
Damn. I’m so fucking tired of this bullshit. You wanna know? You really wanna know? GO BACK. GO BACK TO THE HOMELAND/MOTHERLAND/AFRIKAAA. And even then, be prepared to be treated as a foreigner. The onus is on you to prove yourself and it’s hard but that’s how it is. Fucking hell I know my family, my dad grew up in his homeland with direct links to his practises and traditions. Does that mean I’m automatically not a Westerner, foreigner, obruni? No, because I am and I undersand why I will always be seen as one. Yeah, it’s can be hurtful but that’s how real it is.
When Malcolm went back, he sought to understand cultures and was given a Yoruba name and accepted as a member of the tribe. But that was his own personal journey. You gotta take yours. I don’t care how many Igbo or Twi or Swahili words you can say. You have to go back in live in these respective places, regions, tribes, states, nations.
Fucking hell, I have friends that have grown up in their homeland and lived over in the UK for a few years, only to go back home and be treated as a Westerner. So if that’s in the space of 3-5 years, what is 500 going to do?
Damn. I’m over your feelings. I’m so fucking over it and I’m over my own. Because guess what? Why would it matter to those who are leading their lives, you have to make a tangible connection that also takes into account the fact that people live now. Lives move with mundane and important things but they are moving. So yes, understand pre colonial and post-colonial history. And stop bombarding a continent with your own feelings with the assumption that the lives of every African is there to appease you.
Reblogging for the bolded because that is my life story. I must have been elsewhere when the drama was going down but I’m someone who has always been the “oyinbo” and “baturiya” even before I stepped one foot outside Nigeria’s borders.
Who are you and why are you spilling out my feelings on all of this?? I’ve seen this argument pop up several times during my time on tumblr and at first, I went in on it and contributed my experiences to the dialogue, only to end up being shut down by African-Americans who felt the need to tell me that my perspective was invalid because it didn’t suit their ideologies of this ‘African connection’. As a result, I’ve kept quite and not bothered to continue to involve myself in these debates/arguments/whatever you want to call them, and I’m not quite sure that people want to address the complexity of these issues when they’re coming from an African. Do I wish it were as simple as “all black people are Africans 100% forever”? Yeah, perhaps. But it’s not and the explaining the ‘why’ will only drain the life out of us all. Nevertheless, this does not mean that there cannot be lessons learned between us, experiences shared, and an overall sense of solidarity amongst us all. I think I’ll stop here there as I currently do not have the strength to continue with this anymore.
all the bolded for ever
in my experience on tumblr, hella AA’s are not interested in hearing my perspective as an African on how their appropriation hurts me. they’ve shut me down as well and keep pulling slavery as their trump card as if that makes what they’re doing now okay. i appreciate the few that have listened, sha.
@cosmicyoruba, girl, i was born and raised in abia state and i was considered oyinbo before i even left, every second lol. so now, ppl are like, oh you don’t have an accent did you grow up here, and i’m like, people have bee accusing me of speaking foneh and forming as if i’m janded because my mother’s not nigerian since i was a child. at some point, i put my foot down and was like- i am naija whether they like it or not.
it’s by force lol
(Source: benorain)