Hi there,
A big thanks to all who participated in last weeks discussions, and to those who read our blogs, emails and comments. Your contribution is much appreciated.
This week I want to welcome Kirsten Clemens to our forum. She is a former Village Volunteer from Seattle and is currently doing community work in South Africa. I also want to welcome Augusta Moses, a British Nigerian living in England. We are very happy you could join us and look forward to hearing more from you in the future.
A Recap of the past week
For those who missed out… Last week we examined the provocative statements made by James Watson on the African/ black persons “lack of” intelligence. This discussion has grown to cover the socio economics of racism, different perspectives on intelligence and the impact of tribalism vis-à-vis development on the continent. For those still wishing to comment please send me an email on markgaya@villagevolunteers.org, or post your thoughts on the provided links below.
This past weekend I received several emails correlating identity and development.
Pan-African scholar Kagenza Rumongi says there can be no development without a knowledge and promotion of self-identity, in this instance, the African Identity. He goes on to chastise the ‘African educated elite’ for loosing its identity and in effect lacking a development agenda.
Some of you have written questioning his concept of Africanness and it’s connection to development. Tallash Kantai in Addis Ababa asks, whether being African means dressing in African clothing, driving African cars, feeling African, listening to African music and if it does, how does this affect economics on the continent?
Do you, like Kagenza, feel that the African (middle class especially) has lost its identity? Is there any connection between a promotion of self-identity and economic development? Should Africa emulate the US, which grew by producing and consuming its own products before opening its doors to trade with the world? Is it safe to drop tariffs and trade freely with the rest of the world? Can Globalization kill African industry
For more info on African economics see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa#Economy
For more on economic protectionism see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protectionism
We look forward to hearing from you
19 comments:
Do we need to buy Africa in order to build Africa?
The simple answer to this question is an obvious, Yes. A country can develop fast when its citizens have confidence in, and consume products produced locally (then export the surplus of that produce). However, the challenge in Africa lies in developing industries that add value to raw produce that can compete in the global arena, so that buying an African item won’t necessarily mean buying a lower quality product for a higher price, as it sometimes is. This will require an elimination of subsidies that Western States pay their industries, which make it impossibly expensive for African producers to compete with their Western counterparts. It will require a development of infrastructure that will facilitate trade on the continent. It will need a reduction in the red tape and the enormous taxes that small businesses are burdened with. It will need a promotion and preservation of the markets in which Africa is already a leader. It will require a re-structuring of our education system, investing in Research and Development with emphasis on producing products in which we have a comparative advantage. It will need a strengthening of the Quality Standards Board so that only good quality products are allowed to reach consumers. It will mean wooing global corporations to come and trade with Africa on African terms. It demands a cessation of the wars, injustice, inequality and corruption that plague many African nations. It demands a revolution, a restructuring of the entire system of global political economics.
Until we win the fight to bring the above changes, Comrade Kagenza asks that we buy African produce as often as we can, that we invest in a Kitenge (African Dress) before we buy the latest Sean Jean, that we sponsor an African child, support him/her through school, share new technology and information that can help to improve industry and livelihoods, study African literature, history, culture and language in order to get a better understanding of our selves, of the people of Africa…
Please write your thoughts on mine, Tallash or Kagenza’s comments. We would love to hear from you.
If you would like to discuss something else, something happening near you or something you saw in the news, please send an email and we’ll bring your thoughts to the forum. If you would like to be removed from the mailing list please send me an email and I’ll remove you from your inbox ASAP.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best
Mark Gaya
A response to Dr. Watson: continued¡K
There was a very interesting (perhaps naive) lady at
our recent Pan Africanist Forum on ¡¥Demystifying the African Identity- Session I¡¦ held on campus (USIU). We had just viewed a segment of Alex Haley¡¦s ¡¥Roots¡¦ chronicle- the part where Kunta Kinte is caught attempting to escape, he is tied up in the open
yard and whipped until he acknowledged his slave name
¡¥Toby¡¦; the question was whether an identity can be
imposed- either by force or through subtle means, on
any given individual. Anyway, this lady decided to
share with us her understanding of what it means to be
¡¥African¡¦- what her African identity meant to her.
She said that to her: ¡¥My Africaness is mainly within
my heart, my soul and my spirit¡¦ and that Africaness
to her meant fundamentally being ¡¥African¡¦ within
ourselves; point well delivered, and very relevant.
But the question was posed as to why she wore the
latest Western fashions- the jeans, the tops, the
shoes, and other adornments. Her response was that how
one dresses doesn¡¦t necessarily correlate to how one
thinks or feels. While this may be largely true, more
so with those who do not have the luxury of fashion
options, the disturbing realization to me was that we
have began defending the cultural elements of people
who are very alien from our experience as black
people. Here, we are talking about the ¡¥Economics of
Identity¡¦. This is what I mean:
So you look around the world today, in all the
continents on our globe. The Indian man/woman looks
Indian, dresses Indian, speaks ¡¥like an Indian¡¦,
eats Indian, and many times, smells Indian; the China
man/woman similarly is conspicuous in his/her own
aforementioned aspects; the American man/woman (white
American) has created his/her own distinctive
identity; and then stare closely at the African-
better yet, the Black man/woman any where in this
world (the elite i.e. educated, has options, access to
information of the history of Africa- the oppression,
the Civilizations, the challenges)- the African is not
the only one consuming Western products, but he/she is
the only one discarding his/her distinctive character-
language, dress, food, accent (this is crazy!), even
his/her own skin color (in the name of eyeliner,
shadow, foundation, and other facades of whitening
products- I call it the ¡¥Fair & Lovely Syndrome-
creating the White nigger)! The African has determined
to fit into all and any society he/she finds
himself/herself in- in Europe, in America, in Asia or
wherever.
NOTE: I just remembered a recent story (its relevant,
please read on). Launching the ¡¦50 years of
Independence¡¦ celebrations in March of this year, the
Ghanaian president John Kufuor committed the almost
equivalent of suicide. Kufuor rode in his presidential
parade wearing a neatly cut dark blue suit (possibly
Italian- don¡¦t they make the best ones?), he waved
and the people waved back, he gave his speech and the
people listened, but he still didn¡¦t get away with
it. What he seemed to somewhat forget was that
Ghanaians love their traditional attire- the Kente.
And while his best excuse shortly after the outrage
reached the long ears of state house was that ¡¥the
suit is an international dress, it does not mean I am
dressing European¡¦, the point still permeated through
his ¡¥mentally colonized¡¦ outlook, and it pinched his
native Ghanaian heart. So while on State visit to the
Queen of England soon after that, it was quite obvious
that his ¡¥sin¡¦ still rained heavy on his native
Ghanaian heart; at a State dinner party, President of
Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor stepped out to the flashes
of Royal photographers welcomed by Her Majesty the
Queen and walked with an understandable increase in
spring-of-step- he was wearing the Kente, wrapped
around his Niger-Delta Oil dark skin. He was
reaffirming to his people that he was yet to
completely abandon the Ghanaian identity- at least not
in the ¡¥international dress¡¦ again.
Where was I? Okay, we were observing the behavior of
the African with regard to his identity. The African
has formulated all sorts of reasons why not to dress
African- ohh, it is only for cultural events; ahh,
those things are for locals; eihh, African wear is too
expensive for me; man, I don¡¦t have to dress African,
I am African within my soul! As we continue to engage
in bitter arguments trying to convince each other of
what it means to be a genuine African, the
non-Africans- the foreigners have determined to help
us out. The Kikoy cloth- famous in Kenya has been
patented by the Japanese; the local Kenyan hand-bag,
commonly known as the ¡¥Kiondo¡¦ has also been sold to
the Japanese; the Kente of Ghana- royal attire for the
Ashanti Empire in Kumasi, has been bought by the
Chinese!!!! Where is Africa going?!? So now we will
buy our heritage from foreign entrepreneurs- sort of
like how we go stare at our cultural artifacts in
museums in London, New York, Paris or wherever. All
made possible courtesy of us Africans ourselves- our
insistent stubbornness against ¡¥dressing African¡¦
has finally paid of!
So this is the situation, we are selling ourselves to
the highest bidder. We remain comfortable to pay rent,
buy drinks, attract model-girlfriends, cater for trips
to Bahamas or Hawaii for Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klien,
Polo (must be British), and other Western designers.
And the African is well equipped with reasons as to
why he/she wears those self-esteem booster clothes;
all done with a stubborn attitude that what is
¡¥African¡¦ is ¡¥too local¡¦. Would the Japanese
afford our Kikoy and Kiondo if we were all buying
these products- as a result empowering our local
entrepreneurs and building our economies? Would the
Chinese dare come to the bargaining table if the Kente
was in high demand- by Africans? Do you ever picture
an African buying out Calkin Klien, or Polo, or
Hilfigger and moving the headquarters to Bangui or
Lubumbashi? (They would probably laugh at you but
still employ you¡Kto sweep the tailoring roomƒº )
My thoughts are running in all directions, but I must
remain on this track. To the elite African (most of
you who receive this email) - if you can¡¦t at the
least dress African, do you expect me to believe that
you disagree with Dr. Watson? The saying that ¡¥the
cat will never bark louder than the dog¡¦ attracts our
attention- we will never be more Western than the
Westerners, we will never be whiter than the White
man/woman (ask Michael Jackson), we will only be the
best at what God created us to be- Black and African.
So, it may sound ¡¥on the surface¡¦, but dress African
if you are proud to be African.
Kagenza Sakufi-Rumongi (without apology!)
wonder...
If Dr Watson
(or for that matter, Dr Livingstone)
dressed like an African
would that make him an African?
I truly wonder
Is the African in the dress..
(or lack of it)
or in the dreads?
Am I an African
Just because I was born in Africa
and have learnt to survive
her bitter-sweet extremities?
Is it in my face, or in my tongue, in my culture, or even my poverty
that you see African in me?
Does Africa have a heart,
a passion, a rhythm in some song
that's yet unborn, lost in a forgotten womb snatched from its youth...
Or perhaps Africa is slowly dying, stuck in between the old,
despised but newly admired,
and the new, which despises me.
Should I be proud to be African? Indeed, but why so? I have never learnt what was special about being me.
Great Nations were built on the back of Africa, true, but they were never her's...
what is hers now breaks her back and her children turn on each other
So I ask,
what is this thing in me,
that makes me want to be called "African"?
I wonder, I truly Wonder
Hi everyone,
I hate writing just after Mr. oh-so-eloquent Rumongi :) but you provoke me :)
I chose to copy to all because I think this discussion needs to be a continuation and the more people that hear about it, the better.
I think Genza and I have had this discussion before and I'm as passionate about it now as I was a year ago!
I see where the argument is coming from, dress African, but my question has always been that that is an oxymoron. Why? because 'our dress' is defined by foreigners. Let me remind you that much as dress is an economic aspect, and 'buying African' would 'build Africa', who sets our agenda? Look at this- Recently, well in the past five years, dreads have become the 'in' thing. Which is great, but when did it start, or doesn't that matter. Maybe the even more pertinent question is WHY did it start?? Who is setting our agenda? surely before we delve into something as deep as identity political economics, we need to know who is pulling the strings...or doesn't that matter? Did Africa just discover herself in the 'noughties' (in this millennium)? Or did someone see the opportunity for a quick buck from these Africans who will take anything thrown at them? Are we really pushing our own agenda? Why all-of-a-sudden? why after China and Japan have patented our attire and accessories are we now scrambling to buy them in order to seem more African? What happened to the clean shaven African who was the epitome of AFRICA in the 1990s?
From everything, we are supposed to take a lesson. The lesson Watson taught me is that the African will always be the African in the eyes of a white man, no matter how progressive. Sarkozy proved it earlier this year when he told AFRICANS, on a visit to AFRICA that our brains refuse progress... 'our enemies' are not even trying to hide their prejudice anymore. If that's what they think, why wouldn't they push their 'Africanisation agenda' on us and make us buy it? After all, are we smart enough to create an agenda for ourselves?
So I worry about some of the underlying issues when it comes to these things. They may seem simple, and patriotic but are they really?
This is the kind of thing that should keep us up at night...
Without a doubt race is a topical issue, however more importantly Africans should be more selective with who they elect as their leaders, we need to develop a culture of transparency, African leaders need to be held more accountable for the state of their countries, I say enough to corruption!!
Just to add a bit of my own stupidity to this, I really don't think the African middle class has lost it's identity. The whole world is changing, for better, and we're giving up lesser identities for a greater one: being one common people regardless of race. I say this because I'm a Baha'i and have been trained to think this way from the moment I could speak. What does Kagenza mean by African identity? If it's about family ties, then numerous middle class African families hold on to that. If it's about respect, I think middle class African children still possess that value (at least the overwhelming majority of the ones I know do). If it's about collectivisation, many middle class families sacrifice a lot to help 10,000 relatives who should be out there working instead of begging. I am a devotee of Adam Smith and a strong believer in fiscal liberalism. Capitalism is the only system that has proven itself useful, so you can understand where I am coming from!
And what is this business about clothes and cars? I don't think we have to wear outward marks to prove our identity. That time is passed. I can still be as African in my orientation and prefer a cashmere sweater, nothing wrong with that (that is the voice of the capitalist and libertarian in me speaking). I think that would be a form of slavery, being bound to dress and act in certain way in order to perpetuate a certain identity. I should be allowed to follow the dictates of my taste and not become some constipated lefty who is enraged at the rest of the world :-). We should loosen up, have more fun and be less critical. Life back home is already hard and a few material comforts should be encouraged.
I'm writing this after a lack of sleep over the past 72 hours so if it doesn't make sense, forgive me. OK, time to crash now
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Patrick
Again...if I prefer a paisley shawl from India, that doesn't make me less African than someone in dyed cloth from Ghana. I don't think the African 'educated elite' (and I place everyone from the Continent in this blog in that category) as having lost it's identity. I can give you an little story. Last week I was invited to lunch by some Ghanaian friends who live in a gorgeous apartment on Fifth Avenue. These people are clearly part of an African educated elite-the father is a graduate of Princeton, the Harvard Law School and has his LL.M from the University of Cambridge. I can't think of any lawyer more better educated than that- attending the bastions of Western intellectual though, AKA perfect finishing schools! Well, the family's apartment was filled with all these exceedingly beautiful works of art from West Africa, the finest collection I've seen in private hands! His wife, who is French, said that they picked up the pieces on frequent travels back 'home' because they thought that it would make them feel closer to their background (note, it is a French woman speaking, but because of her marriage to an African she feels she has an African identity now).
The thing about leftist thought (and I consider myself very liberal on matters such as abortion, same sex unions, welfare and a public health system-placing me to the left of any Republican) is that it's all talk and no action-criticism, criticism, criticism! Lefties are actually elitists who think they're better than everyone else because of their higher ideals (reeks of a class system (the very thing they're fighting) to me. It's a system that perpetuates an 'I'm better than you' image. OK, I know I am rambling, but the anecdote is one of an educated African (who is elitist living on New York's Upper East Side).
Now to Kagenza's issue about closing our markets to the world and growing from there: TIMES HAVE CHANGED! The US could afford isolationism but after Pearl harbour, all of that was swept by the currents of history. Protectionism isn't the way, if anything, it's unhealthy. Just think, market forces will destroy us should we even try that! China tried it but eventually had to concede to the fact that we live in a thoroughly globalised economy! The world's most closed economy is now an active participant in the World Trade Organisation!!!!!!!!!!!!1 what better proof do we have than that??? Closing our doors would eventually kill us and I'm afraid of the prospect of a policy-maker who will implement such an absurdity in Africa. We're already beaten as it is, that will just murder us. And consider this, the marginal economic growth many countries have experienced on the continent and that we have emerging economies and are well on our way to becoming major players int eh international market!
As for African produce...until I can find a manufacturer who will prduce the perfect sweater for me, or have a coat with the perfect cut that I want, I be shopping in these shores and in Europe! Making our products better will make sense, not rambling about Sean John.
NOW I REALLY HAVE TO SLEEP!
Disclaimer: I am neitehr a spokesman for President Bush not teh Republican party and it's affiliates!
So I jump headlong into this debate…ignoring social conventions like being invited and the like...and sticking to the topic. I may ramble and go off on my own tangent every few lines, but hey…I can. Here we go. On purported ideals of ‘freedom’ and ‘Africanness’. I just started reading this amazing book by an amazing, brilliant mind from the Global South: Amartya Sen. In his ‘Identity & Violence: The Illusion of Destiny’, he begins by quoting Oscar Wilde (at this point you’ll have to forgive him for not having quoted Kwame Nkrumah or Che Guevara), who says, “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” There are few statements that are truer than that. Basic humanity is the same regardless of colour, ethnicity, sex, creed…it’s the SAME. At our most raw, most basic core, we love and hate the same, we succeed and fail the same, we desire and are disappointed the same. Genocide has happened not only in black Africa, but in white Europe: Hitler’s minions against the Jews; the Turks against the Armenians; the Serbs against the Croats (and here I’m giving specific examples of ‘white-on-white’ crime, so to speak…let’s overlook for a brief second the European slaughter of Native Americans and the slave trade for the sake of this argument). Concepts that are considered to be ‘un-African’ such as homosexuality have existed since the beginning of time, as chronicled in the book ‘Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies of African Homosexualities’ by Will Roscoe and Stephen O. Murray (at this point allow me to pre-empt the comment I know is coming about these being Western writers who have no idea about African truths…I say that if we’re going to start throwing out all research findings from Western writers, you’d better be prepared to throw out 90% of the academic research on Africa). We’re here fighting Watson’s statements because we’re trying to prove that we have the exact same capacity to learn and excel as any other race owing to the fact that we’re in no way mentally inferior (or superior) to them. So when Genza alludes to Patrick’s sentiment on ‘all others who believe that the world is a bed of roses where we shall one day be ‘one race’ and live ever happily after’ with a less-than-encouraging tone, I say Patrick is right. We’re not that fundamentally different to begin with. The wealth and breadth of our experiences, and their surface demarcations are what are informed by our specific stamps of identity and environment, but we remain the same creations of God.
Sen says (and I quote directly): “A sense of identity can be a source not merely of pride and joy, but also of strength and confidence. […] And yet identity can kill—and kill with abandon. A strong—and exclusive—sense of belonging to one group can in many cases carry with it the perception of distance and divergence from other groups. Within-group solidarity can help to feed between-group discord.” Which is why I so vigorously resist any and all attempts to create a quasi-separatist African movement. Clarification: I believe in pan-Africanism, but not separatism. I reject any teaching, philosophy or belief that attempts to promote the superiority of any race or ethnic group, including my own, over another. I believe strongly in the idea of cross-cutting identities, none of which should be suppressed…expounding of DuBois’ idea of the American Negro’s ‘two-ness’.I am: an African, a Kenyan, a Kikuyu, a Luhya, a woman, a Christian, a feminist, a student, an animal lover, a social democrat, a pragmatic idealist, a pan-Africanist, a development expert-in-waiting, a socially conscious activist, a self-confessed Afropolitan…which of these, pray tell, should I deny for the other? I am a child of the Global South yet I have done the Kenyan 8-4-4, American grade school and university, an International Baccalaureate diploma, and was taught by the Irish...and I’m nowhere near done with my education. Which of these should be my greatest educational influence, and why? I leave my hair natural, because I disagree with the idea that the hair of a black woman must look like that a white woman otherwise she is naught but a ‘nappy-headed ho’. That said, I am loath to judge my sisters, my friends, my girls who decide that chemically straightening their hair is the easiest way they know to maintain it. You as an outsider are in absolutely no position to make that judgment call for them, and it doesn’t diminish their African-ness. I wear lots of African print clothing…my African dresses over my jeans; my kikoys over my t-shirts; my kangas with my boots; my Maasai sandals with my shorts. I eat chapati and speak with an accent; I carry kiondos and wear eyeliner. Where does my African-ness end? What makes me less than the one who supposedly eschews all things western (yet continues to talk in English, use the internet and benefit greatly from these damned western factories called universities…speeds off his airconditioned car to go rail at the evil west for destroying his Africa from the comfort of his western-style house)? My identity is shaped by a plethora of influences, both African and non-African, and I celebrate them all…and apologise for none. It is true, dress African if you are proud to be African. However, that is NOT a syllogism that translates to ‘s/he that does not dress African is not proud to be African’. A priest who opts out of wearing his official vestments is no less of a priest. Back to Amartya Sen: when we are put into narrow categories the importance of human life becomes lost. My wearing perfume (and you lose me on this point, Genza….do you advocate eau de sweat as a way of proving our commitment to the Continent, for (unfortunately) I know of no African perfume designers and am decidedly not a fan of the Somali musk…so should we all go smelly to support the not-yet-nascent African perfume/cologne industry?)…that is an irrelevant, narrow category. My job, my actions, my speech aim at achieving an African consciousness. But—that doesn’t matter since I occasionally wear ‘those new female jeans that get tighter towards the feet, and the doll shoes’
Hey Kagenza...I also miss our ideologies class! Just one thing, it's OYOO, not OLOO! My name is a major part of my identity since it was my great-great-gradfather's, so I tend to be fascist about people getting it right:-)!
I stand by my opinion that extreme leftist thought has a ring of class structure to it, the idea that a better-placed individual (in terms of education perhaps? Enlighten me) has the duty of showing the lost sheep (I think I might be included by some in that category no doubt)the right path to socialism (pure evil in my opinion with that religion is the 'opium of the masses' garbage at the root of its foundation.
Your response brought out a lot of factors that really need to be explored and it has taken me much time and effort to reflect on.The golves are off, yeah, just like old times buddy, we are allowed to get personal because this is healthy and I really take no offense. I am sure that when when I'sit around my European/American (white) girlfriends and boyfriends, I bathe in their reassurances that ‘you are one of us'. Most of my friends (brown, black, white, yellow, pink, blue, whatever)are Baha'is, and that is a glad reassurance. Out in the world there are people who share the same aspirations for the human family as I do and are heavily committed to demonstrating in in the totality of their lives. The fact that we all feel throroughly connected, not because of race, nor class, nor taste in music and other ephemeral ojects, we identify a silver thread that runs through all of us: a principally spiritual identity.
There is absolutely no harm in talking 'about western fashion, western music, western concepts of life, western cuisine, and all
other things that excite white Europeans/Americans.' I know several other brown, yellow and black people combined who have an interest in a plethora of similar ideas and things. Since when was one's taste dictated by one's race? I find that idea completely unacceptable and to be quite honest, extremely bizarre. Are you proposing that I run to USIU from the ends of the earth each day and then run back home? That I walk to a river thousands of miles away to get washed? That I wear skins or leaves? I don't know about you but my skin is prone to bursts of allergic reactions when it comes into contact with wild plants. Maybe you should put that to the test and tell us how it goes. Western technology makes our lives easier, does't it, otherwise we wouldn't be blogging (and doing so in English, a language that has clearly demonstrated man's abiliy to unite).The 'real' Africans out tehre will think of us as being very stupid and with lots of free time to talk about life and identity when they are thinking about where tehir next meal is coming from.
We are so good at faulty generalisation. I have to admit that I'm guilty of that cardinal sin given that 'lefties are blahblahblah'. I actually do find it hysterically funny that my friends have 'accepted me because I don't talk about racism'. I have to admit I hardly dwell on issues that just seem to hit a brick wall. And no, I am not so ignorant about 400 years of slavery! I spend too much time with my nose down history books to be that ignorant. Maybe I'm to unsentimental (ask Rachel), a tad bit cynical and certaibnly cold (that's just life), I just think that revisiting the sins of the past purely as an exercise in pointing fingers is retarded and futile. What do we hope to acheive by talking about this day in, day out? Slavery was horrendous and we all know that, but somehow I don't seem to know anyone who has people picking cotton on their fields. We can't keep blaming people fore the sins of their forefathers!
My reaction when Morales came to power was 'hmmmmmmmm'. This is just my opinion. The so-called socialist revloution in South America is purely a reaction to the political realities north of the border, which will certianly change after liberals take the White House next year, and the fact that its great leader Castro is ailing (probably a corpse for all we know). I have to agree with Margaret Thatcher that 'Capitalism has finally triumphed over Communism'. Nationalisation of industries is an extrememly stupid move. I believe in equality, yes, but you can't have a properly functioning society if everyone is the same plane and earns the same!basics have to be met but we STILL NEED ORDER! What we need to be working towards is finding a solution to extremes of poverty.
Maybe I am too preoccupied with the persecution of my coreligionists in Iran (by that satanic regime that breeds nothing but religious fundamentalism and intolerance), Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East to commiserate on sad events that happenend centures ago. I complain because the media doesn't pay much attention to a systematic cultural genocide that has had adverse effects on the lives of people I know well and care about.
I set down the rules when it comes to my identity, and that identiy is mutifaceted. I am a Baha'i, African, Kenyan, Luo, Nairobian, a photographer, a blogger, a writer, a student at one of those 'factories'(where I often sit not too far from the well poised, eloquent and strickingly handsome Afro-Centrist typing away on his laptop), an environmentalist, a pro-choice activist, a pro-gay rights activist,an art lover, a liberal! The list can go on and on and it tells me that I have a multitude of identities, not a confused person. I am more than my race or cultural background and I tend to think that everyone else is pretty much the same. Being a minority within a minority is not very easy, and I have learned to straddle all my worlds carefully without offending anyone, not because I am afraid of what they would think, but because I don't particularly enjoy making people uncomfortable due to teh fact that I don;t take too kindly to being made uncomfortable.
Because of you my very dear friend, I have been going on shopping sprees buying everything I can get my hands on by Noam Chomsky. Isn't that the same Western philosophical thought that you are eloquently denigrating?
Me and my 'so called Liberals are merely a bouquet of pussyfooters who would never loudly go against the status quo because they don’t want to step on anybody’s toes/' Well I tend to think that I really do fight the status quo, particularly in my personal life.
I have surrounded myself with people I accept and people who accept me, not for any of the reasons you have so beautifully elaborated on. Many of my friends, lovers and I are on opposite sides of the political or philosophical (or even artistic) specturm and I definitely see you as being a friend who pushes me to think beyond my preferences and ideologies, getting me out of my comfort zone which is healthy for growth. It makes life interesting because one finds that one is constantly pushing onself to learn.
I've probably been going on and on about nothing but I will answer your question. My centre is my identity as a Baha'i, my centre is 6 billion souls, my centre is the tiny contribution I can make towards the betterment of the entire human race. 'Let no man glory in this: that he loveth his country, let him rather glory in this: that he loveth his kind.' I do love my kind and the fact that all of us human beings are so different.
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