This back and forth arguments and deliberations have gone on for some time now and shows no sign of simmering down. The concept of attaching the adjective ‘African’ to non African people spurs from the chain of history between the groups and largely for the heritage of slavery.
Africans think the African Americans look at them from a demeaning point of view, while African Americans think the Africans look at them as outcasts, uncultured and without traceable roots. Well, these claims are contextual and in some situations have proven to be right. There’s a rich heritage of culture shared between these two groups of people dating back from the origin down to slave trade.
For me, I’ll not attach behavioral inadequacies to an ethnicity or cultural divide and I’ll try as much as possible to treat this void of sentiments but at the same time, it will be coming from an African point of view. So, it will highlight the concerns majorly from this side of the divide.
Naturally, a typical African views other black people (non-Africans) as part of the global black community or family and never reneges in extending courtesy or invitations to come share the African experience. “Come to Motherland Africa and get acquainted with your roots” is the pilot statement and motive behind these gestures. Now, scores of African Americans have shown willingness and at some point, try to outdo themselves in a bid to appeal to Africans. One sure thing and perception of African Americans to Africans is that they are majorly privileged and this is not denying the racial injustice they are faced with.
Africa is diverse, multicultural and hosts multiple nationalities with regional segmentation. The genesis of the discord at times, springs from the failure to be informed about this little information. It is public knowledge that Africa is not a single nation or country and if you still refer to Africa as one, it says a lot about how much you rate the importance of that information to miss the minor details. This can also be blamed on the mass misinformation that plagues many average Americans living in that bubble of superior ignorance and being close minded to any information outside America.
To put things in retrospect, I’ll take a scenario of J.Cole’s concert in Lagos, Nigeria. When clips and pictures of the events crossed back to America, the comments and feedback were absolutely embarrassing and demeaning. While most were asking how ‘Africans’ know J.Cole and his music, some were asking how they got access to iPhones and others were amazed that Cole wasn’t screaming “fool me one time, shame on you” to Africans while they bump from their huts. The misconception here, is of epic proportions but let’s just leave it there and move to the next one.
There’s also this trend of monopolizing the identity of being ‘black.’ There are a couple of tweets that have made rounds the past few years containing stuff like “I’m half black and half African” or “you are not black, you’re just African.” That’s so much compartmentalization for a wrong perception.
Thirdly, there’s this set that tries to either over compensate or keep up appearances only when it’s convenient. These ones are on the look out to jump on a trend to appeal to an African audience even when it’s obviously patronizing and riddled with culture appropriation just to get all the applause attached to the moment. We see through the act sometimes and it’s usually yuck!
There is an identity discord for sure and I’m not operating oblivious to the fact that there are a handful of African Americans who don’t share the same reservations with the regressive bunch but nobody is louder than a highly opinionated and uninformed person. The voice goes far and in this case, we are the recipients.
At the end of the day, we are connected by history and skin color and it will span through many more generations to come. The earlier we fix this the better.
So, how do we fix it and what’s your own side of the story from an African American point of view?
-Dr Moh
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