TODAY IS AFRICA DAY!
If you have not already figured this out about me, I revel in being a descendant of the Mother Continent – Africa. While I am not continent-born, I have traced my DNA ancestry to Guinea-Bissau (Fula), Sierra Leone (Mende and Temne) and Liberia (Kpelle) on my mother’s maternal side and Sierra Leone (Mende) on my father’s maternal side.
This year’s theme for Africa Day is Education Fit for the 21st Century. Read more here: https://au.int/…/celebrating-africa-day-theme-education…
Although I am now an entrepreneur, I have had the pleasure of working with and for companies such as Step Afrika! and African Ancestry that has EXPANDED my view of Africa immensely.
I have people in my life who are continent-born that allow me to ask all of the questions that I want about their country and their culture and have educated me about misconceptions that I may have had. Shout out to Adaora Nwigwe, Oluwaseun Asade and Elizabeth Yillah(there are more but these are the folks on the top of my head.)
Rita Lassiter will tell you that if you are riding in an Uber with me and if I detect that the driver is continent-born, I make an inquiry and ask them to let me guess what country and ethnic group they are from…and it often leads to a great conversation.
Many of us Diasporans (Diafricans – thanks Liv Lyvs for the term) have a flat and distorted view of the continent. Many of us look at Africa as one thing (some of us think it is a country) but it is a CONTINENT of 54 countries, thousands of ethnic groups (tribes) that contain over 25% of the world’s languages. It is RICH in minerals that have made various countries WEALTHY (without those same countries paying back into the economics of the country of their pilages).
Africa is the CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION and it is the man and woman of AFRICAN DESCENT that unlock every genetic code that exists on the planet (Research “Lucy”). So while today, we celebrate African Liberation, I use this day to celebrate the expansion of my African lens and everyday I fall more and more in love with the ENTIRE CONTINENT. Do bad things happen? Is there corruption in some spaces? Yes. But people can not throw stones that live in glass houses (Check your prejudices).
Lastly, I believe that it is a misnomer that continent-born Africans have a general dislike of diasporic Africans (and vice versa). Both sides of the coin have misconceptions and have said very hurtful things about the other. I believe that it is the fault of those who had sown seeds of discord. It has been my experience that most (and I mean almost all) continent-born Africans have opened their arms to me and have poured into me especially when I have come to them with respect and a healthy curiosity. I suggest that those of you who are curious to do the same.
