A call to Africanity, identity and self-love

So it seems everyone else gets it. My French friends drive french cars, my Japanese colleagues Japanese cars. Trust me, my German acquaintances do the same and my Jewish and Chinese friends take the concept of identity and self love to a whole new level. Granted, there are no African cars in the market for you to buy even if you wanted to do so, and that is true for many other things we consume. But do we love and support our own where it is possible? 

The fact is loving, liking, supporting and investing in your own, isn’t racism, it is self love.

When I first experienced racism, I knew from my years of living in a perfect black world that the best way to fight racism, is to make it loud and clear to the giver that their opinion, action, inaction, views or whatever conviction of superiority they had going inside their head just didn’t matter to you. That philosophy almost made me convinced that racism did not exist if you did not provide an enabling environment for it. It made me believe that in a racist transaction, the giver and the receiver are just as guilty. One for dwelling in the stupidity that they were superior and the other for enabling the giver by giving it attention. But while that works in some cases, it is not always true, it is not so simple.

The black race, call it Africans, are recovering from centuries of slavery, colonialism, apartheid and all forms of racial injustice. We don’t have the luxury other races and ethnic grouping have in how we deal with issues of racism, issues of identity, of self-love. We really don’t,  because the odds are already stacked up against us. 

We must consciously and collectively overcome those odds by working together, we must consciously and collectively celebrate our own. Our call for togetherness, for self love, and for blacks to fall crazy in love with their blackness and ‘Africanness’ needs to be louder than ever before.  As Africans we must collectively and consciously forge togetherness, black pride, unity and dignity. This is not an option, it is a must-do, even if that is only aspirational at the start.

And we must collectively name and shame black people standing up publicly to discredit their own. Other races and social groupings have learnt and mastered the art of self love and we have to learn from them. And even if they haven’t, we have bigger challenges to overcome and we must overcome those challenges as a collective. 

Collective and intentional efforts could help us to reverse the pains of our past and position our race, our people on a whole new trajectory. To be intentional about making that collective move, here are my points of departure, the four things I believe we should do to support our journey to a path of dignity and respect . To a path of black pride. 

Self love: If you are black, then the chances are you are African, it doesn’t matter where you were born, what baggage of slavery, colonialism or apartheid you have inherited. Because as Ghanaian statesman Kwame Nkrumah once said, “I am not African because I was born in Africa, I am African because Africa was born in me”. The blackness in you is African and we must consciously and intentionally celebrate all the ‘Africanness’ in us. If you don’t love your blackness with all your heart and with every fiber of your being then you need to start finding yourself. Girl, you’ve got to love those voluptuous curves, that difficult to manage hair, the noise and laughter of your people. Your culture, everything that defines you as black. We’ve got to consciously and collectively celebrate that which unites and binds us as a people and above all we’ve got to love our own unconditionally. Love black, love Africa, that’s my proposed first step in setting us on that new trajectory. And when you do, join me to celebrate every aspect of your ‘Africanness’ by contributing to this blog Je M’appelle Amazing Africa.

Be careful with narratives and stand up fiercely against oppressive ones: We all know the story of Africa is only now being told by Africans. And while some gains have been made, the story of who we are is still by and large being told by foreign voices. It takes some practice to become aware of how these stories have been told and the narrative that have been used in telling our story. We must become aware of those nitty gritties and awareness among our own we must create. Do you remember when Kenyans took to twitter and forced an apology out of CNN for calling Kenya the hotbed of terrorism? Yes, that made me so proud as an African. You know, CNN did not call the USA a hotbed of terrorism after 9/11. It did not call UK the hotbed of terrorism when trains were being targeted every week, neither was France framed along those lines but it took one attack on a mall for Kenya to be called hotbed. Those are usually intentional editorial lines and as Africans we must become very aware of framing and to push back against biased and hurtful ones. 

Name and shame black on black bashing: Show me anyone who is perfect, any race, any country which is, and I will show you a perfect African. So, no one is perfect and Africans ain’t either but focusing and constantly shaming our own is a colonial mindset we must overcome. Let’s learn how to celebrate our own even when there’s little to work with. Let’s reconnect with the sense of community which is inextricably African. And let’s name and shame black brothers and sisters who think by bashing their own, they earn some kind of superiority.

Support black entrepreneurship, buy African: A Chinese does not buy bread from a black man if a Chinese brother is selling some, neither will a Jew, Indian, etc. You might call that racism but it is not, it is merely supporting your own. If we blacks don’t learn to do the same we cannot blame our problems on anyone. Why does a black man travel to the mall to buy bread when his black neighbour has some for sale? Why do we invest all our money in foreign land?  Why do we embezzle from our people and create offshore accounts? …..The reality is, as an african, the only true home you have is Africa, the only true brother you have is black like you.

Let’s make the dream of the Africa we all desire a reality in our time, let’s build Africa together!!! 

Let’s learn to support our own, because again loving, liking, supporting and investing in your own, isn’t racism, it is self love.