The Continent of Africa

There is so much I can say about the article I just read on CNN entitled “Continental divide separates Africans, African-Americans.”  The article called to mind so many conversations I have had with friends who were not born and raised in the U.S. but are of African origin.  Some come from the continent — not country — of Africa.

Having friends from all over the world has been beneficial for me because I have had to open my mind, listen and learn.  One friend of mine from Brazil often says if Americans want to know how much of an asshole they are, go to another country, hang with the native people and listen to how they talk about Americans.  Apparently we like to litter the streets with our garbage, complain about rooms being too small, complain with hotel staff about getting what we want when we want it, we tend to treat people as if we are the best thing since sliced bread, and so much more.  Her thought of Americans is we have a condition called “delusionitis”.  I personally don’t think it’s an inflammatory disease, it’s more a condition of delusional thinking and as such I call it “delusionosis.”

Oh and I can’t begin to address another friend’s concerns about what he faced here in the good old United States when he was confronted with ignorance from both Blacks and Whites in this country.  As an Egyptian man, in job interviews, this poor fellow was constantly bombarded with questions about his nationality.  “Are you Black” was a question posed to him by one White interviewer here in Los Angeles.  He has straight hair but his skin color is black, like Anwar Sadat, and yes, he’s Egyptian.  People could not get past his skin color, straight hair and accent and one person actually asked to see a photo of his mother and father.  Excuse me!

Crazier still were the numbers of folks, both Black and White, who argued with him about geography.  Well educated folks insisted Egypt is not in Africa.  Excuse me!!!  I guess folks believe Africa is a country where all the Black folks are and the top portion of the continent is cut off.  Unfortunately, just this past weekend, I heard one Black news anchor actually say Barack Obama’s recent visit to Africa was the first since becoming President.  I wanted to reach through the television set and smack this poor soul.  The statement was false.  Barack Obama, earlier this year, spoke in Cairo.  Where is Cairo?  It is in Egypt and where is Egypt?  It is in Africa.  Oh My God!!

When I read the aforementioned article on CNN, I remembered a very long conversation I had with a Nigerian man while in college.  He and I sat, suspended in conversation, for hours as we discussed Black folks in America.  He could not understand our slave mentality, how we don’t support our own newspapers and magazines, our fascination with materialism, and how we are quick to put down those who excel.

A few months ago I talked with a young African man who told me he felt compelled to don the clothing of the street thugs — baggy pants, oversized shirts, etc. — because he was tired of being picked on everyday.  That’s a shame.  He actually felt if he dressed any other way he would become a target for violence.  Unfortunately, he is absolutely right.  Put on a nice polo shirt and slacks and yeah, you’ll become an easy target.  Take a kid away from the pack and they’ll tell you this.  Watch them as they get closer to home and watch the pants come up and the belts tighten.

In light of the above, the following is what Chinedu Ezeamuzie, 21, of Athens, Georgia, experienced when he arrived in the U.S. in 2003 from Jabriya, Kuwait to pursue his education here.

In Athens, Ezeamuzie found his ideals at odds with those who shared his skin color at Clarke Central High School, his first stint in a public school.

On his first day, he donned khakis, a button-down dress shirt and nice leather shoes. He caught the African-Americans’ attention upon stepping into the cafeteria, he said.

“They give me the look,” he said. “Why is this guy dressed like the white folks, like the preppy guys?”

Ezeamuzie didn’t understand why so few black students were in his advanced-placement classes. He didn’t understand the de facto lunchroom segregation or the accusing glances he got for eating with white classmates. One classmate called him a traitor and asked, “Do you not like black people?”

* * *

He found clothes akin to what he saw many African-Americans wearing — baggy pants and an oversized T-shirt. He relaxed his British-trained tongue and tried out for the basketball team, the 6-foot-5 Ezeamuzie said.

Ezeamuzie recalled finding himself more confused by his experience with some African-Americans: Why were they so cliquish? Why did they mock students for being intelligent? Why were they homophobic and bent on using the n-word? Why did every conversation seem to involve drugs, girls or materialism?

“They kind of accepted me. They saw me a little differently, but I was thinking this is a very narrow mindset,” Ezeamuzie said.

Look at what he had to do, change his clothes and “relaxed his British-trained tongue.”  I’m guessing we are raising our children at the Willie Lynch School of Divide and Conquer because we’ve learned the lessons well.

The article goes on to say Ezeamuzie and other Africans feel African-Americans dwell too heavily on “slavery and the racism that has persisted for more than a century since the Emancipation Proclamation.” Thank you, that is soooo true.  “We have all been tortured,” said one iReporter, Vera Ezimora, 24, a Nigerian student living in Baltimore.  “Now that we are free, holding on to the sins of white men who have long died and gone to meet their maker is more torture than anything we have suffered.”

Oh Lord, don’t get me started.  The article first addressed the erroneous and stereotypical images Americans generally,  and African Americans specifically, believe of Africans.  The whole “living in the jungle naked” stereotype or hunt game with spears or live in trees.  Conversely, in Africa, African Americans are seen as criminals, thugs, or overall violent people.

Sandi Litia, 19, a Piney Woods graduate from Limulunga, Zambia, said she was initially scared of African-Americans because the African media show them “wearing clothes like gangsters and killing each other.”

Nkosi concurred that African media “made it seem as if they were these aggressive people that did nothing constructive with their lives except occupy prison space.

This is a very good article, one that certainly stirred my juices.  I just wish I had time to discuss this in greater detail and perhaps one day I will — provided I have the time and energy — to interview some of my friends, allowing them the opportunity to tell their own story.