|
The
Predicament of Africans In Diaspora; A Conflict of Cultures
Being
an open paper by Oliver Mbamara, Esq., 2003
The
typical African individual living in any western nation makes an effort
to balance his culture with what the foreign society or environment
demands. It is a continuous battle trying to adapt to the foreign
culture and society while at the same time striving to hold on to the
traditional African within the individual.
While
in the western society, if the typical African insists on being an
African to the core, the western public will misconceive him, but if he
wholly imbibes the foreign culture, he would likely lose the core
elements that make him a traditional African. And if in that condition,
he goes/comes home to Africa, he would be seen by the typical
traditional Africans at home (and there are millions of them) as a
disgrace to the motherland and culture he was supposed to represent. He
would be regarded as a sell-out. He would be viewed as one without
consideration or respect for his roots. He would be treated as one who
chose to snub his culture out of egotism and pomposity.
To
avoid being continuously tongue-lashed and insulted, the returning
African would try to hide the influence of the foreign accent on his
speech. Usually he fails at
it because sooner or later, the foreign accent slips through. In the
end, he only subjects himself to ridicule and scorn. He becomes the
worst of two worlds – neither being able to properly speak and exhibit
his original language and traditional culture, nor successfully imbibing
the western accent and culture. A sort of dilemma hardly understood by
those who have never been faced by the reality of this dual situation on
a first hand experience.
This
predicament is further compounded by the fact that the individual thus
becomes a master of neither his original African traditional culture,
nor the previously strange western culture. It is worse when he now has
a family, perhaps an interracial one. How complex it is, probably
becomes manifested in the characteristics of the children raised with
such background.
Yet,
many of us will neither relent nor crucify ourselves. Rather than waste
in self-pity, and self condemnation, some of us have found some solace
in simply balancing the two cultures and giving the situation the best
shot we can give to each of these conflicting worlds, ONE AT A TIME.
REFLECTION:
Be
that as it may, it is perhaps pertinent to note that some individuals
see beyond the demands of society, whether it is the African society or
any other society for that matter. In the hustle and bustle of it all,
the individual has an opportunity to learn and to develop himself as
Soul. Every other thing would have been vain. The consolation would lie
in the fact that at the end of one’s sojourn whether at home or
abroad, there would be some everlasting trophy to proudly show for it
when the individual comes to the end of the race and to the end of his
calling on earth. Ironically, the knowledge that there is an objective
to improve as Soul, would supply the individual with the strength to
continue striving in the face of all these challenges. This is only my
understanding, and I am still learning.
The
Predicament of the Stranger
And
then somehow the stranger
Finds
himself in a foreign land,
Beset
with sudden challenges
Of
life and living all too strange.
And
then he reaches deep in him,
For
the strength of his own culture,
But
finds himself in a stranger’s maze,
Brought
by a culture all too strange.
And
what was once there in his life,
The
root and core that made him strong,
Becomes
worthless in the eyes of hosts,
And
his predicament would then begin.
To
salvage his pride once owned before,
He
borrows the foreigner’s twisted tongue,
While
keeping down his own parlance,
But
in the end, he had lost himself.
And
no one would really know indeed,
What
plight it was that held him down,
Trapped
in the puzzling pit of dilemma,
Except
the few caught in the same trap.
He
had failed in his compelled bid,
To
be the man that pleased his hosts,
And
he had failed to be the man,
That
his kin have known before.
The
Jack of two conflicting worlds,
And
proven master of neither one,
But
what shall be gained by self-pity?
Or
harsh judgments that kill the will?
A
man does live but a life at a time,
And
so his ways may not please all,
But
solace lies in the balance of things,
While
living these worlds, one at a time.
Oliver
Mbamara, Esq. Copyright 2002
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR: Oliver O. Mbamara is a New York State Admin. Judge.
He is also a filmmaker, writer, poet, and playwright. For
more on Oliver Mbamara, please visit www.OliverMbamara.com
|
