{"id":176430435,"date":"2014-01-05T02:56:39","date_gmt":"2014-01-05T08:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/?p=176430435"},"modified":"2014-01-05T03:25:26","modified_gmt":"2014-01-05T09:25:26","slug":"pov-what-kind-of-african-doesnt-speak-any-african-languages-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/2014\/01\/05\/pov-what-kind-of-african-doesnt-speak-any-african-languages-me\/","title":{"rendered":"POV: What Kind of African Doesn\u2019t Speak Any African Languages? Me."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"spectra<\/a>
\nAPRIL 1, 2013<\/p>\n

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What Kind of African <\/span><\/h1>\n

Doesn\u2019t Speak <\/span><\/h1>\n

Any African Languages? <\/span><\/h1>\n

Me.<\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

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by\u00a0SPECTRA SPEAKS<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"Afropolitans\"<\/span><\/div>\n
Last year, I attended\u00a0a conference that brought together African thought leaders<\/span><\/a>. In a session about African identity, we explored the question of whether one could claim to be African without being fluent in any African languages.\u00a0A passionate, and near disruptive debate ensued almost instantly<\/span><\/a>.
\n<\/span><\/span>
\nWhat Language Do You Speak? (aka Do You Speak \u201cUs\u201d?)<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I\u2019ve had this conversation about language and identity time and again with Africans I meet on my travels. Myafropolitan (i.e. world citizen)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0accent throws them off \u2013 a mix of American, Nigerian, and what\u2019s often mistaken for British diction, simply because I enunciate my Ts. \u00a0(Perhaps it\u2019s the remnants of attending a British-run primary school; not likely though.). Bread-breaking usually comes to a halt until the matter of my accent (origin) is cleared up.\u00a0They simply\u00a0must<\/i>\u00a0know which language I speak so that they can place me in one of two boxes: one of us, or one of\u00a0them<\/i>.<\/span> When I tell the cultural gatekeepers that I\u2019m from Nigeria, and my accent is the result of living in the states for the past 12 years, they\u2019re still not satisfied. \u201cAre you sure you weren\u2019t just born there?\u201d they ask, \u201cYou don\u2019t sound like you grew up in Nigeria.\u201d I usually respond by asking them what a Nigerian who grew up in Nigeria sounds like, then hear some variation of \u201cLike the people in\u00a0Nollywood<\/span><\/a>\u00a0movies.\u201d And when I tell them, I\u2019m sorry to disappoint, I\u2019m not an actress but an activist, I\u2019m Nigerian through and through\u2013I just went to the states for university, they deliver the kicker, \u201cWell, prove it. What language do you speak?\u201d The minute I respond with English (\u201cOh\u2026\u201d), it\u2019s all downhill from there.<\/span><\/div>\n
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To Speak or Not to Speak: Assimilation vs. Accents<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"African<\/span><\/div>\n
From tensions in Spain over\u00a0mandating Spanish<\/span><\/a>(versus indigenous languages like Catalan) to U.S. debates over bilingual education and attempts toban speaking Spanish at school<\/span><\/a>, the issue of language is a sore spot for many communities. Such language restrictions are often seen as\u00a0direct attacks<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on minority cultures,\u00a0especially for black immigrants<\/span><\/a>\u00a0who\u00a0struggle to affirm their cultural heritage<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the absence of their native language. Yet, ironically, immigrant parents in the U.S. are less likely to teach their children their native languages, for the purpose \u2013 or rather, the sake \u2013 of easing their assimilation into English-speaking culture.<\/span> The latter scenario resonates deeply with me. I grew up with a father who wasn\u2019t fluent in his mother tongue,\u00a0Agbor<\/i>\u00a0(a region-specific dialect of\u00a0Ika)<\/i>, because\u00a0his<\/i>\u00a0father had outlawed the language being spoken in the house. My grandfather\u2013who\u00a0worked as a civil servant during Nigeria\u2019s colonial era<\/span><\/a>\u2013had valid reasons for doing so. In those days, speaking \u201cproper\u201d English meant you got the \u201cgood jobs,\u201d which meant\u00a0increased access to resources, and an improved livelihood for one\u2019s family. Sadly, even though my father openly resents never having learned his family\u2019s language, his wife\u2013my mother\u2013refused to teach me\u00a0her<\/i>\u00a0native tongue,\u00a0Igbo<\/i>, for a similar reason.<\/span>
\n\"nigeria<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
Colonialism did a number on Nigeria\u2019s education system<\/span><\/a>; as I was growing up, public schools were plagued with lack of resources, frequent strikes, cult violence, sexual harassment, and prostitution. Hence, my mother\u2019s desire to see me succeed meant equipping me with tools to ensure I could thrive outside of the country I called my home. For instance, I would attend an international\u00a0British-run private school, where white teachers would single out the only other black kid in the class for not pronouncing \u201cstomach\u201d correctly ( \u201cstuh-muck\u201d, not \u201cstoh-mack\u201d apparently); only an American or British university would do; I would not learn my native tongue until I spoke English \u201cperfectly\u201d and no longer risked picking up a \u201cbad, Nigerian accent\u201d that would make it harder for me \u201cover there.\u201d<\/span> You see, both my parents studied in Los Angeles in the 70s; on top of the (incomprehensible to me) racism of the time, they also faced American imperialist views and discrimination against \u201cforeigners.\u201d My mother was repeatedly rejected by employers for speaking too \u201charshly\u201d, eventually forcing her to give up pursuing her dream career in television. It\u2019s no wonder that every morning in my early childhood, my parents would wake up at 5 am to tape Satellite episodes of\u00a0Sesame Street<\/i>\u2026They believed (or hoped) that watching British and American English programming would teach their children to speak \u201cproperly,\u201d so they wouldn\u2019t have to give up on\u00a0their<\/i>\u00a0dreams.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The Blame Game: Colonialism, Forced Migration, and \u201cBad African Parents\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/span>\"The<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n

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For a long time, I resented my parents for robbing me of learning\u00a0both<\/i>\u00a0my native languages. Later, I resented Nigeria for being so poorly-run that my parents couldn\u2019t see me thriving anywhere butoutside<\/i>\u00a0of it. Now, as I think about the players who created the environment I was raised to escape\u2013who concocted a system so cruel it culturally orphans children for its own purposes, it\u2019s become much harder to keep directing anger at my own family, and my own people.<\/span> My parents shouldn\u2019t be crucified<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for acting in full awareness of the unjust systems that police indigenous cultures: the colonialist rubble left behind in Nigeria by the British Empire, and the resentment of Britain\u2019s imperialist younger brother, the US of A, towards foreigners. Their fears were rational. Even today, my Puerto Rican partner, who manages a Spanish-speaking client support team at work, comes home at least once a week to vent about some caller\u2019s rude reaction to a supervisee\u2019s accent, dismissing them as un-educated, or ill-equipped to perform their jobs because they perceivably don\u2019t speak \u201cproper English.\u201d<\/span> Still, while many immigrants are forced to sacrifice native language fluency, it\u2019s important to note that similar negotiations around language, identity, and yes, accents, don\u2019t just play out within the context of the migrant Diaspora. Many Africans living on the continent don\u2019t speak their native languages, either. And, their reasons aren\u2019t so different from their estranged brethren.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"Black<\/span><\/div>\n
In Nigeria, for instance, as a Delta-Igbo person living in a state dominated by\u00a0Yorubas<\/i>, I experienced much discrimination at school: regular tribalist diatribes from Social Studies teachers, punctuated by stereotypical Igbo impersonations from classmates.<\/span> The ethnic tensions that permeated my school dated back to when Igbo people had attempted to gain independence from the political mess the British left in Nigeria post-independence. These attempts, the result of colonial powers leaving certain ethnic groups in power over others, led to the Biafran war and genocide. The war had a lasting legacy: many Igbo students at my school didn\u2019t speak their language (openly) for fear of being socially ostracized. Speaking, or at least understanding even broken Yoruba was a way of appearing more socially acceptable, to assimilate and survive.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Policing Africanness: Language, Globalization, and Cultural Access<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

\"African<\/span><\/div>\n
As is the case with many other colonized African countries, in South Africa, for example, the 12 official languages are the result of white men sitting down at a table, drawing squiggly lines around the region they wished to claim. They didn\u2019t care about the diversity of peoples living there: not when they declared\u00a0Afrikaans<\/i>\u00a0the official language of schools during apartheid, and not now when discussing the \u201cunder-achievement\u201d of black youth while ignoring the impact apartheid\u2019s indifference to Africa\u2019s diverse cultures and languages has had on the struggle to reform education.<\/span> By the way: Afrikaans is not an indigenous African language,\u00a0its origins date back to Europe settlers who spoke Dutch<\/span><\/a>. Yet, there\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0South Africans (coloreds\u00a0and\u00a0blacks) who only speak Afrikaans or English due to similar circumstance e.g. migration, globalization, interracial adoption, etc. \u00a0Are they \u201cless African\u201d than the Black South Africans who speak indigenous languages such as Xhosa? Or Zulu? What about white people who migrate to Africa and learn to speak local languages? Are they now \u201cmore African\u201d than Africans who do not, yet have been living in Africa \u00a0since birth?<\/span><\/div>\n
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Chill Out: Language is Just One Aspect of Culture<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\"Contemporary<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
My purpose isn\u2019t to debate who is more African than whom based on language fluency (or even geopolitical circumstance). On the contrary: I don\u2019t understand how\u00a0anyone\u00a0<\/i>can cherry pick asingle<\/i>\u00a0aspect of our culture as the arbiter of \u201cauthentic\u201d African identity:\u00a0Language. For sure, it\u2019s important. But so is indigenous spirituality, traditional garb, family values, the arts. Culture comprises many elements, thus it makes no sense to police cultural belonging\u2013\u00a0cling to such a divisive hierarchy<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0based on the single factor of language,\u00a0especially<\/em>\u00a0considering the lasting effects of our colonial history, and\u00a0the impact of globalization on contemporary African culture<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> I am also not using colonialism as an excuse to lessen the importance of learning our native tongues; language offers us a very obvious, easily detectable signal that someone is either part of our community, or not. You know this if you\u2019ve ever walked into a Dominican\u00a0bodega<\/i>and had to ask for something in English, then watched as the eyes computed, instantly: \u201cnot one of us.\u201d Furthermore, in many African cultures, the parts of our history that haven\u2019t yet been erased or revised are passed down to younger generations, orally.\u00a0In political protest, Fela Kuti, father of \u201cAfrobeat\u201d, and one of Africa\u2019s most celebrated music icons,\u00a0wrote most of his songs in\u00a0pidgin<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0in order to connect with the lay man who didn\u2019t speak \u201cproper English.\u201d\u00a0His son, Femi Kuti, has carried that tradition forward, and with that, Fela Kuti\u2019s legacy<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0Indigenous languages safeguard our stories in their hidden meanings and subtext, so much so that\u00a0the mis-translation of a single word can create a completely different interpretation of history<\/span><\/a>\u00a0as we know it, and we\u2019d literally lose ourselves.<\/span> \"Rise<\/span><\/div>\n
Perhaps that\u2019s why we stubbornly stick to fluency in \u201cour mother tongues\u201d as the yardstick for measuring \u201cAfricanness,\u201d \u201cour-ness,\u201d \u201cus-ness.\u201d Perhaps the tune aboutreal\u00a0<\/i>Africans being able to speak their mother tongues is only sung in protest against the hegemony of our colonizers\u2019 languages. But is spiting them reason enough to spite each other? By perpetuating the use of a single cultural marker to create an hierarchy of Africanness, aren\u2019t we simply deploying the same tools colonizers used to divide and conquer? Aren\u2019t we essentially continuing the work the British Empire started?<\/span> We can do better.<\/span> There are a myriad of other identity markers that reveal the extent of both our sameness\u00a0and<\/i>uniqueness and make up the diverse African cultures that span the globe. Africa is complex\u2013Africans, even moreso. Let\u2019s not trade in our shared heritage for the exclusivity of an unjust social hierarchy. Let\u2019s not , as our colonizers did, draw borders around poorly constructed monoliths. Our just protest for an Africa with linguistic agency must not turn us into the same masters of imperialist dogma we\u2019re still yet to hold accountable.<\/span> \u2014\u2014-<\/span> Update: Line which initially said there exist South Africans who only speak English or Afrikaans has been updated to contextualize loss of indigenous\/mother tongue language fluency happening due to globalization, migration, cross-cultural adoption, and other factors so as not to perpetuate that as the norm. (Thanks MR for helping me clarify!)<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
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Spectra<\/strong> is an award-winning Nigerian writer, women\u2019s rights activist, new media consultant, and philanthropist. She is the voice behind the afrofeminist media blog, Spectra Speaks (www.spectraspeaks.com<\/span><\/a>), which publishes news, opinions, and personal stories about gender, media, and diversity as they pertain to Africa and the Diaspora.<\/span> Spectra is also the founder and executive editor of Queer Women of Color Media Wire (www.qwocmediawire.com<\/span><\/a>), a\u00a0media advocacy and publishing organization that amplifies the voices of lesbian, bisexual, queer, and\/or transgender women of color, diaspora, and other racial\/ethnic minorities around the world.<\/span> She is currently traveling through Southern Africa offering social media, online fundraising, communications, and strategic events outreach training to African women\u2019s NGOs and non-profits. She is also collecting stories from LGBT Africa for an anthology.<\/span> Follow her daily musings on\u00a0Tumblr<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and Twitter@spectraspeaks<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> <\/p>\n

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>via:\u00a0http:\/\/www.spectraspeaks.com\/2013\/04\/what-kind-of-african-doesnt-speak-any-african-languages-colonization-migration-diaspora-mother-tongue\/#comments<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

APRIL 1, 2013     What Kind of African Doesn\u2019t Speak Any African Languages? Me.   by\u00a0SPECTRA SPEAKS Last year, I attended\u00a0a conference that brought together African thought leaders. In a session about African identity, we explored the question of whether one could claim to be African without being fluent in any African languages.\u00a0A passionate, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[6],"tags":[4,12,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176430435"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176430435"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176430435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176430499,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176430435\/revisions\/176430499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176430435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176430435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176430435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}