Confessions of an African American Mzungu: The Ugandan view on Afro American Culture

Happy Black History Month!

It's that time of the year when African Americans in Canada and the U.S. start to celebrate and remember the unique past of being an African American. I knew it was something mainly celebrated by Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. to an extent; however, many Ugandans don't know about it or they have a pretty interesting view of what it means. I have taken it upon myself to enlighten some Ugandans about the African American Culture because I've come to realize that they believe what they see in music videos and bad press.

First point: Our culture is not our religion
One Rotaractor asked me if I was fasting for this month. I was a bit confused by that statement at first (since he was trying to brag that he was eating lunch at the time), and I had to explain that it's quite a secular month that is meant to remember, celebrate, and even discuss important topics in the Afro American culture. I then realized that in Uganda, many people confuse Culture and Religion (my research is clarifying this point exactly!). I had to explain to some Ugandans that not all Black people are Christian or even Muslim. The United States is a diverse country with everything under the sun. This month is meant to pay tribute to all of those that we feel have made an advancement in American History and for African Americans (i.e. Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Cornell West, Pauly Murray, etc.).

Second point: The N word is still an offensive word
While at RYLA-Uganda, I had a rotaractor discover that I was African American and she proceeded to talk to me about how rude Black people are and how we don't appreciate anything. Instead of saying "Black people" or "African Americans", she said the N word. I know people hear this word in movies and music over here and think that all Afro Americans use the term, but that's not the case. That word has a bad history to it, and although there seems to be a group of Afro Americans that still use it even in joking terms, saying that word to me in that context isn't apporpriate. AND as for the rudeness of Black people, you can find rude people anywhere, it all depends on where you're going. Please don't classify a group of based on a few that you may have encountered. That's a universal lesson.

Third point: For the most part, we don't dress or talk like that...
Another interesting thing I observed and was a bit offended by at RYLA-Uganda was the fashion show of cultures. The young men went on stage and said they were from the hood and were trying to "talk ghetto" and the girls were wearing skimpy skirts (like what you would see in a music video about going to the club). I laughed it off mainly, but when I had rotaractors coming up to me saying "you don't have swag. Are you really African American?" I started to get a little offensive. I realized that they really do believe what they see in the music videos. Luckily, I was able to explain to a rotaractor that just like Ugandans get upset or offended when Americans bring up Idi Amin and classify Uganda based on the movie "The Last King of Scotland", African Americans get the same way when you think that we're all like what you see in music videos and movies.  But worry not, that's what I'm here for, to break those barriers and show Americans, African Americans, and Ugandan/East Africans that what is represented on TV is not necessarily true.

Fourth point: Similarities between Afro Americans and Africans
This point is mainly about Blacks in the States and Ugandans. I have come to realize many similarities as much as I've come to realize differences. Although some things are cultural, like family structure and  food, there are certain mannerisms that are quite similar. Dancing for example. Rotaractors seems to always be surprised that I know how to dance! I don't understand that really, and usually my joking response to them is "well, I'm black! It comes naturally!". In all seriousness though, the dancing style isn't that much different from what we do back in the States. That actually is a quite a relief to me!

These Confessions of an African American Mzungu are starting to become a little theme of mine, if you have anything that you would want to answer or further investigate, please let me know. I would be more than happy to include outsider questions to this mini-series.

Until next time, kuwa na siku njema!

Confessions of an African American Mzungu

I'm going through a bit of tough time at the moment. There are somethings that not many people can relate to. This mainly has to do with the fact that I’m African American but look African - but not technically from Africa. I am not the typical Mzungu (white person/foreigner) because I don't look like one. BUT, I do sound like one. So for the most part I keep my mouth shut and watch how people will treat me based on how I look, and then change how they treat me based on how I sound. Some may think that I should be grateful because I don’t get mzungu tax (charged higher because they are a mzungu), but I need to tell people that it’s not as great as you may think to be stuck between both worlds. People assume things about me based on how I look, talk about judging a book by its cover! So, these are the few things that I've come to realize...I apologize if I offend anyone, but I am just writing about my observations. I see both worlds, the mzungu world and the African world.

 First assumption - it seems that East Africans think that mzungu's have money. And that African's don’t have money and try to get over on one another.  I’ve even had quite a few instances where I went to a “mzungu” restaurant and waited 30 mins to be served (I had to flag down a waitress to take my order while other mzungu's were quickly seated and drinks served right away), the typical assumption is that Ugandan’s can’t afford to eat at these places so they don’t bother taking my order. But what most East Africans fail to understand is that it’s cheaper to live in East Africa compared to Europe and the States. So, it doesn’t mean that people are richer, but that it cost more to get the basic of things such as fruit. So to make up for the expense of a $6 pineapple, our salaries are adjusted based on where we live in the world.

 Second assumption - mzungu countries don’t have problems or corruption. I don’t know or understand where this assumption came from, but that struggle is all over the world. Bad people are everywhere, therefore, bad things such as corruption and an ineffective government is everywhere. Granted, countries such as the States don’t have the same types of problems as Uganda, but that doesn’t mean that American’s don’t have their own issues with their government.

 Third assumption - because I’m African American and look African…my parents must have come from Africa. Dear reader, you have no idea how annoying this assumption is to me. I really have to explain slavery to so many people and explain that African Americans come in different shades (or what I like to call flavors). Not every African American is light skinned, and not every dark African American migrated to America.  And would you believe that people don’t understand why my ancestors didn’t keep record of where they came from during slavery? I don’t get this inquiry from just Africans, but even other mzungu’s that aren’t from the U.S. I had to explain that many slaves couldn’t read or write and even speak the same language as one another when they were first brought to America. But, over time, they developed Pidgin (which sounds like broken English) in order to understand one another. So, African Americans had a lot more problems while being slaves than to recall where they came from (in which I also have to explain that the African countries weren’t in existence when my ancestors were probably brought over. The European nations created boundaries in order to keep the peace during colonizing).

Fourth Assumption – that I’m lying about being American. From what I understand, there are some African’s that lie about living in the UK or being from the U.S. and they fake an accent even. So, just for the record (I feel like Obama right now) I was born in Mount Holly, New Jersey. Both of my parents were born in Washington D.C. so I am a full born American Citizen. Do I need to release my birth certificate as well?

 
Fifth assumption (this goes to the young men in East Africa, mainly Uganda) – just because I talk to you every now and then, doesn’t mean that I’m interested in you or want to date you. I didn’t date when I was back home in the States and I carried that habit with me to Africa. I wasn’t counting on the guys assuming that I was interested in them because I decided to have a conversation with them. Nor was I counting on people being so hard pressed on dating someone by a certain age so that they can get married in time to have children. That’s a cultural difference that I understand, but again, just because I look African doesn’t mean that I am African and do as Africans do.

And the final assumption – Because I look like an East African, that I will automatically sympathize/empathize with the struggles of East Africans. This is the hardest one to deal with, I must admit. The assumption that I am going to feel bad and feel your pain because of the color of my skin is asking for a bad reaction from me. African American’s have their own struggles, but when I have Ugandans approaching me stating that it’s the United States responsibility to help Africa because they took some Africans and made them slaves, so obviously, the U.S. owes Africa. I couldn’t disagree with this more. First and foremost, I am American. An American that pays attention to the history of countries as well as world history at that. I’ve studied how the slave trade went down, and the African countries weren’t exactly innocent in that exchange. Second, I am African American, which means “my people” are other African Americans.  We have different types of struggles than Africans, and we can relate better to each other than to Africans given our unique history. We aren’t better or worse than Africans, but historically different than Africans, that’s all I’m saying.

These are the most common assumptions that people assume about me over here in East Africa. So, when I say to some of you “I have my good days and bad days”, these are the types of things that I’m dealing with.  It isn’t just people making comments, it’s being treated differently based on how I look and how I sound/act.  It can be quite lonely at times when my mzungu friends don’t understand what I’m dealing with or observe. Sometimes, they’ll even deny that what I just witnessed even happened, and that hurts more than anything. I have yet to run into another African American or even African European/African British person while in East Africa. For the first few months, I could deal with these assumptions and let them roll off me, but now, people start to get offended that I’m not what they think I am – that’s a reaction that I don’t think I’ll ever understand. So, yes, my experience here is like no other mzungu (unless they look African but aren’t African).

Even though these assumptions can make me feel a bit down at times, I want these experiences to also be the bridge to helping East Africa as well.  I think I’ve been put in this position for a reason, whether that’s to help people outside of East Africa understand their struggles better or to educate East Africans on the differences in people outside of East Africa. Whatever the case, I want my experiences to show that both sides of the world can be united, despite cultures. We’re all human, therefore, we all deserve the same rights and respect.