Anecdotes on Relations Between Africans and African Americans

I have been putting this post in the back burner for a while now. But as you may have noticed, I now have the perfect excuse to share my personal point of view on the complex issue of relations between Africans and African Americans in the United States.

Yes it is a complex and an ever-evolving relationship. I will try to stay away from the gross generalization as much as I can. But some cliches may have to be mentioned for some of the stories that took place.

My first semester of college in the US ( Tulane, New-Orleans LA) was spent mostly with the members of the Tulane African Student Association (TASA). Because of Tulane strong International Public Health program, the association had quite a few members every year. In fact, TASA was one of the most active international student association after the powerhouse Latin American Student Association (LASA) who also threw the liveliest parties in town.
A Kenyan and an Ivorian were in charge of activities when I first came. The welcoming TASA party is also where I met my buddy Nkamany from DRC who some of you may have met.
He went to high school in Miami-Dade and his roommate was an African American corner back on the Tulane team. He would be instrumental in helping me forged friendships with African Americans that I probably would not have otherwise because I was just too insecure with the language barrier to speak with anyone outside the classroom (I only attended lecture-type classes my 1st year to avoid public speaking and team assignements).

( African dancing class at Tulane U photo via an-to-the-drew)

So as the semester went, I would usually just hang out with his friends and try to keep up with the conversation. They were fine with me not saying much and did not try to get me to say something either.
Once I got more comfortable, I would try to start a conversation about Tupac and MJ because I thought it would be a good conversation starter. They would indulge me but their amused looks told me that I walked right into a cliche and that there is so much more I need to learn.

My first good conversation was with Charles who told me about this cool software called napster :) if I wanted more unpublished tracks from my fave artists. I did not even know where my email where stored so it was total magic for me. He also opened up about his trip to Nigeria to understand his roots that he traced there. At the time, I did not get why he got emotional telling the story (hey, I was 19).

Nkamany and his friends took me to a stepping competition. Stepping is a coordinated dance where pledges from a fraternity compete with other fraternities. It is dynamic, synchronized and often very impressive. I never got the point of fraternities but I could appreciate the beauty of the team work in display.

( stepping by Joe Focus)

Nkamany and I were a bit of an oddity at TASA. The African and African Americans students just never find common grounds on campus. Basically, We did not "get" each other.

Tulane as an African Heritage Museum on campus (Amistad Center) that African Americans are rightfully proud of.
That somehow ticked African students off. The feeling was that" why would you even bother with an African Heritage Museum when you don't try to bound with Africans ?" Everyone started pointing fingers so we decided to hold a public discussion on African and African American relations organized by TASA and the Black Students Association.

One Nigerian graduate student in chemistry started the public panel discussion: " why do you insist on being called African Americans ? Most of you don't want to know about Africa and your so-called brothers right here". Oh boy, way to start a mature conversation, my man. A girl reciprocated: " Africa is part of our heritage hence we are African American. What is the problem ? Have you ever been our functions? I do not recall any of you ever coming to our events"
A Kenyan on the track team wondered: " why is it that it is easier for me to interact with international students from Colombia, England or Japan than with with you ?"
I was tense and probably not as productive as we hoped for. We mostly aired grievances and promised each other to organize more joint functions but we never got around to do so. One student had the most pertinent input of the session and she was white Porto Rican, not sure what that said about your panel.

I wished that Nkamany and his friends were present there but they were all away for job or med school interviews.

I think the dynamics are not the same anymore. Mostly because of guys like Nkamany, Africans who grew up here and are as comfortable in a maki in Kin as they are at a Master P concert at the House of Blues. Because of Obama obviously, who rocks to both Jay-Z and Stevie Wonder in his Ipod as well as Amadou and Miriam from Bamako.

The assumption was that because we all had an African heritage, it would make sense that we would bound more readily ( I know that the diversity within Africa is also an important factor here). Yet, as someone said, the commonality of being a foreigner was a stronger bond than the common heritage.

Obama said that at first, he had a hard time understanding the black community. But he made a conscious effort to reach out. That was our mistake at the Tulane symposium, we were too busy blaming each other instead of reaching out. Back then, did you really expect a new foreign frosh to know Foxy Brown ?

Now with the interwebs, I sometimes get my new US hip-hop tunes from my cousins in Paris. Obama has shown a willingness to reach out to the rest of the world. I know more and more young black men and women volunteer for assignment in Africa.

I guess there is no need for a panel discussion on African and African American relations anymore if there ever was one. After all, was there ever a panel on European and European American relations ? Those things seem to work out naturally with a bit of good will, travel and the interwebs.

Guess where and when

Old school photos by an old school photographer (not me) with an old school camera

(And no that's not the Lincoln Memorial)



Hint: this neighborhood was in the news recently :)



(Before we did, our grand parents also a hung out here)



More photos of the same kind here.

Inauguration Day blog party (while we still can)

There are all of depressing events going right now. I won't list them, you know what they are (And If you have an interest in Malagasy politics, the the shit has not hit the fan yet, but you know it's coming).

So even more reason to rejoice in seemingly the only good news while we can. I am talking about the departure of GWB (kidding sort of). Inauguration Day start at 10 AM EST, the international crew at Voices Without Votes, sister project of Global Voices Online, will comment one last time on the US elections. It was fun. If you want to weigh in, feel free to drop by and leave your own remark about the ceremony at the US`presidency in general as it relates to you( enthused or snarkly, we do both at VwV).

Some GVers are actually attending the ceremony live to wish soon-to-be president Obama good luck ( Lord knows he will need some). We hope that they will be able to share their feelings (via twitter or other medium).

A common sense cabinet for some African politicians

Let me preface the following rant on African politics with three comments:

- Kudos to Ghana for their (almost) seamless presidential elections. With a vote differential this small, the absence of call for demonstration/protest is remarkable. The continent does not have a good record of close elections coming to term peacefully. I am not sure how we would have reacted in Madagascar in a narrow political contest but if history (and the venom currently spewed on Malagasy forums) is an indicator, a close election is the last thing we need.

- I do not follow the African politics as closely as I should. Therefore my comments should only be regarded as those of an intrigued and amused observer. I am also not claiming that I could do better if given the chance, an important factor to keep in mind when criticizing the job of others. [I do no support any Malagasy political leaders because I cannot make a complete informed judgment on all of them yet.] Still, as a citizen, I believe it is partially my duty to contribute to a conversation if I think a perspective is overlooked.

- Finally, I may be critical of some African politicians but that is not to say that other regions have fared better with their leaders (The nonsensical statements of members of the parliament here and in France rival those of African MPs on the level of sheer stupidity; a quick search for quotes from T. Stevens, R. Harris and P. De Villiers should amply suffice).

[Now on to the tongue-in-check rant...]

I found myself wondering too often whether most African leaders live in ivory towers. To remedy to the intermittent lack of vision, I suggest that an administration must appoint a "common sense" cabinet. A committee made of three random Joes ( not that Joe) who are to be replaced every year.

Seriously (Ok, almost seriously).

Three people would be sitting in on governmental meetings and would be allowed to veto two decisions a year. The selection of said "common sense" cabinet has to be random and exclude, well, politicians.

The reasoning is that often political/financial interests, overly specialized expertise and corruption get in the way of basic common sense.

Let's review the past week in African current events ( beside the well-known tragedies):

- The Malagasy president was recently questioned by the IMF about the purchasing of a new Boeing 737-700. I know that the president justified the purchase of his own Malagasy Air Force One to "meet the challenge of globalization".
I also would be remiss not to acknowledge that under his watch, the GDP growth rate is now at 6.7% and Madagascar became a decent option for many investors.

(Malagasy plane by caribb cc-license)

But with its population still mostly living with less than $2/day, the purchase of a million-dollar new plane for his own travels sounds inappropriate. That coupled with the land deal fiasco with Daewoo results in a PR disaster at best and evidence of poor governance at worst. The common sense cabinet would probably hear about the plane and say: " don't you think that plane-shopping can wait a little bit ? "

- Speaking of land deals, Kenyan government is still justifying the much-maligned lease of 40,000 hectares to Qatar. Though it seems that the deal was revised after citizens demanded a redo for the proposal. The three Joes would have said: "hey, we are now facing our very own food crisis here, we probably should tend to that before helping other regions prevent their potential food shortage"

- In some cases, a "common sense" cabinet might be too little, too late. Mugabe and Co. have reached that point a long time ago. Reports of the abduction and beating of a 2-year-old named Nigel Mutemagau have surfaced. Ethan's comment on the latest outrageous news from Zimbabwe is spot on: "if a government can’t be pressured into releasing a two-year old, I’m not sure if it can be pressured to do anything."

Unfortunately, the common sense committee in Harare is apparently composed of Mugabe and the demons that haunt him.

The list of events the common sense committee would prevent can go on and on and that is sad. Absurd governance tends to overwhelm the many progresses made by the citizens of the region. Because of my field of study, I have to add to the list the ineptitude of the former RSA government on the issue of HIV/AIDS and the proposed garlic treatment. Someone from the streets could have told them that they probably should wait for clinical trials before going public with such information. But their judgment was clouded by the political desire to come up with an African solution to an epidemic that has plagued us on so many levels. [Common sense guys: "Garlic ? really ?" ]

( photo by Gio JL CC-license)

The main issue to me is that leaders are bound to lose touch with the daily reality of the people they serve. They often dismiss protests and petitions as pointless criticism from bitter, envious rivals. Sometimes they are right. But often they need a reality-check that their close acquaintances are seemingly unable to provide.

Best wishes to all for 2009.