Me: I am British-Nigerian
Expert Nigerian: Really?
Me: Yes, my parents are from Nigeria
Expert Nigerian: But you don't sound Nigerian...
Me: I know, I can't help that.
Expert Nigerian: You don't even look Nigerian
Me: Well both my parents are fully Nigerian
Expert Nigerian: When was the last time you visited?
Me: I've never been there...yet
Expert Nigerian: Aha! See, how can you belong to a country you've never been to?!
Me: But I keep up to date with all the latest news online and through Nigerian newspapers. I speak with Nigerians back there and around the world all the time
Expert Nigerian: Your name is British...
Me: Yeah, it wasn't originally though. It's a long story...
Expert Nigerian: So you even changed your name?! *shakes head in disbelief*
Me: So because I have a British name I cannot be a real Nigerian?
Expert Nigerian: Well with your British name, British education and not ever visiting there, you are NOT a real Nigerian....
Me: But my heritage, history and family is all Nigerian....
Expert Nigerian: Yes, but your family abandoned the country a long time ago
Me: So? I'm even thinking of going back soon...
Expert Nigerian: You don't know Nigeria at all. Most of what you know you've read from books. It's second hand information
Me: So? It's still valid. I probably know more about the statistics and political situation of the country than some Nigerians living there.
Expert Nigerian: But they live and breathe the air there every day, they have real experiences
Me: I know the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance...
Expert Nigerian: So? You've never lived or worked there. You haven't sweated everyday under the hot sun, or drove around on the roads...
Expert Nigerian: You're just a wannabe-Nigerian, a British-Nigerian indeed...
Me: Yes, Indeed.
Expert Nigerian: But you have a British passport. You are a British citizen
Me: I can choose to have a green passport tomorrow if I want. I speak Hausa...
Expert Nigerian: But not fluently...
Me: So? What about the white people born in Nigeria, like Oscar winning British actor Colin Firth of The King's Speech? He was born in Nigeria. If he had chosen to remain there and learnt the language and worked and lived in Lagos and drove home on Nigerian roads everyday in the hot sun, will that make him more Nigerian than me?
Expert Nigerian: *Silence*
Me: The white man that wrote the Hausa dictionary I have, he was a fluent Hausa speaker. Is he more Nigerian than me?
Expert Nigerian: *silence, shakes head*
Me: I may think and dream in English, and I may not be 100% fluent in Hausa, but if you dropped me in Kaduna tomorrow, I will manage...
Expert Nigerian: Yes, but most of your knowledge about Nigeria today is from books. Books and your fellow wannabe-Nigerian friends who visit once a year to put on a fake pidgin accent, then return to their jobs in Britain and forget about Nigeria for the rest of the year.
Me: That's not true. I know Nigerians who live in England but the food they eat, the clothes they wear, the churches they go to, 95% of the people they socialise with and even the shops they buy from is Nigerian. The only thing British about them is the street they live on and the channels on their TV
Expert Nigerian: Yes but...
Me: And I know other 'real Nigerians' who as you say, lived in Nigeria for decades before coming to the UK and speak their language fluently, but they dislike Nigeria and other Nigerians, will never go back to visit and put on a posh accent and pretend they have nothing to do with Nigeria. Are they more Nigerian than me?
Expert Nigerian: Hmm
Me: I love Nigeria. I write about it as a Journalist and blog about it. Nobody makes me keep alive an interest in my country, I choose to. In fact, sometimes it would be easier to forget or deny my heritage. So I think I am worthy to be called a Nigerian. My experiences of the country may be different from yours but I am just as Nigerian as you are. I am as Nigerian as I say I am.
Gosh how do you get into these debates?! I'd be fuming at someone telling I'm not what I am. Slightly different for me as I've never been nor lived there but still arrrrghhh my blood would've been boiling! Well done for keeping calm :)
ReplyDeleteFunny conversation. The expert Nigerian voice is hilarious in my head.
ReplyDeleteCCG don't worry, it's a combination of conversations I've had and it wasn't dished out all at once!
ReplyDeleteWildflowers, funny haha or funny 'weird'? Lol!
Welcome to my world.
ReplyDeleteYour blog touches upon the very nature of identity and belonging. While we cannot choose our parents and our place of birth (unless religious belief offers an alternative explanation), we can usually (subject to conditions) choose with whom and what we wish to identify. You are British, but purposely choose to identify with your Fulbe roots.
ReplyDeleteThe first generation children of immigrants can find themselves in a half-way-house, neither fully accepted by the 'host' nation nor embraced by their nation of 'origin'. Numerous examples come to my mind.
I can sympathise and identify with many of the issues you raise, even though I am Anglo-Brazilian.
I'd like to take up correspondence with you and I'll send you an email sooner or later.
Thanks Hugo Santos. It's taken me a few years to appreciate my Nigerian identity, relocate and embrace my Fulani sub-identity within that, then make it all fit in with my British identity. But now I happily inhabit the three worlds simultaneously; emphasising one or the other when necessary.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to our correspondence :)
Me too...
ReplyDeletehugosantos@sent.com
Hi, I can relate to all that. I am a UK born Nigeria raised man, from the south, now living back in the UK. I've been called 'unNigerian', not a 'real Nigerian', whiteman, oyinbo, Jammo(Jamaican), Englishman etc. Why you might ask ? Cos I have an English firstname(with a Yoruba middle and last name), I drink tea a lot(which I did while growing up in Naija also), I don't follow the crowd, am not loud generally(although I do have my moments)and know my own mind. My attitude is(and has always been, though I'm not being arrogant) those who don't like me, don't hang around with me. Let them go and find those who are more to their taste. It really amuses me, when some people seem to take it so personaklly, that they bitterly bad-mouth me all over the place. I guess some people like to dominate and control other peoples' identity, I don't do that, neither do i allow others' do it to me. Such people hate me for that, hahahaaa...:-) These things seem a bit too much like slavery and colonisation for my liking. As far as the Lord allows me(Yep, am a born again Christian too), I don't allow others to colonise/enslave me with their own preferences, and I try not to do so to others...
ReplyDeleteI can relate to so much of what you have written,but find it generally amusing, if irritating at times.
Anyways,I enjoy reading your blog, keep it
up...:-)
ciao
Thanks Anonymous.
ReplyDeleteThere is no single 'correct' way to be Nigerian.
:)
Ignorant people think because you have two cultures you are neither one thing nor the other.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, you are BOTH.
One side sees you as belonging to the other side.
In fact, there are NO SIDES.
The more we see of cultures, the ones where our parents come from, where we grow up and also where we choose to live all make our lives richer.
You can't blame the man for his ignorance because you are culturally richer than him.
Best wishes from an Ethiopian Czech.
That's right. Having a dual nationality/Identity is a blessing. Thanks Ethiopian Czech.
ReplyDeleteThis post is super relevant to me..I'm an "African-American" with a Bajan background (thanks to my mom) who recently found out the "African" part of my identity is tied to the Hausa..on my fathers side and my mother's. My story started in Nigeria with the Hausa and I'm damn sure proud to know it. I rep Nigeria HARD. I don't care if other Nigerian's don't embrace me...I really want to go to Abuja, but whether I go to Nigeria or not will not make me more Nigerian, just like going to Mecca will not make a muslim a muslim. We have the bloodline, we choose to identify, we have the look, and the culture can be learned. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteKeep repping your Hausa and Nigerian heritage Dominique, we're glad to have you!
Delete