i shall return or maybe not
A cliché it may be, but all
journeys begin with one step.
And in the same stride, so do
Africans migrating into America
from their mother countries
begin their life-changing journeys into the modern day
Promised Land that is America.
Literally, it may not be the land
of milk and honey, but still
burgers, pizza and fries are a
worthy substitute, at least as per me, and milk and honey do
exist nevertheless. The search
for the proverbial pot of gold at
the end of the rainbow and the
greener grass on the other side
has been substituted by a relentless longing for the (red
and blue) star spangled banner
at the end of a flagpole. It is
beyond human ambition and
power, what some Africans will
do in search of the American Dream. In some cases, really
brave people swim through the
wetlands of Tunisia in order to
get to the Europe, America’ s estranged parent, while some
run their accounts dry in the
pursuit of the white picket
fence, two point five children
and the other trappings of the
Home of the Brave. Imaginations abound about how real America
is, from those who perceive it
as a free and liberal nation to
those who think it is the
solution to all the personal and
worldly problems; African perceptions on America are
often a confused mix between
Hollywood exports and images of
convenience sent back to the
motherland by those “lucky” enough to have flown, swam or
otherwise been born, on the
other side. At face value, life in America is
what an African, and many
other people, would dream
about and work hard and even
shrewdly for. To the average
African, America may be a land: full of opportunities, superior
medical and academic institutions,
clean and beautiful streets,
where the rule of law exists and
there is an actual person at the
end of the emergency hotline, where taps have running water
all the time and blackouts are
an exception rather than the
rule, where your privacy is
respected and food is plenty, a
land as diverse as its people and activities, running war and peace
campaigns at the same time. It
would take a heart of stone
and a very rocky past to rid
one of emotions that so
strongly make America a darling to Africans. And it is amazing
the amount of hope and regard
that Africans have accorded
America, and maybe rightfully so.
Arguably, for a people whose
politics, education, healthcare and at times livelihood depend
on the “goodwill” of America not to be fascinated by the
prospect of studying, living and
even working (t)here would be
absurd. Why then would people
spend sleepless nights worrying
about visa and green card monies and embassy interviews?
Why would kids and adults alike
continuously sing along to
American music and neglect their
own? Why would American
celebrities become the be-all and end-all of “neo-African” fashion, sexual fantasies and
posters? What began as an
undercurrent of unspoken
obsession with anything and
everything American has washed
the continent hard, and that is why America is the single most
influential determinant of African
progress, social and cultural
dynamics. It sounds ironical,
satirical even, to note that the
idea of Afro-optimism that keeps the continent alive and kicking in
the air, is pegged on, and
grossly dependent on America;
the same “devil” Africa admonishes “bitterly” as the “ghost” that stole her "chastity" as far as societal
values and good character go.
This ambivalent perception about
America has led to trauma,
laughter, success and failure in
unequal measure and whether the Land of the eagle will
continue to shine its
“questionable light” on the Dark Continent is a matter of
when, rather than if. Coming to America is often, if
not always, a big deal for those
involved. While others have a
quiet exit from the motherland,
ostensibly to prevent any jinxes,
most are usually incapable of keeping their palpable
excitement and bustle before
flying to America secret. Big
parties and fundraisings are
common, because through them
the individual being sent to the other side is then formally
“owned” by the community and thus, becomes a property of a
wider group of people. This is
done to increase the individual’ s sense of responsibility and
attachment to culture and
traditions. Speeches, more often
than not, urge the communal
messenger not to be like
“them” and not to forget his pasts, lest.... Whether any of
these pleasantly worded threats
actually stir any emotion or
activity is of course up to an
individual and is usually a
decision whose consequences are seen over time. Under the
disguise of education, thousands
upon thousands of Africans
migrate to the US every year,
and thoughtfully so, for there is
no reason more significant to the embassy visa issuers than
coming to study, make yourself
a student and you have a visa.
While some actually do study and
accomplish their academic
missions, even more are left “half-baked” and struggling to keep up with the seriously
stressful vagaries of life in the
land of burgers and fries, and
pizza. The disparity in the price
purchase parity between
America and Africa is unflattering. A thousand dollars
can be a “worthwhile” salary for even up to ten full time
college-educated employees.
Adding insult to injury, the same
one thousand dollars can be
used, on average, to pay up to
three or four university graduates, with families. There is
a common tongue-in-cheek
saying in Africa that most of
those who immigrate to the US
clean lavatories to survive.
There is less of truth and more of toilet humor to this claim,
however, most immigrants would
be pleased and contented being
janitors in America than degreed
university graduates in Africa
with poor working conditions and low pay. The allure of America is
so strong, that even white
collar executives in Africa would
be willing to throw their shirts
into the dump and wear blue
ones instead, if only to make more money and enjoy the
benefits of the American working
place, even if in a toilet. Didn’ t I claim Africans love everything
and anything about America? The en masse desertion of the
continent has not been without
its fair share of criticism and
consequences. According to a
readers' blog on BBC.com, Sierra
Leone, Ethiopia and Malawi have more doctors in foreign
countries than at home. The
dangers of such “harmless” pursuits for better pasture
have been perverse and fatal.
Overworked and underpaid, the
“doctors without borders” flee their home countries to work in
America and other foreign
countries that offer tenfold
more in salary, half the work
and less complications in disease
complexity.They also have less use of dexterity due to
extensive machination and
biomedical robotics. Nigerians in
the US are cited by the United
States Census Bureau as the
most educated ethnic group in the US, and as such enjoy a
pretty competitive life and
benefits. Their counterparts
back home are in the periphery
of the circle of good pay and
most do not enjoy the trappings of a good education. Even
better on paper and worse in
reality is the fact that half of
these learned Nigerians in the
Diaspora are masters and PhD
holders. With such benefits much more realistic in the US than in
Africa, the next move that
immigrants take is to attain
citizenship or permanent
residency, by any means
possible. Some enter contractual marriages of convenience and
end up getting trapped in them.
When their American partners
sense that they are just being
used and abused, they refuse to
commit to the spirit of the unwritten contract and, knowing
too well the inevitable
consequences of the partner
contacting immigration
authorities, the foreigner usually
has no option but to stick through thick and thin, growing
thin in the process and losing
sleep and life. So, next time you
see a mixed marriage between
an African and an American, it is
either because of love, or otherwise another case of an
unpleasant and extended
contract. In the US, it is always a
constant struggle for Africans to
adapt and survive. The
realization that an African
accent does not serve one good
enough usually leads the Africans to try an Americanize their
language. This serves them well
enough while in the US but not
well enough to be considered
fully "Americanized". Often, this
leads to withdrawal symptoms as the foreigner recoils into an
impromptu state of silence and a
feeling of not belonging. The
struggle to adapt to the
Diaspora atmosphere is in itself
a challenge; going back home is an even bigger challenge for this
unlucky lot. Being scrutinized and
even criticized for having
become “like them”, Africans going back home from the
Diaspora usually have to
exercise caution and extra care
in all they do, to avoid
undeserved let-offs of abuse
and criticism. For a people rejected by both worlds, the
only solace is in cocktailing
convenient aspects of both
cultures, in the process risking
the loss of affiliation to their
motherlands, and more worryingly, losing their cultural
identity. Neither African nor
American, this is a group faced
with unbridled challenges.
According to stories from all
over the Diaspora, Africans (t)here earn up to 48 per cent
less than the average American
employee. Even with such
discrepancies, the "challenges"
here are less, and different,
than back home in Africa and the benefits in America are
usually a blessing for most
Africans in the Diaspora. Traditional and conservative
Africans are bemoaning the
“erosion” of African values due to the influence of the West,
and specifically blaming America
for creating and exporting the
greatest of “evils” ever to be received in Africa. It is with
disgust that some Africans
express their passionate hatred
for American dressing, or lack
thereof, especially for women
and girls. They argue that this leads to a society where there
is an obsession with sex and
thus, women are seen as
objects of sex and not
worthwhile beings. The logic of
this argument is however strongly questioned and found
wanting by some “Americanized Africans” who ask why the same cultures that allowed for
wife-beating and female genital
mutilation are now up in arms
against an extension of their
own evil. Also, the same people
ask hard questions concerning the ambiguity of some Africans'
criticism of the West for all of
their shortcomings and failures.
One said, “In a culture that is almost self-righteous, and in its
own eyes chaste, where sex
talk borders taboo and people
blame the West for being the
cause for the weird sexual
dynamics in Africa, why then are sexually transmitted infections
and by extension AIDS,
pandemic? Poverty and
ignorance have their role to
play as far as the infection and
spread of STIs go, but beyond this overexploited cliché, African
sexual habits are just as
perverted as those they claim
to abhor.” An African hearing this argument would most
certainly blame America for
changing one of their own to be
“liberal” and un-African. The proponents would blame Africans
for their own folly, perhaps
calling them, “a people bonded by subtle hypocrisy and
resistance to change with
vestiges of honesty and
civilization making unwelcome
appearances.” Despite the ever heated debate
of who-is-spoiling-who, Africa
and the US remain key
“partners”, whatever that means. Nigerian oil fuels many
American vehicles and cools their
homes, yet still heating their
winters and cars. Even with the
brain drain in Africa being
blamed on America, readers at the BBC.com blog still claim that
a third of the African education
budget is funded by the US and
as such the US still has a say in
claiming the finest brains from
the continent through scholarships, big and reputable
universities and research
opportunities. The continent
loses about four billion dollars
due to the inevitable brain
drain, while the US pumps about, according to my common sense
analysis, much more than four
billion dollars. Whether this calls
for a proportional claim in the
number of students from Africa
is arguable. While hundreds of thousands of
Africans still fly to the Land of
the Bald Eagle, Africa is
unknowingly cracking its nest
egg, with the nonchalance of an
ostrich whose head being in the sand, assumes total safety. All in
all, as Africans, we cannot claim
"we are the way we are" simply
because of other people’ s faults: not with us funding our
own wars, not with our own
leaders investing stolen loots
abroad, not with us killing eight
hundred thousand Rwandans in a
month, not with us practicing wife inheritance and lustful and
uncontrolled polygamy, not with
us spending money rubbing the
egos of self-centered politicians
at the expense of education and
basic infrastructure. It is not solely because of America and
the other Western countries
that "we are the way we are",
it is because of our own actions
and inaction. The West, and of
course America have their own hidden hands in the plight and
the decimal growth of Africa as
a continent, however, we are to
praise or to blame at the end
of all the talk. Perverts we are, just like them,
corrupt we are, just like them,
but African we are, unlike them. I Shall Return (Claude McKay) I shall return again; I shall
return
To laugh and love and watch
with wonder-eyes
At golden noon the forest fires
burn, Wafting their blue-black smoke
to sapphire skies.
I shall return to loiter by the
streams
That bathe the brown blades of
the bending grasses, And realize once more my
thousand dreams
Of waters rushing down the
mountain passes.
I shall return to hear the fiddle
and fife Of village dances, dear delicious
tunes
That stir the hidden depths of
native life,
Stray melodies of dim
remembered runes. I shall return, I shall return
again,
To ease my mind of long, long
years of pain. There is a thin line between
truth and fiction. This is that
line.
journeys begin with one step.
And in the same stride, so do
Africans migrating into America
from their mother countries
begin their life-changing journeys into the modern day
Promised Land that is America.
Literally, it may not be the land
of milk and honey, but still
burgers, pizza and fries are a
worthy substitute, at least as per me, and milk and honey do
exist nevertheless. The search
for the proverbial pot of gold at
the end of the rainbow and the
greener grass on the other side
has been substituted by a relentless longing for the (red
and blue) star spangled banner
at the end of a flagpole. It is
beyond human ambition and
power, what some Africans will
do in search of the American Dream. In some cases, really
brave people swim through the
wetlands of Tunisia in order to
get to the Europe, America’ s estranged parent, while some
run their accounts dry in the
pursuit of the white picket
fence, two point five children
and the other trappings of the
Home of the Brave. Imaginations abound about how real America
is, from those who perceive it
as a free and liberal nation to
those who think it is the
solution to all the personal and
worldly problems; African perceptions on America are
often a confused mix between
Hollywood exports and images of
convenience sent back to the
motherland by those “lucky” enough to have flown, swam or
otherwise been born, on the
other side. At face value, life in America is
what an African, and many
other people, would dream
about and work hard and even
shrewdly for. To the average
African, America may be a land: full of opportunities, superior
medical and academic institutions,
clean and beautiful streets,
where the rule of law exists and
there is an actual person at the
end of the emergency hotline, where taps have running water
all the time and blackouts are
an exception rather than the
rule, where your privacy is
respected and food is plenty, a
land as diverse as its people and activities, running war and peace
campaigns at the same time. It
would take a heart of stone
and a very rocky past to rid
one of emotions that so
strongly make America a darling to Africans. And it is amazing
the amount of hope and regard
that Africans have accorded
America, and maybe rightfully so.
Arguably, for a people whose
politics, education, healthcare and at times livelihood depend
on the “goodwill” of America not to be fascinated by the
prospect of studying, living and
even working (t)here would be
absurd. Why then would people
spend sleepless nights worrying
about visa and green card monies and embassy interviews?
Why would kids and adults alike
continuously sing along to
American music and neglect their
own? Why would American
celebrities become the be-all and end-all of “neo-African” fashion, sexual fantasies and
posters? What began as an
undercurrent of unspoken
obsession with anything and
everything American has washed
the continent hard, and that is why America is the single most
influential determinant of African
progress, social and cultural
dynamics. It sounds ironical,
satirical even, to note that the
idea of Afro-optimism that keeps the continent alive and kicking in
the air, is pegged on, and
grossly dependent on America;
the same “devil” Africa admonishes “bitterly” as the “ghost” that stole her "chastity" as far as societal
values and good character go.
This ambivalent perception about
America has led to trauma,
laughter, success and failure in
unequal measure and whether the Land of the eagle will
continue to shine its
“questionable light” on the Dark Continent is a matter of
when, rather than if. Coming to America is often, if
not always, a big deal for those
involved. While others have a
quiet exit from the motherland,
ostensibly to prevent any jinxes,
most are usually incapable of keeping their palpable
excitement and bustle before
flying to America secret. Big
parties and fundraisings are
common, because through them
the individual being sent to the other side is then formally
“owned” by the community and thus, becomes a property of a
wider group of people. This is
done to increase the individual’ s sense of responsibility and
attachment to culture and
traditions. Speeches, more often
than not, urge the communal
messenger not to be like
“them” and not to forget his pasts, lest.... Whether any of
these pleasantly worded threats
actually stir any emotion or
activity is of course up to an
individual and is usually a
decision whose consequences are seen over time. Under the
disguise of education, thousands
upon thousands of Africans
migrate to the US every year,
and thoughtfully so, for there is
no reason more significant to the embassy visa issuers than
coming to study, make yourself
a student and you have a visa.
While some actually do study and
accomplish their academic
missions, even more are left “half-baked” and struggling to keep up with the seriously
stressful vagaries of life in the
land of burgers and fries, and
pizza. The disparity in the price
purchase parity between
America and Africa is unflattering. A thousand dollars
can be a “worthwhile” salary for even up to ten full time
college-educated employees.
Adding insult to injury, the same
one thousand dollars can be
used, on average, to pay up to
three or four university graduates, with families. There is
a common tongue-in-cheek
saying in Africa that most of
those who immigrate to the US
clean lavatories to survive.
There is less of truth and more of toilet humor to this claim,
however, most immigrants would
be pleased and contented being
janitors in America than degreed
university graduates in Africa
with poor working conditions and low pay. The allure of America is
so strong, that even white
collar executives in Africa would
be willing to throw their shirts
into the dump and wear blue
ones instead, if only to make more money and enjoy the
benefits of the American working
place, even if in a toilet. Didn’ t I claim Africans love everything
and anything about America? The en masse desertion of the
continent has not been without
its fair share of criticism and
consequences. According to a
readers' blog on BBC.com, Sierra
Leone, Ethiopia and Malawi have more doctors in foreign
countries than at home. The
dangers of such “harmless” pursuits for better pasture
have been perverse and fatal.
Overworked and underpaid, the
“doctors without borders” flee their home countries to work in
America and other foreign
countries that offer tenfold
more in salary, half the work
and less complications in disease
complexity.They also have less use of dexterity due to
extensive machination and
biomedical robotics. Nigerians in
the US are cited by the United
States Census Bureau as the
most educated ethnic group in the US, and as such enjoy a
pretty competitive life and
benefits. Their counterparts
back home are in the periphery
of the circle of good pay and
most do not enjoy the trappings of a good education. Even
better on paper and worse in
reality is the fact that half of
these learned Nigerians in the
Diaspora are masters and PhD
holders. With such benefits much more realistic in the US than in
Africa, the next move that
immigrants take is to attain
citizenship or permanent
residency, by any means
possible. Some enter contractual marriages of convenience and
end up getting trapped in them.
When their American partners
sense that they are just being
used and abused, they refuse to
commit to the spirit of the unwritten contract and, knowing
too well the inevitable
consequences of the partner
contacting immigration
authorities, the foreigner usually
has no option but to stick through thick and thin, growing
thin in the process and losing
sleep and life. So, next time you
see a mixed marriage between
an African and an American, it is
either because of love, or otherwise another case of an
unpleasant and extended
contract. In the US, it is always a
constant struggle for Africans to
adapt and survive. The
realization that an African
accent does not serve one good
enough usually leads the Africans to try an Americanize their
language. This serves them well
enough while in the US but not
well enough to be considered
fully "Americanized". Often, this
leads to withdrawal symptoms as the foreigner recoils into an
impromptu state of silence and a
feeling of not belonging. The
struggle to adapt to the
Diaspora atmosphere is in itself
a challenge; going back home is an even bigger challenge for this
unlucky lot. Being scrutinized and
even criticized for having
become “like them”, Africans going back home from the
Diaspora usually have to
exercise caution and extra care
in all they do, to avoid
undeserved let-offs of abuse
and criticism. For a people rejected by both worlds, the
only solace is in cocktailing
convenient aspects of both
cultures, in the process risking
the loss of affiliation to their
motherlands, and more worryingly, losing their cultural
identity. Neither African nor
American, this is a group faced
with unbridled challenges.
According to stories from all
over the Diaspora, Africans (t)here earn up to 48 per cent
less than the average American
employee. Even with such
discrepancies, the "challenges"
here are less, and different,
than back home in Africa and the benefits in America are
usually a blessing for most
Africans in the Diaspora. Traditional and conservative
Africans are bemoaning the
“erosion” of African values due to the influence of the West,
and specifically blaming America
for creating and exporting the
greatest of “evils” ever to be received in Africa. It is with
disgust that some Africans
express their passionate hatred
for American dressing, or lack
thereof, especially for women
and girls. They argue that this leads to a society where there
is an obsession with sex and
thus, women are seen as
objects of sex and not
worthwhile beings. The logic of
this argument is however strongly questioned and found
wanting by some “Americanized Africans” who ask why the same cultures that allowed for
wife-beating and female genital
mutilation are now up in arms
against an extension of their
own evil. Also, the same people
ask hard questions concerning the ambiguity of some Africans'
criticism of the West for all of
their shortcomings and failures.
One said, “In a culture that is almost self-righteous, and in its
own eyes chaste, where sex
talk borders taboo and people
blame the West for being the
cause for the weird sexual
dynamics in Africa, why then are sexually transmitted infections
and by extension AIDS,
pandemic? Poverty and
ignorance have their role to
play as far as the infection and
spread of STIs go, but beyond this overexploited cliché, African
sexual habits are just as
perverted as those they claim
to abhor.” An African hearing this argument would most
certainly blame America for
changing one of their own to be
“liberal” and un-African. The proponents would blame Africans
for their own folly, perhaps
calling them, “a people bonded by subtle hypocrisy and
resistance to change with
vestiges of honesty and
civilization making unwelcome
appearances.” Despite the ever heated debate
of who-is-spoiling-who, Africa
and the US remain key
“partners”, whatever that means. Nigerian oil fuels many
American vehicles and cools their
homes, yet still heating their
winters and cars. Even with the
brain drain in Africa being
blamed on America, readers at the BBC.com blog still claim that
a third of the African education
budget is funded by the US and
as such the US still has a say in
claiming the finest brains from
the continent through scholarships, big and reputable
universities and research
opportunities. The continent
loses about four billion dollars
due to the inevitable brain
drain, while the US pumps about, according to my common sense
analysis, much more than four
billion dollars. Whether this calls
for a proportional claim in the
number of students from Africa
is arguable. While hundreds of thousands of
Africans still fly to the Land of
the Bald Eagle, Africa is
unknowingly cracking its nest
egg, with the nonchalance of an
ostrich whose head being in the sand, assumes total safety. All in
all, as Africans, we cannot claim
"we are the way we are" simply
because of other people’ s faults: not with us funding our
own wars, not with our own
leaders investing stolen loots
abroad, not with us killing eight
hundred thousand Rwandans in a
month, not with us practicing wife inheritance and lustful and
uncontrolled polygamy, not with
us spending money rubbing the
egos of self-centered politicians
at the expense of education and
basic infrastructure. It is not solely because of America and
the other Western countries
that "we are the way we are",
it is because of our own actions
and inaction. The West, and of
course America have their own hidden hands in the plight and
the decimal growth of Africa as
a continent, however, we are to
praise or to blame at the end
of all the talk. Perverts we are, just like them,
corrupt we are, just like them,
but African we are, unlike them. I Shall Return (Claude McKay) I shall return again; I shall
return
To laugh and love and watch
with wonder-eyes
At golden noon the forest fires
burn, Wafting their blue-black smoke
to sapphire skies.
I shall return to loiter by the
streams
That bathe the brown blades of
the bending grasses, And realize once more my
thousand dreams
Of waters rushing down the
mountain passes.
I shall return to hear the fiddle
and fife Of village dances, dear delicious
tunes
That stir the hidden depths of
native life,
Stray melodies of dim
remembered runes. I shall return, I shall return
again,
To ease my mind of long, long
years of pain. There is a thin line between
truth and fiction. This is that
line.
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