Wednesday, July 8, 2009

WHERE AM FROM

By now it is clear that I hail from the motherland AFRICA.

I was born in Buea, Cameroon. Cameroon lies in western central Africa, it shares borders with Nigeria, Chad and the Central African Republic. If you really want to know more about my country follow this blog they do an extraordinary job everyday with their daily postings http://www.chopachoplive.com/. I want to blog about where am from because I feel like before continuing this blog, any postings you read on this blog about my thoughts definitely came from this place, our growth and experience shapes our views about things and eventually family (next post) and friends carry us through till the end. Obviously hailing from a developing country has its obstacles. I got to admit that I cannot remember much of the negative things that happen in my childhood but I can definitely remember the glorious things. Since I can compare my surroundings back then to what I see now in the US, I can make comparisons to highlight the differences.



My neighborhood was always busy as I remember; on any given day there were lots of children playing around with only their panties (me included). Mothers will yelled at the top of their lungs for those who had not taken a shower, did not wash the plates or complete their household chores. those days if you wanted to be popular you had to be great in a game we called "stinking'; we used beer covers as soccer players and the rubber tops of battery as a controller, then play real soccer games with this beer covers. I have to say I was pretty good at this game. We also had fishing trips where we used a live worm as the bait to capture the fishes, if you caught the biggest fish, that day you were king, I cannot remember why , but like we had food at our various houses but that particular fish just became the greatest and most tasteful pabulum(lol Birocol) that day just like a filet mignon! Talking about this I remember rallying with my friends to go hunting in the local forests for meat. We went hunting into the most dangerous forests (way back after the CDC plantations) with no guns, just a cutlass and three dogs. After juxtaposing positions with the dogs inside the thick forest for over 6 hours we will end up with some very strange animals, I cannot even remember the English equivalent of some of their names (mole maybe).

In Africa they say a child is raised by a village that is absolutely true. My mother left Cameroon when I was five to go for further studies abroad and came back after six years, the most I saw of her was during Christmas holidays. My father did the best job any dad will do in that position but I felt like I had too many mothers during this period, these women including my eldest sister, filled that void and shielded me from the emptiness of not having my mother growing up. When my dad would come back from work he need not yelled out where I was, he just needed to check with these ladies and am found. It will make better sense if you consider that I was the baby of my household, it irks me to think people always associate last children to be their mother's pet. My mother eventually came back and I feel like she has definitely made up for those years with all the love she has showered for me so far.

There is this concept of lost identity when we (foreigners) come to the USA or other developed or western countries. Lost identity in the sense that we tend to forget where we came from and try to adopt another personality. I really cannot divulged into what Darwin's teachings or biological teachings are on evolution, but I think neglecting where you from is a fundamental failure in anyone's personality. Out here there are so many things we need to learn all positive, some will say what do you consider positive? There is just so much the western world has for us to learn but to be able to capitalize in these good fortunes isolating your fundamentals will take you further. I will say to me trying to 'rap' or speak like an African American is more a joke to yourself than to the people laughing at you. I will go as far as claiming it is a self esteem issue, because if your self esteem is intact why will you wanna be different? This is more of another topic I might let it breathe here, I really hate to see us (foreigners) especially Africans soaked in such mannerisms.


Generally I feel like most foreigners make use of the opportunities they are given in these developed parts of the world because of where they are from. I also think we (foreigners) might see these westerners neglect or feel like they are wasting some of the things we consider golden opportunities but to really understand how they look at these things we need to rewind and think back about how we looked at certain things back home. Yes comparatively it isn't of the same magnitude, well if it were, we wouldn't be here. I do not think they take it for granted but they are looking at something more important than we will think. I can attribute every success and failure in my life to where I came from but then again that wouldn't be completely true as we all know several other things played a role. I am so proud of my origins as a place and I will always look forward of going back home no matter how much I can accomplish here. I miss it every day and I am reminded of it every barrier I cross.

Thanks for sharing with me.

3 comments:

lili said...

very pretty Mr. I really liked it. keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

Petit, good stuff man...I'm impressed! Brought back some good old memories man...love the "stinking" and "agada" hunting stories ha ha! "I will say to me trying to 'rap' or speak like an African American is more a joke to yourself than to the people laughing at you. I will go as far as claiming it is a self esteem issue..." Pa, couldn't agree more with u on this one oh...no doubt we are brothers massa! Ha ha, Mr. Orace would definitely say, "you are a Pharisee...say u di see far!"...B. Bodo.

Anonymous said...

insightful, didactic, tight! could go on and on...Finally! i can identify with s'one.For a sec I thot I was an alien (besides being a "legal" alien in the US lol). I hope this wind of change hits us all coz this the sole path to freedom, liberation and empowerment.Good job boy, it couldn't have been any better. Well said!...kahbila fombe

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