Hello there!
This week we'll be changing the pace a little. I had the good fortune to interview a Dartmouth students whose life story exemplifies well the challenges inherent in adopting singular identities, and also the issues that arise when one travels from one nation/ culture to another to reside. Enjoy!
I found this conversation intriguing on many fronts. But perhaps most intriguing, for me, are the questions of belonging: What does it mean to be African? Do individuals belong to a nation, or a continent, or does it belong to them? How long do you have to live in America to be an American? I wonder: is "belonging" a feeling? Something internally felt, and individually determined? Or is it a label, a status, determined by others? And what do we do when our feeling and our "status" don't match?
ReplyDeleteThinking about being American: I was wondering as I watched your vlog about who gets to decide the "American-ness" of someone not born here. You? The native born? The US government? I don't have answers to these questions. I would like to think that individuals can decide for themselves what group they belong to. But reading your posts, I wonder if that belief is naive.
I'm going to continue to think about these issues. Thanks for a thought-provoking post.
Speaking about owning one culture,I thought about Johnny's blog: I used to think I own Korean culture. I talked about it alot, I watch a lot of K-dramas, know about the news and even wrote a final essay about it. But being in Dartmouth, where Koreans tend to stick together due to their large numbers and the need to speak koreans(thus exclude others), I no longer relate to them as much. I no longer find myself legitimate enough to comment openly about the Korean pop-culture that i previously experience so much during my teens.
ReplyDeleteThe sense of belonging thus has drastically swift before and after I met with the 'real' Koreans.
In response to Karen's question of "belonging", I think identity is internally felt--although that feeling is certainly influenced by a set of socially determined labels. I find it interesting that these monolithic labels--whether it's "African" or "American" or "Sierra Leonian"--set the parameters for defining identity. There seems to be an innate desire to identify with one of these labels, yet as this interview shows, these labels are often insufficient in explaining something as dynamic and complex as identity.
ReplyDeleteI wonder the extent to which a pan-African identity has been manufactured by the diaspora itself. Many of the intellectuals who drove pan-Africanism in the 20th century were expats, so I perhaps the term "African" is inextricably linked to the experience of leaving home, regardless of the circumstances.
Great post, though, as usual.