I frequently been tell you my (for lack of a better term) ‘passport stories’ – the uncomfortable, funny and offensive situations I go through when I meet people and tell them that I am Ghanaian born in Australia either in Australia or overseas. On top of that, there are the general scenarios many Africans in the Diaspora go through with the non-African which go along the lines of ‘Oh do you speak African?‘ followed by the clicking annoyingly made famous by Russell Peters or ‘What there are more countries in Africa? I thought it was just South Africa and Africa‘ etc. I am always interested in reading or knowing about other people’s stories. I said before that there are differences and many similarities in our Diaspora stories.
This week, I came across a tumblr titled My Voice, My Community by Kelechi Anyadiegwu‘s tumblr which allows Africans in the Diaspora to share their stories of the positive and negatives ways they have been viewed in the Global Community. I think this is a great way to share the stories and identify the similarities and differences in our experiences in the Diaspora.
Since I have a few good stories up my sleeve, I couldn’t pass by the site without submitting one. I decided to submit one of my favourite stories, the killer UGG boot story. I will never know how this guy came up with such a tale! I know he was joking, but as they say, ‘with every joke, there is a little true behind it’. It got to the point where the guy had talked so much about the killer UGG boots that he started to believe his tale!
As I was reading through the stories posted on My Voice, My Community, I realised that my most frustrating and offensive situations have been with fellow Africans. It’s bad enough the white man being ignorant, but when it’s your own it’s more frustrating. These people acted like being Ghanaian-Australia didn’t sit well in their stomachs or because they didn’t know, therefore it was impossible. I am now curious to find out about the experiences of Africans born in ‘random’ countries like Australia and this seems to be the platform for that.If you have a story to tell, I encourage you to submit it to My Voice, My Community and be apart of this intriguing conversation. No matter where you are in the world, I know that I and many others will enjoy reading it!It’s our Voice, Our Community!
