Why I Blog About Africa
Erik has tagged me as part of the “Why I Blog About Africa” meme.
It’s proved a tough one to answer. I blog about Africa primarily because I was born here, I guess. I sometimes feel guilty calling myself African because in many ways South Africa is to Africa as America is to the rest of the world – a bit clueless. On top of that, I’m a white, relatively wealthy South African to boot. In South Africa many whites are of direct European descent. You have your Greek, Portuguese, Italian and Lebanese ‘sects’ which, for the largest part, keep very much alive the traditions and nuances of their forefathers. Black South Africans obviously have rich tribal identities. Afrikaans white South Africans have a tangible sense of tradition and culture.
But then there’s us half-Euro half-Afro South Africans who don’t seem to fit in anywhere. Sometimes I feel like a bit of a mish mash of all of these things, and I wonder when travelling if foreigners experience me as such – a smorgasbord of cultural bits and pieces bundled into various South Africanisms.
I’m completely off the track of this meme, aren’t I?
Point is, I blog about Africa because it’s the only real identity I have. Though I don’t always feel authentically African, I am factually African. There’s no doubt I was born on this continent and I sure as hell don’t fit in anywhere else (as I discovered when travelling in the US :P)
All my identity confusion aside, I am terribly excited about this continent. It is out of chaos, diversity and adversity that opportunity arises. And boy, is there ever opportunity in Africa and South Africa. Immense pain, unfathomable heartache, and then in the middle of all of that immense opportunity. I’m not just referring to capitalistic ventures. I mean opportunities to connect, to grow, to solve, to discover and to learn. That’s got to be a good thing.
ROFL, love the use of the word “Sect”,
I sort of struggle with that as well, having an English/Afrikaans mom and a Greek Father, and having Judaism as a religion, but not being Semitic.
I am African!
Guys
White South Africans people have contributed a lot to South Africa to what it is today as much as Black people have had.
I Also think, especially adult people have phobias about each other, i think also its our leaders, like president etc to call for more unity and unite people and let them feel the spirit of Africa.
Lets take for example, you have Arabs that were born in India, that side they are classified as Indians, the same goes for Whites here.
Lastly, i think with contracts, tenders and jobs, i believe the the affirmative action should be scrapped and have a system where everyone of all races can enjoy to have any job they want, even government has admitted that there are shortage skills for white people.
Everyone is driven mad by crime, hopefully a new president that will come into power will acknowledge that HIV does exist and that things like death penalty and less corrupt police and government officials are kicked out.
For now, we have a White health minister and we need more white people in parliament.
Im sorry for being off topic a little bit but i was trying to put a bigger picture that Whites should not feel left out.
Apologies for the above errors, just that i just type too fast…….
Chow Chow
Excellent post Mike, I really enjoyed reading that. I think it’s this mixture and confusion about roots and belonging that make white South Africans so interesting.
i can relate to this
a half-Euro half-Afro German from Malawi
Hello !Oh hubba hubba! Forget the sportscar, been there, done that, got the T shirt, wore it out, gave it to goodwill.
http://cstatman.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_archive.html