I is for Indigent, Indignant and Indigenous
August 24, 2007 at 7:30 PM
by Ashleigh
Three words starting with I.
The first describes the current state of all Zimbabweans, bar a few elite.
The second describes how black Zimbabweans were before Independence, how white Zimbabweans were after it, and how all Zimbabweans should be now.
The third is the word used within Zimbabwe to describe black people native to Zimbabwe.
White people native to Zimbabwe have no word to describe them. They are still 'Europeans'.
I am not European. Neither, apparently, am I African.
By accident of birth and my ancestors' migration, I have no real nationality or identity, and in order to claim my European ancestry I must abandon my African ancestry.
Maybe I should feel more indignant, but I suppose I feel nothing really.
I wonder if all the Zimbabweans in the diaspora feel the same way?
Comments
It's awards day at Cottage Smallholder, Ash, and you've got one!
Speaking of Zimbabwe, I wonder how was it possible for Robert Mugabe to attend the funeral of the Pope a few years ago when the EU imposed a ban on him traveling within EU borders after the Zimbabwe elections in 2002?
When I was a kid in Harare in the early 80's the whites in my school called themselves 'Rhodesians' I guess their parents were having issues with the changes.....
well i'm indignant, that's for sure.
i'm indigant when i meet southern africans in europe bashing africa, i'm indignant when i meet apathetic southern africans in africa, and i'm indignant to the point of being incensed if anyone dares tell me i am not african because i reflect a little more light than a black african. i;m not european, that's for sure. maybe i'm a nie-blanke in the apartheid sense of the word 'european' but i am african, and occasionally proud of it.
I hope that you don't mind that I'm responding - I've found your blog via a link from elsewhere and found this entry especially interesting, as I'm an American expatriate living in the UK whose parents were missionaries in Burkina Faso when I was a child! Identity is such a strange and fluid thing - although I have never had any right to claim Burkinabe citizenship, part of me still always feels African and out of place no matter where in the world I go.
I have wondered, watching the turmoil in Zimbabwe, how white Zimbabweans must feel about the situation. It is interesting to hear more about it!
Yes, apparently I am neither native nor indigenous to South Africa, despite my family having lived there for nearly 200 years. Makes me indignant.
August 25, 2007 12:20 AM