USA Africa Dialogue Series - How To (Not) Write About Africa When You’re an African | Mind of Malaka

"Self-identification is a powerful choice. The decision to select who or what you call yourself is the epitome of self-actualization. It is for that reason that institutions and thought Nazis spend a great deal of effort stripping individuals and groups of that choice and right. Africans are not exempt from the propensity to police the choices of others."

I am SO SICK of this silencing tactic Africans employ to cut other Africans out of the conversation. We are always finding ways to separate ourselves, not just on the continent, but as a race. Some of the most profound and enduring musings on Africa have come from "non-Africans", like Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey. Are we to discount and rubbish those because neither of these gentlemen 'lived on the continent'? I'm not putting myself in the same intellectual league as Malcolm X, but what I AM saying is that geography is irrelevant.

I was born at Korle Bu.

My school fees helped to build and expand several campuses in Accra.

I too have known the pain of malaria and felt the sting of a cane.

I can point to a town where the Larteh hene will welcome me 'home' and tell me how my great-grandfather was instrumental in developing the area.

I'm a Ghanaian, and in 2015, I live in Atlanta. I have just as much right to comment on the goings on on the Continent as the slum kid who lives at Agbogbloshie. But let's drill that all the way back, so we can all see how incredibly condescending at short sighted this line of thinking is. Keep in mind that this train of thought is something numerous Blacks and Africans are guilty of..."

Interesting blog post. I chuckled. If one listens to Africans one would never breathe. Just say your piece and leave the feedback to its owners. Which one be your own? If you nor get liver, don't write. Esu smirks!

http://mindofmalaka.com/2015/05/27/how-to-not-write-about-africa-when-youre-an-african/

- Ikhide