I get this every so often. Mostly from Muslims.
I always stutter. I want to say "I am from Manchester thanks!"
I'm a Mancunian gosh darn it!
But that's not what they want to know. They want to know where I get my brown skin from. So I say, "my parents are from Jamaica". Then I feel like I'm disowning Jamaica, which I'm not. But I've never set foot there. My parents both attended secondary school in the UK and when the talk patois (Jamaican), I wanna hide under a stone lol! Because it's so alien to me (don't tell them ;)It sounds like they're putting it on.
I was having this conversation with my husband as it happened again and he said - as he always says "you're Jamaican".
He's Somali - well he's as Mancunian as they come but his parents are Somali. So I said
"I would argue that as Jamaica was a colony of Britain and under British rule for the longest time. The traditions and identity of Jamaicans (descendants of African slaves) has been somewhat eroded and intermingled with that of their 'rulers'" Well something like that lol!
So he said that maybe it was something about my family that didn't identify with being Jamaican.
Fair enough, I suppose that could be the case.
When I look at him I see that it is something to be Somali iykwim? Traditions,pride, a sense of belonging and many other things. That is aside from the identity he has from being a (born)Muslim.
I don't know what it is to be Jamaican. We ate ackee and saltfish on special occasions. But we ate roast chicken on Sunday's and everything else was not especially Jamaican (whatever that is).
I identify most with being Mancunian. I talk like a Manc. I walk like a Manc. But I don't drink like a Manc ;) lol!
2 comments:
A great post. I so empathise with you on this. My mother is Jamaican born and my father was born in Guyana. Both went to school in England. I have been to Jamaica many, many times. When I am there I always notice how much Jamaican people love Jamaica - I mean they LOVE the place. They are very proud people and they have a lot of pride in their country. Very different from the English, some of whom seem to be almost ashamed of themselves and their country.
The thing is, when I am in England, I am constantly asked, "Where are you from?" Like you, I tend to state the obvious. I say, "I'm from London", knowing full well that I am not being asked that at all - I am being asked, "Since you are not white, where do you originally come from?"
When I was younger, I used to proudly say, "I'm Jamaican" (I've never set foot in Guyana!). But when I was in Jamaica, the people there called me English. Even when I protested that my mother was a born Jamaican, they said, yes, but you are a born English gyyaal. I guess no one was fooled by my JaFAKEcan accent lol!
I am English. A Londoner. Like you, we have a roast dinner every Sunday ... although sometimes with rice n peas :)
I wonder if I will always feel like a foreigner though. No matter which country I go to. I think about my children - do they/will they feel like I do? And my grand daughter - what will she say when she is asked "Where are you from?"
Nice to know it's not just me lol!
Can you believe I've never thought about what my children will identify with? You've made me think...
I hope that they feel like Muslims because that can cross over all of the labels that we give/use.
Black (Muslim), Jamaican (Muslim), Somali (Muslim), British (Muslim) you get the idea.
Maybe we should give ourselves a new label/identity?
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