Remember back in Africa, I'll be specific and say, Zimbabwe..but I'm fairly certain that you can *insert your native country here* when as a teen you would watch music videos off DSTV or other satellite television, all of them American, ranging from Craig Mac to Mariah Carey and fantasize about your journey to "the land of the free"??? Taking that fantasy to as close to a reality as you could by not only memorizing the exact words, verbatim and choreography so that your African ass might as well BE the artist you were imitating, but by integrating the accent, walk, talk and attire, remember Karl Kani???...into your lifestyle. Maaaan!!! How, oh how we wanted to be in America.
Ok, years later - post teens, MANY of us are here in America, myself included and have been for year, after year, after loooooooong year. Question: "Was it worth it?"
Depending on our individual circumstances, we ended up in America for various, unique reasons. Hardly any of them even remotely related to those teenage dreams we linked to the music videos we used to watch. If anything, having arrived here, and felt the hostility America can have towards immigrants many off us may wish we had never even watched those music videos way back when and stuck to our local television, boring as it may have been. LESSONS LEARNED....*sigh*. It is an awful thing to feel as if you have to beg for the basics you would otherwise have the privilege to select from, at your leisure in your country of origin.
When did one's birth place begin to have such a HUGE impact on one's life? You may think I am insane to type that, but ask yourself...how much of a difference it would have made in YOUR life if you were, I'll use myself here now...American born versus Zimbabwean born??? Food for thought! Blue passport versus Green one...a WORLD of difference!
Please, don't get me wrong. Until the day I breathe my very last breath, I will be PROUD to be AFRICAN, SOUTHERN AFRICAN, ZIMBABWEAN! But I have experienced first hand the consequences my nationality has had on my ability to excel in America. That dreaded "paperwork" restricts access to damn near EVERYTHING! Education, employment, health care, purchases, rental, travel...and on and on. As Africans we are patient, resilient people, so we find our ways around it...BUT...is it really worth what we endure, even in the midst of that patience and resilience???
I have a Bachelor of Social Science degree in Labour, Organisational Psychology and Human Resource Management. A TRIPLE major, completed in only THREE years. If I was American, I'd be a genius, but I am African, in limbo here, so with that degree, I have had to babysit. ME, private school educated, wiping a shitty baby's ass, not my own baby, a job my uneducated maid in Zimbabwe would have done. So many others, driven to desperation, much more highly educated than I have had to do the same and worse.
Dedan Kimathi said, "It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees".
Coming to America.
Should we all just go home?
Thank you for stopping by,
AfricaHeiress.
