What's My Line
Nationality/Identity is a distinctly odd thing. It is a question I get asked on an almost daily basis. Unsurprising really considering the fact that I am Nigerian, was born in Britain and am living in America but working at the British Consulate. The joys of globalisation!
For the longest time I identified far more strongly with Nigeria than I did with the UK, but maybe it takes being away from your country to really appreciate it. The 3 years that I have spent in New York have made me far more patriotic and I now feel more British than ever. I'm not really sure how to reconcile that. It's difficult to put my finger on exactly what provokes the feelings, all I know is that for the first time in the history of my existence I am in full support of England and her exploits at The World up. Is it because Nigeria is not participating this year? Who can say..Similarly I was overwhelmed when London was announced as the Olympic city for 2012 and when Kelly Holmes took double honours at the last Olympics I shed tears of joy.
Will I feel something for America when I leave here? Somehow I doubt it. Maybe it is down to the fact that my life in London is so heavily interlaced with doses of Nigeria that there is no real need or desire to separate one from the other. London, or "mini-Nigeria" as I like to think of it offers me the best of both worlds whereas New York leaves me adrift. As so many bloggers have queried recently, what is it that instills national pride? Is it the accident of birth? The amount of time spent residing somewhere? Or is it how the life-changing experiences we have in certain places. It is probably a combination of all 3 in my case. I was born in London. My adult life has been divided between NYC and London, although I did go to University in Leeds, I have evolved the most as person in New York and I am as Nigerian as the best of them...Accent not withstanding.
Maybe for me the solution is not to have to choose. I am as British as I am Nigerian. I identify very strongly with both countries, and hate being questioned or second-guessed on that....I'm the Anglo-Nigerian du jour.
For the longest time I identified far more strongly with Nigeria than I did with the UK, but maybe it takes being away from your country to really appreciate it. The 3 years that I have spent in New York have made me far more patriotic and I now feel more British than ever. I'm not really sure how to reconcile that. It's difficult to put my finger on exactly what provokes the feelings, all I know is that for the first time in the history of my existence I am in full support of England and her exploits at The World up. Is it because Nigeria is not participating this year? Who can say..Similarly I was overwhelmed when London was announced as the Olympic city for 2012 and when Kelly Holmes took double honours at the last Olympics I shed tears of joy.
Will I feel something for America when I leave here? Somehow I doubt it. Maybe it is down to the fact that my life in London is so heavily interlaced with doses of Nigeria that there is no real need or desire to separate one from the other. London, or "mini-Nigeria" as I like to think of it offers me the best of both worlds whereas New York leaves me adrift. As so many bloggers have queried recently, what is it that instills national pride? Is it the accident of birth? The amount of time spent residing somewhere? Or is it how the life-changing experiences we have in certain places. It is probably a combination of all 3 in my case. I was born in London. My adult life has been divided between NYC and London, although I did go to University in Leeds, I have evolved the most as person in New York and I am as Nigerian as the best of them...Accent not withstanding.
Maybe for me the solution is not to have to choose. I am as British as I am Nigerian. I identify very strongly with both countries, and hate being questioned or second-guessed on that....I'm the Anglo-Nigerian du jour.
posted by Monef at 6:46 PM
17 Comments:
Its good that you are comfortable with your identity. I grew up in 4 countries, and I never really felt I identified with any of them. I'm not Nigerian enough, this/that enough...i've heard it all.
Nice post. Its really cool that you know who you are and where you come from.
Sometimes i feel that way, as i grew up in 5 different countries and sometimes it can be hard. My mom always reminded us where we were from-nigeria, but most people say i am too british...Me i dont know what they are on about, cause i am 100% nigerian, just with a twist.
Loving this post by the way.
what does that make me then? I don't feel like a scouser most of the time but that's what i should be right?
Dude you feel like a scouser??? really??? thought you were a scallie??!! you wanna watch were yo proclaim your scouseness...mancs frequent my blog on a regular basis.
Its funny you just wrote this: i just got into a mad arguement with a friend of mine (3rd generation jamaican) who was sad because Trinidad just lost to England. i was quite vexed cos even though i'm Nigerian through and through (still got a green kpali) i have absolutely no qualms cheering for England. This woman however has a warped sense of identity and labelled herself "British", but not "English" - stating that to be English is to be white.
I'm normally quite deconstructive arguementatatively speaking, so i was surprised at how irritated i was with her statement. I told her that her views were racist and non-progressive but she just didnt want to know - she just couldnt identify with being English in anyway: culturally, socially...nothing.
I was quite hard on her considering i dont know what it is to be a black person raised in this country, but i think denying the obvious is defeatist and ignorant. she was born in England (sauf landan to be precise) so why couldnt she just accept that she's English. Maybe cos the cross of stGeorge has almost been totally "claimed" by far right wing insitutions, but even then isnt it easy to see that they are just plain ignorant? so what if they're saying they're white and English...Rio Ferdinand, Ashley cole and Shaun Wright Phillips are black and who can deny they're English?
I dont know what it is; obviously its easy for people like me who are Nigerian born and bred with parent, grand parent and generations all the same, but then...even legally speaking, she's English. I dont see what race has to do with it!
The times I feel most 'at home' in the UK are when I've just come back from visiting other places on the continent. It really makes me appreciate how truly 'multicultural' London is. Perhaps I'd feel differently if I lived in a different part of the UK.
@ aihammed delot I think the rejection of the title 'English' by the black british is also partly due to its associations with Englands imperialist and oppresive past. Thats not a part of who I am. I can identify with the state of play today and refuse to be a part of that colonialist past of England.
@ MOROUNTODUN: i think thats my point. I have every reason to be as aggrieved considering i'm a Nigerian and i consider the imperialists were as harsh to the indigens of their colonies. but then again - aint that the past? i cant relate to that kind of opression right now.
Yeah, black brits probably can relate to that kind of opression cos they're still subject to racial abuse and raised in social systems which can only be described as racist but then again what has that got to do with denying a clear identity?
Who wants to raise a whip to me now and not expect a couple of swift right hooks in return?
Great post Monef. Aihammed, I think you were too harsh on your friend....have you ever heard anyone I repeat ANYONE use the term Black English? I haven't in the 5 years I've lived here and I'm not sure why but that probably accounts for part of your friend's reluctance to accept that term
UK : 2 Trinidad : Nil!!! Congrats to your British side!
Was at your neck of the woods yesterday and couldn't get help at Window 4!!! you all were watching the game huh? LOL! I am being terribly facetious. Everything worked out at in the end got what I came for. Nice blog!
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Monef were you saying something?
i like the way you concluded - why should we have to choose wo we are? a person doesn't have to be just the one thing, they can be a sum of the different things which give them an identity.
i support england at the world cup, even though i'm not even british. i live here, and i believe that if you live somewhere then you have to identify with your home. i felt pride about the olympics too, and i wept with genuine sadness and horror on july the 7th last year, because i felt like my home had been violated. that doesn't make me any less nigerian.
i think to a large extent, who we are is who we choose to be identified with. when i lived in nigeria i paid scant regard to traditional nigerian music, but now i listen to kwam 1 and sunny ade alongside the contemporary nigerian and indeed african artistes, and i find as much joy in them as i do in john legend and james blunt. without a dioubt that was from moving away from home.
i have no doubt that you will identify with nyc when you leave, if you dont already on some subliminal level.
great post.
@ keji: foocking scouser scallie knob-head!!! argh!!
I was born in the Uk to Nigerian Parents. I hae spent 60% of my life in the Uk, and the other 40 in Nigeria.
But I see myself as a Nigerian carrying a British Passport. I dont support the English football team, even though I support Team GB (C/Wealth games & Olympics)
yeah.....its crazy...sometimes when you move around so much..you begin to question where u r really from...naija people are always quick to accuse people of 'forming' if you dont act 'extra naija'...whatever that is....anyways, luv ur blog...
visit mine - http://bellanaija.blogspot.com/
Very well written, I think you have expressed how many of us feel to the T.
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