“My Sister! Where are you from?”
The overly eager voice cries out to you as you walk through the shopping mall.
Surrounded by expensive dress shops, beautiful people, mannequins strikingly posed,
You can’t help but focus on his ill-fitting pants; the overly eager face, his almost drooling demeanour.
You debate which country to choose in this moment.
“Somalia!” You reply. A split-second decision.
His face falls; “You look like someone from Kenya” he tries, unconvinced.
You smile piteously…
“Whatever!” you snort, rolling your eyes as you walk away…better to be cruel than kind…
“My sister, kwaheri, go well! I only wanted to wish you the best.”
He watches you leave. Crestfallen.
Another African “True Love in N. America” moment
6 Comments
September 15, 2008 at 3:21 am
September 15, 2008 at 6:53 am
I understand.
In Jberg, I was stalked in a mall. In a last bid sign of ‘giving in’, I introduced myself as Maria, from Uganda, hand shake and all. He lightened up as though he’d struck gold, much to my chagrin. Countless mentions of I am waiting for my husband yielded no relief. Seeing no way out, I resulted to the all time fail-proof remedy, snobbery.
September 15, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Well, I have been asked by random strangers whether I am from: Somalia, Burundi, Rwanda (this particular fellow spoke to me in Kinyarwanda repeatedly, LOUDLY, convinced that I was faking my lack of comprehension!), Zaire, Ethiopia, Uganda. Rarely do people go and guess Kenya straight up which is really weird. I think that I am easily identifiable as being Kenyan. Also, I find that other Africans have a hard time identifying their fellow brothers and sisters’ countries of origin just by sight alone.
Put a Kenyan in a room and within minutes they have identified all the other Africans’ home countries…is this the gift of having grown up in a country that’s such a melting pot of features, attributes, accents, colours? Or is it the sinister product of a nation’s need to reinforce tribal stereotypes or classify ourselves? Not sure, still, I wish I could get financially rewarded for this gift…
September 18, 2008 at 7:44 am
In my younger days, of having been abroad for a while, I’d have played the snobbery card. Now I find if I travel, that I’m actually friendlier . . .I figure that the greeter just wants some human contact. He (usually they’re he’s. . .hmm) just wishes to confirm to himself that indeed people from ‘home’ are friendlier than ‘these people here’. . .That said, I’m more likely to greet you if at least you look over 30 (maybe you’re less likely to be involved in illegal things? )
September 22, 2008 at 1:48 am
I was constantly greeted in Amharic in an area that apparently has the biggest Ethiopian population outside of Ethiopia. I learned to reply ‘No, Kenyan’ to “Habesha?” to which the conversation went something like “same people!” ‘my sister”…
October 13, 2008 at 5:45 pm
poor thing