Racism and Tribalism
I am randomly called “Blackie” among my own people
On one calm afternoon, after alighting at a bus stop at Madina, a suburb of Accra, Ghana, I decided to take a glance through the market to the Birth Registry Centre, which was my destination. While walking through the market, two hawkers who stood and sold clothing by the roadside tried drawing my attention to their product (ps. Hawking to sell products on the streets forms part of the informal workforce in most sub-Saharan countries). Maybe I would have had a look at the products in their hands but they began calling me “Blackie”.
“Hey Blackie, come and have a look at our products”, they said respectively.
I was put off by that word. I ignored them and walked away. Just because the shade of my brown skin is darker than my fellow African, he or she might make mockery of me, without noticing the effects of their words. This is what is happening in Africa. If this isn’t a deeper level of racism, I do not know what is. I admit that some fellow Ghanaians complemented my skin color, but others made mockery of the darker shade of my brown skin. Shocked?
From the onset, when the issue of racism did not exist, Humans were distributed evenly across the globe based on the various climate conditions (ps. This is my belief though).
We live at different geographical locations,
We have different cultures ,
Different governing systems,
Different skin colors,
But the same kind of cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems.
Yes, we have the same color and composition of blood.
When colonization and slavery were introduced, through the channel of adventure and evangelism, Its basis had roots of greed, pride and wickedness.
Words like savages and inferior were used to call humans who acted primitively(differently) with different skin colors,
Other than the color of the colonial masters present at that time.
Other words like “nigga” emerged later,
When the colonial masters took humans of different colors back to their own countries as slaves.
These humans with different colors who were moved to foreign lands in the name of slavery have suffered indifference in the kind of human treatment towards them ever since then. Years, decades and centuries have passed. Not much has changed on this matter. And just the thought that racism still exist in the twenty first century is appalling and sad at the same time.
I love to travel, see new places, experience different languages, accent, gestures and walk among the indigenes of that community.
On one of my travels to Takoradi, one of the capital cities of the western region of Ghana, I took my habitual walk along the main roads to discover new routes. While I was walking with my eyes looking all round, a trader who hawked with his products, started calling out the word “Blackie” with smiles and laughter on his face, trying to draw my attention. This got me so upset at that moment. I turned to him and asked him simple questions with a fierce facial expression, such as;
Aren’t you also black? Why then are you calling me Blackie? Is it because my shade of brown is darker than yours?
The trader’s smiles and laughter faded off upon hearing my reply and kept mute, while I walk away. Maybe he felt ashamed or not, I am uncertain on his feelings but deep down within me, I felt good about the questions I asked.
This is racism and it happened in Ghana, Africa
Unfortunately, those who weren’t taken from the colored countries may have adopted the idea that humans with brighter colors such as their colonial masters were superior to those with darker ones. This misconception grew like the veins of the roots of a great Odum tree. Consequently, colored humans who haven’t received high level education still believe in this misconception to the extent that society sees nothing wrong with thoughts like that.
In Africa, you may find a human with a brown color making mockery of another human with a darker brown color and sees nothing wrong with it.
This is the visible virus in Africa.
A similar virus of racism in Africa is Tribalism.
I am a young woman.
A young African woman.
Growing up, my mother made a list of tribes she detested within Ghana and warned me never to make friends with people from such tribes or marry men who hail from these tribes. I remember being stunned, standing in front of her serious face. From that moment till now, my mother neither knows any friend of mine, nor has she met any of my exs. Anytime she asks, I simply say I am yet to meet anyone on her list. Sad.
Can I say that Racism feeds Tribalism and then vice versa? Maybe, I can.
Recently, four Police Officers’ racial brutality at Minneapolis birthed different levels of protests and riots. I have seen Africans posting the “I stand with George Floyd “on social media. This wicked action is indeed disgusting and appalling.
But, Africa should start taking a big stand against racism and tribalism within its borders, while she takes the stand with George Floyd.
Africa should uproot all the thick veins of Tribalism within the various colors of her culture.
Africa should rise together and plug out the differential treatment among her people.
Africa is better than Tribalism.
Africa is best when we all see ourselves as equals.
Whether an Ashanti, an Ewe, a Yoruba or an Igbo.
If we accept each other and not speak or act Ill to one another, Africa will be the best continent the world has ever seen.
If we see ourselves as one color, maybe the world will see us differently.
If we stop tearing each other down, maybe we would have been very much developed by now.
Thus, I call on all colors,
I call on all browns and blacks,
To end racism and Tribalism, we have to fix and erase certain misconception in our minds. Starting with myself and my mother. Maybe, we will be able to heal together. Maybe we will be able to see ourselves on earth as one.
The healing to Racism
Anti-racism activists have been preaching this notion for as long as time could tell.
“There is only one race on earth, <The human race> I am black because I am at the equator, you are white because you are away from the equator”
Basically, this means moving away from the equator, skin colors changes till the north and south pole.
All because of the divers climate conditions around the globe. This ideology is the healing to Racism.
The healing to Tribalism
To all Africans, and other continents;
We are different,
We have different but similar cultures,
We have different languages,
But all these are what makes us HUMAN.
Hence, let us see ourselves as humans and treat ourselves equally,
Rather than treat ourselves differently because we are different, culturally.
I take my stand, irrespective of all skin colors, All lives on earth, matter!
