The debate over identity rages on in Africa, and also in the African Diaspora and outside of them. The Mis-Educated Than His Ancestors, the Metha, has taken a keen interest in the issue and desires to lay his claim to African Identity.
But, can he?
The thing is nobody comes from Africa, just like that! People come from a specific place in Africa and thus, come from Africa. I come from Ntoaboma, and I belong to a certain unique Culture that shares many similarities with Cultures on the West African Coasts, and perhaps in Africa in general. I am not African because the place called Ntoaboma is in Africa, but I am African because I come from and I am bound to (ancestrally and spiritually) to the Culture and Traditions of Ntoaboma.
That means I am directly responsible, like all Ntoaboma people, for anything that happens in, and for anything that happens to Ntoaboma, its Culture and its people. I don’t have to like, love, prefer the change, or the conservatism, but I am directly responsible for what changes and what does not, whether I like it or not. And so by belonging, I accept direct responsibility.
The Mis-Educated Than His Ancestors, the Metha, does not belong anywhere. His dispersive mind ascribes his belonging to an entity called “Africa,” which only exists on a map. For those that insist that the Metha is African, no matter, I have a clarification for the Metha’s misconception. When the Metha says he’s African he means he comes from some place in Africa and shares the Ancestry of this place with the people who are directly responsible for that Culture and its Traditions.
You see, the Metha is lazy. He tricks his mind to be “African,” only so he can feign a sense of belonging, when he knows that he really does not belong, or care to belong. The Metha’s Africanness limits his sense of responsibility. He is not Culturally and Spiritually African. He is, perhaps by Ancestry or even by birth, from Africa, but he’s really not African. It is like so with the Metha because he knows the truth, and so he insists that to be “African” can mean many things!
No, it cannot! You see, if something can mean anything, then it ceases to be the thing. You catch? The dispersive mindedness of the Metha is a cancer that needs addressing. There’s no Africanness without the sense of an African Responsibility. That is, you cannot be African without becoming also fully responsible for the Well-being of the Culture and Traditions from which you have come, whether you like it or not!
The metha’s no theory theory of africanness
It is worth discussing what it really means to be African because in the 21st century, I believe those meanings have departed from the past in ways that do not hold true to African cultures.
This truth will hurt some people’s feelings…but if you watch: their hearts will remain unmoved.
Because they do not truly love Africa, deep down. They merely feel entitled.
Well, there you go! The Metha feels entitled to Africa, to African Heritage and the like. Yet, feels no responsibility towards the entitlement! Back in the day, they would pay any money to see Cat Stevens, and feel entitled to watch, hell, even participate in an African Rhythms Ensemble performance passing through town, as if by merely “coming from Africa” one has a God-ordained right to African musical talent without training. As entitlements go, they are unearned, thus the feeling of betrayal can even be more painful, and more disorienting, when the Metha encounters that some of us know their sickness – well!
Narmer paaaa…. lol. Cat Stevens! Herherherherer….. I have seen, with my own eyes, the Metha wet his pants over Celine Dion…lol. Let me tell you!
Narmer paaa, aren’t you already aware that in the Age of Neoliberalism, which the Metha is wiping his belly with like a schoolyard toddler, don’t you know that I can choose to be a white woman from Worawora, Ghana? This is the discursive space from which the Metha operates his nonsense. The thing is, how can you fight this mental illness? They have more of you than we have of you. You see the imbalance? That is th e problem. The Metha is not aware that the imperialists are today coming into these discursive spaces with their canons (literally canons) against our machetes, no matter how brave we are. And the Metha is not aware that they are the direct enablers of these colonialists. That is a damn shame!