Thursday 12 February 2015

And, I am an African by Jane Oma

On Tuesday we had the pleasure to count on Jane's visit at the EOI. I hope you found her talk as thought-provoking as I did!

Here you have part of her speech. You can read the rest by clicking on the link below. I highly encourage you to read her blog!


"Over the years, I have taken up a new identity. I have embraced a wide and broad title. A title which sometimes feels bigger than I am, but one which nonetheless I am carrying with the utmost pride and dignity. Now, I am African.

At first, I was amused when people referred to me as an African. It was both exasperating and infuriating when I saw how some struggle to pronounce correctly, the name of my country of birth or sometimes even question its existence. Then, I’d get mildly irritated when non-Africans assumed that there is actually a country called Africa, when they talk about Africa and Africans as if they have no individual presence.  

As a matter of fact, there are people who don’t know where my country is, and even though it is sometimes still extremely annoying, instead of wasting time explaining where I am from, it has become convenient to simply say that I am African. So, now, I am simply, "African"."

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Good aftenoon María,

Thank you very much, yesterday I was speaking with her, she has a page on Facebook My ruby weels and I asked if her name was Jane and we was talking by privates messages about her speech and what I though about Africa.

See you later

Unknown said...

I'm sorry my ruby heels I'm not sure if I write well the word heels