I’m Not Black, I’m Coloured – Identity Crisis at the Cape of Good Hope
Greeting’s Everyone,
First, I need to thank Cedric McCay for bringing this video to my attention. He is a great person and I was trying to learn French from him, but I failed miserably. Cedric is an advocate to “Embrace culture, Serve humanity. 1914. Share Africa’s wisdom. Enjoy God’s gift of Life. Bilingue et intéressé par les événements en Afrique et en Caraïbes!”.
I encourage everyone to watch this video. It has affected me personally because being an African-American who lives in Cape Town, South Africa, I am understanding the social dynamics of this country and this coastal city.
I arrived in Cape Town, South Africa in June of 2012. I was excited, nervous, and curious to be moving to my third country.
I love it here in Cape Town, South Africa! You can certainly be successful here! It is interesting to see how much of the Black South African population follows the American hip-hop community. I am treated well. They ask me questions about Rick Ross, 50 Cent, and other artist. People will call me, “Obama”, while I walk down the street. I have to admit that was interesting for me.
However, in the beginning of my arrival, I had an interesting time because of the racial dynamics in the country. The black South Africans would just look at stare at me. Most were extremely friendly, but I did have a few that just gave me a dirty look. I didn’t understand the situtaion. I asked a good friend that I met in South Africa about the situation that I described. She stated, “Oh! You didn’t know? You one of us! You are Coloured”. She further stated that she new I was an American once I started to talk.
My mistake in this lesson was that I applied my knowledge of race and identity from the United States of America and applied the ideology to my situation in South Africa. Big mistake by me, but I learned from it.
As humans, we all desire to be part of a group or identity. South Africa is a great country and it has deep roots in regards to Race & Identity. This movie was made in 2009 and things have slowly changed, but in my opinion, the Identity crisis continues.
So check this video out (Click on the image)!
In the event, the link doesn’t work. The link is: http://vimeo.com/23617382
Peace,
altglobal
Posted by Adrian | Filed under Africa, African History, Colourism, Culture, South Africa