Anna Shilongo
THERE is a saying that a leopard can’t change its spots.
Contrary to this saying, however, a lot of Namibians and Africans in general, always want to change themselves.
This reminds me of a recent function I attended.
I met an African woman, whose looks are indeed African, yet the way she conducted herself left me wondering if this was a sister from the African soil or perhaps just a white sheep in a black skin.
Yes man, she left us all talking…
She flew all the way from the United States, where she has lived for just a year but, gosh, one would think she was perhaps born and bred there.
To start with, she talked about one of the greatest resources Africans actually export to the Western world.
While she was supposed to talk to us about how much the Western world appreciates this African rare and precious stone, she marketed the states and their thirst for our diamonds.
She bragged about the diamonds and in the process irritated her audience with her mechanical way of expressing herself.
She lost touch with the audience, who simply paid no attention to what she was saying and ended up criticising her, for her false pretences.
She tried to act professionally, but her attitude irritated all true Africans who were at the function.
By the end of her speech, she was dumb-founded and lost for words, as she was unable to answer the inquisitive questions that came from the floor.
All she could do was shrivel back into her chair in silence.
There’s a lesson in this incident for all of us who are Africans or believe ourselves to be from the African motherland.
Many a times I hear from friends that a so-called Miss or mr X went for studies or work in America only to come back years later speaking with an “American accent”. Some even impose this foreign accent in their own indigenous mother tongue, making them sound like clowns at the end of the day.
If you ask their names they say, “my name eez Kotkens Nashma”, while in actual fact the name written on their birth certificates is Kotokeni Nashima.
How is this possible? Surely that person did not leave their country with an accent, so why go and acquire one in the first place. Just be yourself because you’ll always remain a son or daughter of the African soil.
It is better to be true to oneself no matter where you’ve been around this wide planet we call earth. Always know where you come from because like they say a tree without roots is lost, just like a person who does not know where he or she is coming from, will never know where you heading too.
I believe it is high time we as Africans are proud of ourselves and act naturally and not copy or imitate others, because in that way we can still be part of the global village without losing our identity altogether.
Why would one want to be an American after all Americans are not even bright people. They are regarded as ignorant of what’s happening around the world. They don’t even know where New York City is on their own map. Ask them where Namibia is on the map, they will ask, “Aah what’s that supposed to be? We have never heard of that!” But ask them if they know Frank Fredericks, they will say, “That hunk who won at the Olympic Games, of course, we know him.”
But please don’t kill me it’s simply an Eewa!