Where's East Africa?

Where was East Africa in the 14^th Century? I need to find that out.  In the South you had Shaka Zulu’s conquest. In the West you had Timbuktu. In the North you had the Egyptian civilization. I so want to go to Egypt to just experience and be in the presence of such rich history. The jury is still out on whether it was the dark Nubians who ruled or the lighter skinned Arabs who ruled. But I won’t get into that right now.

I know if I spent more time reading African history, I would have an answer. 

The reason I ask that is there is something about my beautiful ‘neck of the African woods’; East Africa, that just seems to not have grand Kingdoms that I know about. Yes, you have the Buganda kingdom, but I am wondering is that it?

I am in search of the great stories of East African Kingdoms and conquests as vast as Songhai and Timbuktu  of the West and Shaka in the South. Why am I so bothered? Well because at times I feel like East Africa’s history is so watered down.

by  sahistory.org.za

I have a beautiful Ghanaian friend who told me they were taught of greats of the Ashanti Kingdom, the great Yaa Asantewaa and the likes, in school. We are barely taught of Mekatili wa Menza in Kenya. Kenyan History starts about a decade before independence. The rest relies on how great your family was in their oral history. If they weren’t, tough luck!

 I look at how traditionally rich West Africans are, they just ooze of it. Nigerians rock their accents wherever they go. Some of us Africans acquire really horrible imitated American accents after seeing one, leave alone living there.  The West African, Central and Southern African states rock cultural clothing. East Africans….I love us, but we just seem to miss the African oomph other brothers and sisters exude in the continent.

I just hate that. And it bothers me, I feel like in East Africa we lost something. And being a writer, I feel the need to find it and share it in the work that I do. And share the rich African oomph other regions in this continent ooze. I may write a grand historical encounter to be preserved by generations or simply keep blogging about it.

The beauty and the shortfall of African history, in parts of Africa, in my view was the reliance on oral history. I have said this several times in this blog. But the beauty is I am in a generation that understands and appreciates the power and need to preserve that. That is my task, finding out what my East African history holds for me. That is other than the slavery that was rampant due to our proximity to the Indian Ocean.

But I do remember, in my World Civilization class the lecturer did state that there was evidence of astronomy around the Lake Turkana area. I am yet to get more information on that.

Why am I fussing so much about this? Well we live in a world where we still have to prove to ourselves that Africa is more than what it is depicted as today. That one sided story that we spoke of in the previous post.

But the only way Africans can believe it and stand tall, is if they know how great their predecessors were. How else do we know that? We need to dig it up, internalize it and begin to believe and live as great as or even greater than our ancestors. There is more than a name in the African lineage; it’s called greatness. 

An African's Dilemma

I will be honest; I haven’t read Purple Hibiscus or Half of a Yellow Sun. I know! I know! Gasp! Shock! My friend tried to convince me to read at least one book, 3 years ago but I was skeptical.  I had never heard of the author and that particular time I wasn’t in the mood to read. Adiche Chimamanda , for those who do not know her is a 34 year old, Award winning Nigerian author. She is International star. I encountered her on a website, www.peceloveproclaimer.org, an acquaintance directed me to.

I read the transcript of her 2009 TED talk, the danger of a one sided story. Adichie narrates her own personal experience of the same, growing up as a middle class Nigerian and living with a certain perception of their domestic help. Because of things her mother would say, Adichie believed that since their domestic help was from a poor family they probably couldn’t actually create beautiful things which they did.

I want you to hear it from her, that’s why I posted the video. 

I just want to pick up  from where she left off. I ask myself what makes me African many times previously on this blog. But at times I honestly feel if it wasn’t for my parents constantly ferrying me off to my rural home. And  also raising us, speaking our ethnic tongue, passing on important tales of the life and practices of my ancestors. I am not quite sure what else would make me proudly African.

For so long as a child I wanted to be the blond  and fair haired, blue eyed girl from the books that I read. I loved the stories of Hansel and Gretel, The ginger bread, man and Rapunzel who let her hair down. All these stories where not mine, of where I was from, but they shaped my world view.

My first time on the continent was at the age of 5. People were stunned that I spoke my ethnic tongue fluently thanks to my mother. I do not have a strong African accent and for years I Anglo-sized the pronunciation of African names and words, because I believed it was proper.

I wanted to be white because I considered being Black and African inferior. I only faced one minor racial experience as a child, which didn’t really bother me much. But there was a subtle message around me that made me feel African was not good enough. After watching Adichie, you understand where it all began. It all began with a story that was told and shared and soon became legend.

I know better now and overcame the self hating phase. But at times I now feel that I am not African enough. I look at West Africans. And I a blown away with how culturally rich they are. Their clothes, their accents, their pride….if you are an East African you would agree with me, West Africans epitomize African pride.

But it is a tussle in my mind of what is ‘truly’ African. 

Is it the thick ethnic accent, the garb, living in the village and preparing food the way it was traditionally prepared. Speaking solely in an African language and shunning English. But I grew up in a fusion of two worlds of culture, Western and African, as is the case of most African’s today. You may not have lived in the West. But you were inculcated through the stories you read, the movies you’ve seen, or music you like to listen to.

I may not have a thick African accent when I speak English, I enjoy Hollywood movies, but I still love traditional ethnic music.

I don’t know if there was ever a traditional dress that my ancestors wore. I wear jeans, t-shirts, trainers, dresses or whatever tickles my fancy. I don’t understand why getting clothes that fit me is so hard in Kenya yet the average African women is curvaceous and with a little extra.

After centuries of reading and consuming someone else’s story, we as Africans may have lost something. But I believe that can be found and restored. And I believe it is being restored one story at a time.