Tuesday 2 June 2015

Nigerianising My World Since 2000-gbogboro

This post was inspired by J's post on sharing her food culture with her husband. I read her post and found it weird to read that some people seem almost ashamed of their culture. I'm not sure if it's the parents' fault for not having instilled better pride in their children or society's fault for celebrating certain cultures over others. Whatever the case, I will never understand how anyone could be ashamed of their culture, because to me one's culture is one's identity.

Nigerian me at London's Notting Hill Carnival in 2012

In my case, inasmuch as I love experiencing and being a part of other cultures, you simply could not have any sort of relationship with me without learning about Nigeria, the Yoruba people and even more specifically the Ondo culture! My cultural identity is part and parcel of who I am, and I proudly share the good, the bad and even the ugly with my entourage. I do this mainly through sharing the things I love the most i.e. food (as per the original FFO), and books.

For instance, I bought Things Fall Apart for the MIL in German and Americanah for Hanna my German friend/conversation exchange partner. And when we lived in Paris, my sis and I bought my French family friends about 4-5 books by both Chinua Achebe and Chimmamda Adichie. Just last week, my Mexican friend told me proudly on the phone that she'd bought Things Fall Apart and was reading and enjoying it too. Chinua Achebe is one of my very favourite writers, and it is of course natural for me to introduce my loved ones to his writing and through it, the Nigerian culture!

In terms of food, my main thing is fried rice which seems to  have worked wonders on everyone for whom I've ever made it. My French family now loves fried rice and plantains to the point that my French mum said, as we walked past an African shop two weekends ago, "look another place we can buy plantain for dodo, let me note down the address." And few weeks before that, my Mexican and Italian friends suddenly sent me whatsapp pictures of them eating and enjoying food at a Nigerian restaurant I'd once told them about in Paris. In both cases, I was shocked...and at the same time proud of the good job I had done! When I went to Nigeria nko? I brought back a few bags of Kilishi from which I was planning to send some to my mum in England. The mistake I made was taking it to show them at work where it was quickly devoured, sotay I had nothing left to send to my mum lol. This in spite of the stereotype about the French being snotty about non-French food.

As for T, laisse tomber as the French say. He loves Naija food as much (if not more than) as he loves me haha! Pepper soup, dried fish and prawns, egusi, fried rice, spicy kilishi, ati be be lo, he loves it all. I'm pretty sure that our future home will be full of wonderful Nigerian food, as well as British, German and other countries' cuisines, inasmuch as we do not validate or denigrate any one culture over the others. 

I recently spent time explaining the Nigerian elections to colleagues who saw my Facebook statuses and asked about it. And since my uncle is getting married, I am finally learning about this aspect of my culture and excited to talk about all the rites and different ceremonies to anyone that will listen. I've been explaining the Nigerian(Yoruba) traditional wedding process to Hanna and my MIL who is looking forward to seeing pictures. I even showed people at work pictures of my mum in her traditional outfit. 

The thing is even though I think of myself as a child of two cultures, I celebrate and talk about Nigerian culture more because it is less known here than the British culture, although I often go on about that too. I don't force my culture down anyone's throat, or pretend that every thing about it perfect (no one culture is),  but neither do I hide who I am. Instead, I surround myself with open-minded people who love me and everything about me including the craziness that is my Ondo-Yoruba-Nigeran-West African-British-English-Kentish self.

Do you have a bi-cultural relationship or friendships? How do you share your culture with others?

18 comments:

  1. Culture is an important element, which unfortunately can get blurred in today's society. Knowing where you are from and being proud of that is key, and opens the door to ideas, relationships and so much more. Thanks for sharing that!

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  2. Lmao nigerianising my world since..... So apt I swear! Ich mache das auch weiß du!? Mein ex war italienisch und hatte etwas nigerian gegessen und viele Bücher gelesen wegen mir. Jetzt ist es auch so mit Gorgeousness. Er liest nigerianischen Nachrichten, wir essen gern nigerianisches essen, etwas sehr scharfes auch! Pfeffer Suppe mag es gern! Egusi ist sein lieblingsessen! Wir sowohl nigerianische essen als auch deutsches und zwischen unsere Sitten kann es lustig sein aber das geht gut! Ich finde dein Beitrag sehr sehr toll. Vielen dank!!!!

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    1. Vielen Dank für die Inspiration! Ich hoffe wirklich, dass wir die nächste Generation beibringen werden, stolz auf ihre nigerianischen Erbes zu sein auch.

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    2. Oh nein! Ein Fehler.... Mag er gern nicht es. Entschuldigung!
      Ja, ich hoffe auch so.

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    3. Ich möchte auch nigerianische Gerichte essen :'(

      Xoxo,


      La Deutsche Diva — The Denglisch Blog
      German on top | English on the bottom

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  3. I love this post. My mixed race children have Yoruba Yoruba names. It mattered to me. They don't speak Yoruba and I regret that. But they know where I and they are from. And by the way. I am Ondo too. You have a sis in me . Yvonne. Realyvonneblog

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    1. Hello Ondo Big Sis :)

      Although I don't have kids yet, I get the thing about your children having Yoruba names. Mine will definitely have unusal (and already choosen) beautiful ones too. And as for the language, I know it is easier said than done, seeing as even in my own family, yoruba competency decreases with decreasing sibling position. With all the languages I speak, I realise it might be hard to get my kids speaking yoruba, but I will try. By God I will try my best!

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  4. 2 thumbs up sistah!
    I can feel the pride oozing out from the screen ..ahahhaa.
    I so much like that! Being abroad does not mean, losing one's identity.
    Infact, I realized that the American society encourages you to be you ... the positive side .. I live in an indian / hispanic community. Like, I said in my recent post, my accent is part of my identity. and I practice my beliefs within my home without pushing it onto others ... I have come to respect boundaries. Keep the Nigeria flag flying high!

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    1. Awww thanks Nitty! I've always liked you because I kinda sensed you're also someone who doesn't hide her (culture or identity) under the bushels. I'm sure your American kids haven't forgotten their Nigerian-ness, and I know with you as their mum, they will continue to be proud of their heritage too.

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  5. Lol I agree with Nitty: your pride in your heritage is obvious and it's great! I wrote a blog post about this last year: I think food is the best way to introduce someone to your culture, books are another way that I hadn't thought of. I feel out of touch with many aspects of Ondo and more generally Yoruba culture; I feel like I need to write things down so I can remember it. I've gotten lazy and need to work harder because I care about having a firm grasp of my culture, it's a huge part of my identity.

    Yay—T loves our food! Have you started teaching him how to prepare it?

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    1. Another Ondo big sis! #ondogehsrock :)

      I remember them deciding to teach us Yoruba quite late in primary school and bruhaha that followed over teaching children "vernacular," imagine! However my (revolutionary yoruba teacher) wanted us to be proud of our heritage and told us stories about the Nigerian greats - Jaja of Opobo, Usman Danfodio, Olurombi, Moremi Ajasoro, Efunroye Tinubu etc. I think he was also the first person to explain the significance of Yoruba names to me (I remember Enitan for some reason), and he told stories about the various kingdoms, deities and their festivals, as well as stories from D.O. Fagunwa's books too (which I later read in Yoruba and loved). You see I was just very lucky to have been a curious precocious child who was blessed with my wonderful teacher. He'll unfortunately never know the impact he had on me.

      So I encourage you to use google to educate yourself so you can pass on the culture to your beloved nephew and future children. And honestly you'll be amazed at how fascinating the Ondo/Yoruba/various Nigerian cultures are.

      P.S. T only knows how to eat for now lol!

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  6. **Clears throat... Igbo kwenu! Hia! kwenu! Hiaa!! kwezuonu ohhhh.. Hia! hheheheh It is on days like this that Omolomo will say "nne aYam proudly Igbo biko.." I mean having that i haf a passport that is still a virgin **Crying in Spanish... but has turned ironically to ID card for account verification in Nigerian banks.. i cant say much of how it feels to expose culture to the Onyibo man ehhnn.. But one thing i know for sure is that no matter how we try to suppress our trait.. No matter how many Africans try to colour them selves.. We are who we are and we will always be where we came from... I mean it is who we are and we just cant suppress that.. An Igbo man will always like money and business deals.. A Yoruba someboRRy will always be respectful and caring et al.. An Hausa man will always work as hard as they can... etc...

    Egbon... I soooo love the fact that you ladies are having fun with our Nigeria orishirishi onje in Obodo Onyibo **Wears cheeky smile.. and that you are internationalizing the tribes you represent.. You go geh...

    heheheheh That picSHur above ehhhnn... hehehehe You must haF had plenRRy fun oh! cause yoou look like **in Ben 10's voice.. Play Mode Activated.. :).. Cheers Bubba...

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    1. My dear first of all the picture was from 3yrs ago. I was young and crazy lol!

      And in other news, you don't to be in the obodo to show off ya culture. You already do it, and I see how proud you are to be Ndi Igbo. One of the things I love about Naija is the diversity of our cultures and how there's always something new to learn. I never finish Yoruba culture sef, but na so my ear just dey hear new new ones everyday! I'm like Gbabyi? Wetin be dat? If you guessed an ethnic group you'd be right. So yeah I learn about myself and learn about my country as a whole too.

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  7. Anybody that cant share their culture is insecure. I am a child of many cultures and i try hard to find that balance.

    www.pynk360.com

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    1. These days, everyone has some sort of cultural multiplicity going on, some more than others of course. The trick of course is finding that balance as you say. I just really hope my poor future mish-mash children also manage to find the right cultural equilibrium.

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  8. I'm a product of two tribes as my mum is igbo and my dad egun. The best they did was give us names in both languages but I never heard my dad especially speak egun to us even though my mum spoke igbo once in a blue moon and the worse part of it was school didn't encourage speaking of vernacular with the speak yoruba and pay 10 naira ish so I was stupidly basking in the fact that my English was polished while my mother tongue suffered. Oh my!
    When I got into the university in the West then it hit me real bad as it was so bad I couldn't buy things from the market and it was even worse because in Abeokuta, they speak egba so I was left with no choice than to learn. I speak yoruba and hausa quite well but igbo? I understand a little.
    As for the food, I'm not adventurous with food naturally, I don't eat somethings not because they were not served at home or because we were given a choice but because I don't like the taste or I react to them.

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  9. I guess my bicultural relationship would be the US and Germany. I would never be ashamed to be American but there are instances where I've felt more comfortable not identifying as American just because it's so inconvenient. It's like people assume I'm African and then when I say I'm American I get a different response. It's like so you were treating me differently before? What's the big deal now? Idk I think one should always be proud of who they are but sometimes I wish it wasn't even a question.... But since my German isn't native fluency it will always be a question (where I'm from and everything that goes with it).

    I feel lucky to be Of the African diaspora. I feel like we [black people in the US] have a culture all our own that I can educate others on (soul food, music, language, arts, etc). In that aspect I almost feel like I come from a different country. I truly like that.

    Xoxo,


    La Deutsche Diva — The Denglisch Blog
    German on top | English on the bottom

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