I cast my mind back to primary school days when I think of the first time someone asked me “why do you act white?” or “what is with the accent?”, or any number of variations on the accusation.
Over the years, I learned not to take people who choose to harp on about the way I enunciate or the expressions I use to make myself clear very seriously- they are not the people I’m talking to. Still, it was annoying.
Even through high school, and at varsity, I still had to answer the same question, or find myself stumbling around in the debate of “what is white, and what is black?”, for fear of picking the “wrong” side, or teetering off the edge of my doubt.
Unfortunately, other people’s opinions will always be a part of how we negotiate, form and re-create our identities. It’s up to us to decide where “they” stops, and “I” begins.
I found this video on Miss Milli World, and I love it.
“…my expression was the bastard child of Pissed Off and Pity’s brief sexual encounter”
There are so many sharp, brilliant lines in this poem, that made me think. That’s what I look for in any performance art piece, and Maya is even more of a winner because she used some XiTsonga (or Shangaan, depending on which side of the historical debate you’re coming from) lines, and she’s my age.
Wisdom, intelligence, confidence, and knowledge of self in one powerful, young package. What the world needs.
Nkhensani Manabe 