To be African, or not to be African: that is the question.

Zacharie Daniels, one of my colleagues said to me, so if you do not want to identify as a black or African American but as a Nigerian American, not because you despise the race but because you do not want to leave behind your culture and values, that does not mean you are racist right? That just means you are culturist? It is so sad that as more Africans are migrating to the United States, questions surrounding black identity are becoming more complex.

Yes, we were warned not to socialize with African Americans on getting into the United States which is why our parents, first or second generation Africans who are migrated into the united states, tend to be overtly judgemental and stereotypic about the “African American culture/ways.” I have often warned my parents to look at the true colours of people in order to detect the kind of people they are as opposed to hastily generalizing their characters and placing it under the umbrella of a popular stereotype of the group as a whole. Black Identity should not be complex if Africans are not being forced into embracing a rigid African American identity that is based only on the values and experiences of one ethnic group. Like Msia Kibona Clark said “If successive generations of African immigrants are to become African Americans, as some scholars suggest, then either the definition of what it means to be African American must change, or a new term must emerge that reflect the experiences of those Black Americans or recent African descent ”

People often confuse what it means to be an “African American” and what it means to be a “Black American(a person who was relocated to America, but was born in Africa - recent African descent)” with each other. I spent the critical developmental stages of my life in Nigeria, Africa therefore, I am deeply immersed into the culture of my ethnic group, the Yoruba culture, my tribe, as opposed to young Nigerians who relocated here at a very young and tender age and are becoming Americanized based on uncontrollable factors such as growth and development in relation to their environment. So to answer Mr. Daniels’ question/statement: Yes, I might be a “CULTURIST,” but I am as well just like every other African Immigrant in the United States struggling in pursuit of the preservation of their cultural backgrounds.

Apart from the fact that there is pressure from first-generation Africans for their children to retain their African Identities, I claim to be a Nigerian American - of which I didn’t know the term was actually already in existence until I read Msia Kibona Clark’s “Questions Of Identity Among African Immigrants In America” - rather than an African American because there is a huge difference. I do not feel like I am qualified or opportuned to share in the history. The fact that the ancestors of African Americans in today’s America were forcefully migrated through slave trade is understandable, but it still doesn’t make them a pure “African”.

As a child, I was growing up amidst culture, language and values, all of which are the constituents to what shapes me into who I am today. And those are not things I want to leave behind, those are things I want to carry with me till my death day; things I want to pass on to my forthcoming generation. In Taiye Selasi’s words, Nigeria, Africa is where I am a local; The United States of America is where African Americans are locals. African Americans have roots, unfortunately, these roots are unknown to them which is what marks the difference.