August, 2010

Self — 9 Comments
23
Aug 10

Return to Zamunda.

 

lagos 

Photo credit

In less than 20 hours, I will be back  to my dear country Nigeria. It will be one month short of two years since I left home. Well, sort of.. I left from the intern house (the Nigerian version of the Apprentice).

What has really surprised me this period is the response I have got from people when I said I was going home. It was all “.. Finally?” “.. Are you going for good?” with a look of pity on their faces. Well, I am not going finally and it is for good.  My dream has always to get the Nigerian startup scene integrated with the global startup ecosystem and being away from Nigeria for 2 years is not the best way to go about it. I am going back home before I loose touch of my roots. I will be home for a while.

I am really looking forward to meeting all the dudes running the start up scene there. Loy, Sherriff, Mayowa, Seyi and co.  Looking forward to getting Nigerian Internet Entrepreneurs off the ground. Most of all  I am looking forward to having a cold bottle of star  this evening with my cousin and mentor Namo.

Being away for so long has made me long for a lot of things. Gala, pure water, Akamu, Fufu, but most of all

I’ve missed…

  1. Sincerity: People smiling at you only when they mean it.
  2. Community: Knowing the name of your neighbours after 6 months of  sharing a corridor.

…But Dear God

  1. Let there be light. Not “I pass my neighbour”, not UPS (The only UPS known here is the United Parcel Service)
  2. Let the Internet be fast. I have not seen “buffering..” in two years. I cannot survive without the internet, period.

I have one fear though

I do not have a Blackberry, will I be allowed to enter the country? Will I be regarded as a true citizen?

Anyhow,  Lagos, wey you? Lets go!*

*After sorting out this 30 kg overload :(

Self — 9 Comments
7
Aug 10

When I Was Called A ‘Racist Term’

I was called a nigger. I was about to cross the road near my home in Digbeth, Birmingham when the white lad yelled  the  ‘racist term’ and zoomed off in his car. For a few seconds, I did not know what to make of it so I did the peace sign then continued my walk home. I am confused about what to make of it since I do not now in what context he said it. I am definitely not angry.

At the TEDx conference in Warwick last year I was speaking to a Pakistani man who was eating bananas and he said something like “have one, you will/must like it”. I looked at him deciding whether I should accept the offer. I do not know what he saw in my face but he immediately said “I did not mean it like that, I was just asking….I meant….   he started babbling. I smiled and immediately understood where he was coming from.  I think it was about the time Prince Charles was called racist for calling his friend Sooty; so he must have been trying to be extra cautious. We went on and discussed it all.

Back to what happened today. Can words alone be racist?

In the intro of this post, I consciously put racist term in quotation marks because I truly believe intentions and actions not words are racist. Rappers use the word nigger all the time in songs and I find it hilarious when I see my white friends miming 50 Cents and mumble anytime the word Nigger comes up. Are they racist?

I  could actually consider inaction racist. For example, if the Pakistani man thought it would be better not to offer me a banana because I might take it to mean something else. Therefore he would have made a decision based on my colour.

But then again, it would have been a decision made in good faith.

If a black man yelled nigger at me, would I have even written this blog post? Of course not.

So am I being racist?

Some things are just fucking confusing. I’ll just define racism as an action taken in bad faith based on a persons colour.

PS: Forgive my mumble jumble post. I thought rather than talk to myself, I should just blog about it.