Pride

I just spent my lunch break (well, part of it anyway) at a presentation of a trip a music class took this semester to Ghana to study culture and music. Apparently, Ghana is THE place in Africa where a lot of American music has gotten a lot of it's influence.

So I walk in the library parlor and see a bunch of white kids and their white teacher in traditional African dress. I am not being racist (says every racist BEFORE they say something racist. But that is truly not my intent) I just thought the contrast was a bit funny and giggled
to myself a bit as I walked in. As an African, I suppose I can be oversensitive to non-Africans talking about my continent. Call it what you will, I apologize if that makes me ethnocentric but I just automatically do that.

So I had my mind made up that they were going to talk about a load of bollucks, for lack of a better word. I was prepared for a lot of silly, over- or even under- exaggerated information on things no one cares about or to reinforce stereotypical ideas. But I was open enough to hear him out and have an open mind about it and try and beat my rogue thoughts into submission. And it's not so much the race thing as it was the foreigner thing. I feel a bit iffy whenever any foreigner tells his or her fellow foreigners about a far off country as if that one or six months they spent there taught them everything they need to know about a place. Thats just me.

But I was pleasantly surprised. Music truly is soul enchanting. Once those students began playing and the African rhythm came through I was seeing scenes of home flashing in my head and I was rather embarrassed that at some point I got slightly teary-eyed.

The music really touched me and it was through the music and not the lecture or the pictures, that I really understood what these people learned on their trip. They learned the beat of African culture and they learned the rhythm of the people. I realize that sounds horrid and corny but I really had respect for them and all they learned.

One thing that stuck out to me was the value of always knowing where you came from that is really important to Ghanaians. Sankofa is the name of the symbol I have up there and it really means "Go back and fetch it." I was really intrigued by that and it reinforced just how embedded my culture is in my life and how, despite the strange accents shifts and the Americanization in progress, I will always be African.

So it seems I had a life affirming moment at lunch today. Cheesy, but I enjoyed it. Well done to the band though, they were remarkable musicians and I have much respect for them.