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I will not bore you with statistical research, but one thing is for sure; the last two decades have seen an unprecedented number of Africans immigrate to the USA, Canada, Europe and Australia. A good number is slowly settling in the UAE, China, Japan, Russia and South America. A large proportion of these African immigrants do so in search of education and others for greener pastures, already highly educated from their countries of origin.
One other thing is that a significant number of the immigrants are young people or young families. Once settled in their new cultures, they do what is necessary; those without families court each other, get married and start families.
Even as the new immigrants face their unique challenges as “invisible immigrants,†their children face an even tougher challenge.Where do the children belong; their parents culture or the new culture they grow up in?
They attend local schools where they find, like in the case of the USA, that the society they live in is a “tossed salad,†where people of all colors, races, creed, and regions have created a seamless co-existence. The children find themselves as minorities among minorities, more invisible than their parents.
They soon realize that they fall under the amorphous tag of “African Americans.†But wait, there lies the issue. There are “True†African Americans; you know them- Chris Rock, Ice-T, Tryvon Martin, Malia Obama-you get the gist. Our Kenyan-American children do not fall into this category.
Their names sound different, like Joe Mark Kamau, or Alice Nasieku. Their parents love chai, muthokoi, githeri, ugali, chapatti, kienyeji, and uji while their dads adore nyama choma. Their friends at school prefer pizza, burgers, hot dogs, and mac-n-cheese. How do you tell your grade four desk mate that last night you had Ugali na sukuma wiki without sounding crazy?
Their parents love watching Paul Mwai, Loise Kim, Emma Kosgei, Jimmi Gait, Nonini, Nameless and Wahu on You Tube. For the children; Rihanna, Bruno Mars, Jay-Z and Beyonce will do.
By high school they realize that their African American peers do not like them. They are not American enough. Their white peers prefer them because most of them are mellow, likeable actually. They are not brash like their black colleagues. So you see their identity is under the society’s microscope every day.
While they know they are different from other black Americans, this ethnic difference is not obvious to other people they encounter. It is only when people look closely at how they walk and talk that they realize they are not like other black Americans.
Most often they have lost their parents’ accents but have not yet adapted the African American slang. What a dilemma? And you know sometimes you need to check a box when filling some forms to indicate whether you are white, Hispanic or Black American. How do you speak when you are with “real†black American friends and then you have white friends to deal with.
Talk of language multitasking-code switching the same language- if there is something like that.
What if your parent find you with a group of your friends and start chatting you up in Swahili, Kiembu, or Kimaasai? As a teen, you would pray that the earth opens up and swallow you that moment.
Most first generation African immigrants’ children are very well educated, according to research. This has been attributed to their parents themselves being educated or having been brought up to respect good educational papers.
Both mom and dad, even though busy with two or three jobs, are by any standards doing very well financially.
Back in Kenya, they send a combined Ksh. 70 billion per annum. They are some of the ones building those shiny apartments in Thindigua, Kitengela and along Thika Road. But for whom are they building them? As they get busy negotiating for “plots†in Shanzu, Syokimau, and Kisaju, their children are busy joining American colleges and universities, and believe you me, they are doing very well in school.
Soon they will graduate, Samna-cum laude. They will start building their own careers. They will soon start their own families, they will settle in middle class suburbs. They will not buy land in Shanzu, Kitengela and Kisaju. They will not cook for their children chai, ugali, githeri and kienyeji. They will not understand a word of their mother tongue. Their “Kenyan-ness†will have long dissipated.
Their parents will be retirees. Maybe the parents will have long relocated back to their shiny apartments in Thindigua, Kitengela and along Thika Road.
Who will inherit their daily farms, their matatus, and their shiny apartments? Definitely not a fully accultulated American citizen busy building a life very far from Miti Mingi or Mwisho Wa Lami.
You see for these children, Kenya is the place where mom and dad came from, not where they themselves will go back to. They are here to stay. They may not be Americans, they are not African Americans, but when they visit Africa, they realize how American they are.
By Peter Gaitho | babaashley2@gmail.com
Comments
I actually agree with you. Am what you are referring to the 'wazee' but I do have children of my own and what I have observed is that your children are only as well adjusted as their parents are. If their parents are caught up in this utopia way of thinking that one day they will go "back home" then of course they are psychologically at limbo.
But if parents are well adjusted and living their " reality" then they will have an equal opportunity as other immigrants kids in the US to excel and making relationships as they wish. What I do with my kids is expose them as much as I can to their life as Americans and do the American thing and I have realized by doing that they revognize how lucky they are to so diverse from their peers and they like talking about their Kenyan and African heritage. But if all you do is this Kenyan in America life, it reinforces their difference and that's what creates their shame and almost recentment of their Kenyan African heritage.
@Njugush, I agree with you and excellent comments! I especially like the part about being at home "within the racial diversity of America as well as tribal diversity of Kenya". Very smart words. You sound like the type of young man we would like our kids to grow up to be! The wazees will always look back, we needed to hear from one of you!
I thought I was Kenyan till I visited Kenya. I realized that whatever I am is not Kenyan.
First off, people somehow know you're not a 'local' I didn't get it. I wore beat up clothes n flip flops thinking I would go unnoticed. WRONG! I stood out like a sore thump everywhere I went. And if you wondering, yes, I speak perfect Kiswahili and sheng too! I avoided speaking English because of my American accent. OMG I was soo different! The way I think, act, my prefrences...and the Kenyans wasted no time making me feel like a foreigner. My family included.
I love the good food though!!!!!!
I have a 3 year old. Except her name, she is the all American girl. I agree with the basic premise in this article. Whatever we are, whatever our children are, its not Kenyan. Either we redefine Kenyan to include us or accept that we are American or Kenyan American if you prefer.
I am also one of the "wazee" referred to here. I confess, I am a plot buyer and one day aspire to be an owner of said "shiny flats". I am also a parent of what I consider multi-cultural children. I have tried to take or send my kids to Kenya regularly so that it would not be too alien for them. It can be challenging to teach them our culture when they are bombarded by another more dominant one. I cook Kenyan food and listen to a lot of Kenyan and African music, watch Churchill on Youtube and all that other stuff the author talks about. But there's nothing like really being in Kenya. Believe me, much as the kids are American, they relish their visits and are quite unfazed by lighting jikos or taking a "mat" alone for example. The younger one always looks forward to the endless playing with cousins and kids in the estate. And just like for me as a kid, shags is both an adventure and a pain. And it get expensive, but in my opinion, you pick your priorities, and I really wanted my kids to have some understanding of the culture by spending time there.
I am painfully aware that my kids may settle here or elsewhere overseas, but one can always hope you know - maybe they'll choose to live in Kenya, who knows?!! Since I don't see myself wasting away in some nursing home here, at least the idea of visiting me will not be to strange for them because theyve had no connection with the country. If they decide they don't want to live there, that's OK - it's not like I can change that - and those plots I invested in can always be resold. After all, it's an investment with a (currently) very high return and ultimately, I'm stil providing for them, just like I've always tried to do.
But @LisaK - not sure why being Kenyan would be a thing of shame. Pride in your cultural heritage does not preclude success, you know.
I actually agree with the authour but at some points no especially when it come to food.It is one world...same food ingredients but diffrent names depending with culture.Ugali is from white corn while it is reffered as POLENTA by the Hispanic and it is typically from yellow corn.Americans eat githeri but they call the mix SUCCOTASH.Sukumawiki is collard greens and it is so popular with African American while the Americans preffer Swiss chard which is from the same family.chapati are as well compared to Tortilla and Uji is basically the same thing as oatmeal which Americans love for breakfast...the list continues..
One becomes a parent coz she or he chooses to. When it comes to how one brings the.. children it all differs and am a strong believer of culture is progressive not static. When it comes to food all what they call "super foods" was the.. when we were growing up. What the mzungu did was try to act like they invented all what people puti the... mouts nowadays, hiyo yote ni uongo. Just to make it simple ask your great grandparents, grandparents or any senior you know of. I got a chance of learning alot from mine and it is all that matters.
@ Maina and AtienoG i APPLAUD YOU FOR YOUR COMMENTS
I am really afraid. I have bought plot in Mwisho wa lami and will relocate soon with my children. America we shall visit from time to time on vacation.. Thanks to the aouthor for reminding us what odes seem obvious to many. Lakini life is all about choices.
There are approximately 3 million africans from different countries in the US with Nigeria leading,followed by Ethiopia and Egypt.There are 50+ countries in Africa with a population of at least 1 billion.The number of Afrians in the US and other non-african countries is insignificant.Being too worried about the descendants of the african diaspora is a waste of time.Wherever humans go they will have sex upende usipende;that is how wangoso ended up populating US,CANADA and AUSTRALIA kwa vigumu na makei.Therefore nature will take its course in the case of children born in the diaspora;and for their parents home will always be best because without the Kenyan education they would be nowhere in America;last time i checked Minorities in the US were lagging behind in all indicators;just check the public schools!
My child who visits often Kenya with me , loves Kenya and USA equally . Actually want to study in Kenya when she gets to high school . So It depends really , on how you integrate them.
A good conversation...just goes to show how families can be different...and how our choices can be diverse. The only thing I found not making sense is talk of 'shame'....any shame associated with Kenya. Why would anyone, a child or parent alike, have even an iota of shame about Kenya...their roots. Now that I have lived in the US and visited a few other countries, I proudly say that the best of them all is Kenya, for me.
Africa American or anything American should actually be assigned immigrants after they are naturalized into America or any receiving country. That's the long and short of it. Anyone born in that country is (American, British, Irish, Chinese ....Kenyan). I add Kenyan because there are foreigners who are naturalized into Kenya and their kids assume Kenyan citizenship. Patriotism of the parents to their motherland clouds a lot of people into carrying, sometimes heavy guilt riddled, notions that their kids should assume the parents nationality (automatically). I believe this should at will once a child is 18 years in most countries. Furthermore, I believe the tagging (whatever)American, especially, is erroneously placed on descendant, generations later, who have never even visited (Africa, Ireland, Russia, China, Japan ...). The idea, then, that Kenyan kids born on foreign grounds may never or will never be Kenyan as the heading indicated is a bit presumptuous. The kids have a right to choose what sovereign they would swear allegiance to.
Just my two cents on the dialogue. Good read all the same.
I agree with the author asilimia mia moja. Its just as he wrote it. As a writer myself, and the best thing about this article is that, he does not write it with any malicious intent. And he seems to have been long enough in the US to have written a perfect analysis of the many challenges our children, and we adults face as foreigners. And all suffer equally. One thing I didn't let go off me for all those years was who I was: retained my deep ascent, my jungle appearance,ate Kenyan food in the breakroom, talked about snakes and other wild animals with pride, and how we slaughter chicken and goats for our food. And I stuck to that throughout my sojourn in the US. I was a loner at work and in my neighborhood, always seeing another better black man who never did drugs and kept to himself....hakuna matata. At work, they thought I was not better than themselves (blacks), yet I trained them how to operate computerized/automated equipments/machineries even though my first experince with a computer was at the MVA, where I crashed the whole system while applying for something. But I learnt that the worst you could do in the US is try to talk like them. Yuo make it even worse for them to understand you. The only time they could perfectly understand me clearly was when they had a problem at their work station. The rest of the time was ....."Whats that," "I can't understand you," "What the hell is tha," etc. But for us adults its different. But our kids, who speaks exactly like them, but with a funny last name, is hurting, and it doesn't go well with them.
Good comentary. My friend who has been in these United States for a number of years and has substantial investments back home told me the other day that he has made it a point to educate his children about investment. He tells them that there is local investmnt and international investment.
Since he has rental houses in Mlolongo, he has trained his two sons and daughter that the income from the rentals is part of the family's international investment. My friend operates a Diaspora account with Co-op bank. The family can therefore trace the growth of the international investment from their home in the USA.
This has made the children own the projects their dad has established back home. In that way, the children sometimes find land for sale through Kenyan websites and encourage their dad to buy the land. With Nairobi growing faster than anywhere else, the return for investment will never go south. Imagine land in Jamhuri doubles in price in two to three years!
Where else will you grow your nest egg faster? If the children will get financial training, they will get to love Kenya. Therefore, the said investments will not go to waste when daddy and mom are no longer in the picture.
A child of two worlds. It is priceless to have this alternative; and that's among the benefits accruing to our children born outside Kenya. If the grass is greener in Kenya, they can go and live there, or otherwise stay put in whichever country they reside. Black, Brown and White Americans lack this choice.
Very interesting and a true reflection of immigrants parenting/parents. My wife and i both Kenyans/ Canadians we have 3 kids all Americans. When it comes to nationality my kids do not mince words, 1st Americans, 2. Canadians 3.Kenyan. My wife and appreciate the fact that they acknowledge the idea of world citizenship. Welcome to the world of ALL.
Enyewe. True.
Interesting article....As one of the "Kenyan-Americans" spoken of I find some of it accurate and some of it VERY off.....I can tell it was not "one of us" who wrote it. It is clearly wazee perspective. In particular I find the following ridiculous:
"By high school they realize that their African American peers do not like them. They are not American enough. Their white peers prefer them because most of them are mellow, likeable actually."
This is completely stereotypical and nowhere resembles the experience of many of us. We can be both "Kenyan" and "Black" without any contradiction. And FYI our fellow African Americans love us. We do not have the chasm separating us from "others" that our parents and older brothers and sisters have. We are as at home in the racial diversity of America as you are in the tribal diversity of Kenya. I can explain to my Mexican-American, Vietnamese-American and African-American friends what ugali is easily. The idea that it is some alien concept to have an ethnicity in this country is poppy cock and no one who actually grew up here as a Kenyan-American would buy it......
next time get more input from vijana before u write about us. We are far more open than u may think. This article does us no justice!