shereen @urfavsfavfav - Tumblr Blog

whats-good-blog-deactivated2018

on jane the virgin and immigrant girlwoman isms

when i was eight years old, my mother’s baby sister moved to toronto from batti, our hometown in ethiopia. i remember the day vividly; my dress was fluffy, sparkly, and salmon-pink. in the stroller i pushed was my little cousin, now almost a fully grown man, squirming and crying in regular intervals. my mother and siblings raced through the airport, roses in hand, ensuring that everything was on time.

my aunt, though, has a different recollection. she laughs as she tells me the first words of her then-youngest niece, only six years old at the time. the statement was two words long: NO ENGLISH?

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whats-good-blog-deactivated2018

an east african thot's thoughts on mississippi masala

the long history of south asians in east africa is not one brought about by colonialism; their presence is not new, nor is it necessarily foreign in the way whiteness is in the region. the indian ocean stretching out along the coast of somalia, kenya, tanzania and mozambique had cemented a trading relationship leading to groups settling alongside our coasts and mixing and creating new dialects, fusing cultures along the way. globalisation had existed in these coasts long before western jargon had found the words to articulate this movement. gujarati and hindi found their way into somali and swahili vernacular alongside arabic linguistic influence. our languages, food, cultures often serve as reminders unto ourselves of our intersecting histories, however, this supposed blissful time was complicated by british colonialism, when tens of thousands of south asians were brought to east africa to build the railways.

my grandmother’s phone cards were spent speaking to family who had relocated to various countries along the coast. my relatives sprawled from somalia, kenya and tanzania. as an east african diasporic woman, my family and friends living in the coast gave and continue to offer me me slices of home through long distance calls about the ongoing local matters including the never-ending politics (which i usually found no interest in), who got married and the gossip that ensued, complaints about economy as well the tensions between an understood us and them.

Keep reading

whats-good-blog-deactivated2018

an east african thot's thoughts on mississippi masala

the long history of south asians in east africa is not one brought about by colonialism; their presence is not new, nor is it necessarily foreign in the way whiteness is in the region. the indian ocean stretching out along the coast of somalia, kenya, tanzania and mozambique had cemented a trading relationship leading to groups settling alongside our coasts and mixing and creating new dialects, fusing cultures along the way. globalisation had existed in these coasts long before western jargon had found the words to articulate this movement. gujarati and hindi found their way into somali and swahili vernacular alongside arabic linguistic influence. our languages, food, cultures often serve as reminders unto ourselves of our intersecting histories, however, this supposed blissful time was complicated by british colonialism, when tens of thousands of south asians were brought to east africa to build the railways.

my grandmother’s phone cards were spent speaking to family who had relocated to various countries along the coast. my relatives sprawled from somalia, kenya and tanzania. as an east african diasporic woman, my family and friends living in the coast gave and continue to offer me me slices of home through long distance calls about the ongoing local matters including the never-ending politics (which i usually found no interest in), who got married and the gossip that ensued, complaints about economy as well the tensions between an understood us and them.

Keep reading

whats-good-blog-deactivated2018

an east african thot's thoughts on mississippi masala

the long history of south asians in east africa is not one brought about by colonialism; their presence is not new, nor is it necessarily foreign in the way whiteness is in the region. the indian ocean stretching out along the coast of somalia, kenya, tanzania and mozambique had cemented a trading relationship leading to groups settling alongside our coasts and mixing and creating new dialects, fusing cultures along the way. globalisation had existed in these coasts long before western jargon had found the words to articulate this movement. gujarati and hindi found their way into somali and swahili vernacular alongside arabic linguistic influence. our languages, food, cultures often serve as reminders unto ourselves of our intersecting histories, however, this supposed blissful time was complicated by british colonialism, when tens of thousands of south asians were brought to east africa to build the railways.

my grandmother’s phone cards were spent speaking to family who had relocated to various countries along the coast. my relatives sprawled from somalia, kenya and tanzania. as an east african diasporic woman, my family and friends living in the coast gave and continue to offer me me slices of home through long distance calls about the ongoing local matters including the never-ending politics (which i usually found no interest in), who got married and the gossip that ensued, complaints about economy as well the tensions between an understood us and them.

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🚨 I did a thing for whatsgood™ 🚨

ayyyyyy lmao I wrote a really cool & emotionally taxing piece on colonial trauma, my grandmother & somalia and immigrant communities + trauma for rookie http://www.rookiemag.com/2016/01/diaspora-trauma/