Ethnicity and the Illusion of Identity around the Globe

 

 

 

 

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Me: "Tom, what is your mother tongue? what part of Kenya are you from?
how do you define yourself inside Kenya?
m


Tom Sewe: "I speak Luo, so I'm Luo. Kenya is sharply divided along ethnic fault lines, and there are 48 of them. Luos occupy the whole western region surrounding Lake Victoria- that's where we trace our roots, but my family and I stay in Nairobi. Oh,might I add Obama is Luo, and I went through the same schools as his father :)) Is it the same in T&T"

Me: "no no no but yes
our country is mixed, of ethnic groups very differently defined than how africans define ethnically. meaning, you all are all africans, but of different ethnic groups

we here are all human, but different ethnic groups of african, east indian, native indian, europeans (spanish, scottish, english, irish, portuguese), Chinese, Latin Americans( Venezuelans-- who my maternal grandmother was) and the significance of that is any genetic assessment of me is the same as her a white/light skinned colored straight/curly hair spanish speaking woman, when i look more like you than her

then there are a big and common part of the population who are mixed --I am african, spanish, chinese, east indian, native indian, and scottish)

it is peculiar and twisted,. this whole thing of identifying our specie, in the myriad parts of the globe"

 

 

Tom Sewe:

wow, ur all in one.. incidentally, i came across today's The Sun paper, you'll find the account interesting. i couldn't calculate the genetic probability of such a heritage by the mendelian pedigree charts taught in schools- but fact is it happened. check out this link..

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3060907/Black-parents-give-birth-to-white-baby.html

how can i know nothing about kikuyu's?? really?? u might not believe that in kenya, a stranger's one sentence is enough to know his/her tribe, geographically rightful origin, mindset, and much more- and from there decide whether u can trust him or not, offer a job, admit to ur school, or even associate with. Luos and kikuyus are like light and dark, cannot totally co-exist.. one annihilates the other or both perish :)) all politics aside, that's basically what happened in the 2007 post-election civil violence.

Say, haven't you got anything to do with Nigeria at all, in ur line??

me:
wow. yes. I saw that link
and  i find it intriguing. nothing more or intelligent can be said without know the literal and mapped bloodlines and genes of both parents. what ever it is that made the phenotype we see, both parents had the recessive. it is also amazing because that child proves something most African/Black American genticist know...that Africans can make white people/ white people cannot make Black/ africans. it also proves to the unity and oneness of us all;' difference, no matter how we label it, is an illusion

i remember the Kenyan 2007 election but the group name Luos never stuck with me. it is sad, the level of division


ps.
i await and as time goes by know the requirement for me to take a dna genetic test soon....i want to know who/which people from alkebulan i belong to...whether Nigeria, or Senegal, or points in between.

it is not a given. the whole western coast of africa, were sent slaves