The Obama syndrome
As you will probably
know, the American President Barak Obama was born to a Muslim, then Christian,
then Atheist African man, and a Christian, then Secular European woman.
His mother raised him along
with his stepfather, an Indonesian Muslim man, and he shares blood with a half
Indonesian Buddhist sister.
He was born in Hawaii,
and for a while lived in Indonesia and later became known as the first African
American president.
Obama is not only the
first African American president… he is the first president to truly represent most
of America and this is not just because of his DNA.
Although he has roots
in Europe, Africa and America, his upbringing means he has roots in Asia too.
This is why I refer to people
who are very mixed in their cultural understandings of life as having the
‘Obama Syndrome’.
It is no doubt a social
advantage, you understand deeply people from completely different backgrounds
natively. You simply get it. Sometimes you stop people from arguing due to
subtle misunderstandings which are so easy for you to spot, other times you
watch them, to see if eventually they will figure it out themselves (or purely
for your entertainment.)
As a person who comes
from many places (as deemed by the world I live in) I was confused for the
better half of my childhood and young adulthood.
I was born in
Saudi...according to some that makes me Saudi, my parents are Sudanese,
according to others that makes me Sudanese, I went back to Sudan at the age of
4 and stayed here until I was 7, then moved to England and stayed there until I
was an adult - so many people identify me as British.
Your nationality is
much like your name, it's given to you by the world (other people) but unlike
my name, everyone was divided about who and what I was, and as a result, I deeply
struggled with displacement.
We live in a highly
political world, and the irony is that most people who say ‘I don’t care about/understand
politics’ or ‘I don’t see colour’ are actually unaware that they are living a
luxury which really means, politics and race are on my side, so I don't need to
think about them.
If identity was
something people just had, like their eye colour it wouldn't be a problem, but
it is not. People often quiz you to find out your 'allegiance' - are you them? or
are you us?
I remember very well sitting
with some English friends who were bickering about the Polish coming in ‘to our
country’ and taking ‘our jobs’. We grew up together and I guess they saw me as
English too, but I felt a strange irony.
For the most part, I
felt that I was Sudanese. I looked Sudanese, my parents spoke to me in Arabic I
enjoyed thoroughly our annual summer holidays in Sudan. Walking down the street
in Sudan no one would ever know that I wasn’t born and raised in Sudan. I loved
Sudan, my parents told me amazing stories about how they grew up here and how
much they missed it.
When I moved from our
small town in South-East England to London to attend university, I realized
something different. People here were very different, they were busy all the
time, they didn’t really care who you were or what you were doing, they got
very angry when someone trying to commit suicide caused their train to be
delayed; they didn’t thank bus drivers at the end of their journeys, and bus
drivers didn’t stop for them unless they waved… it took me a while to get used
to this. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but this was the first time my
behaviour branded me British, from the South-East.
After that I moved to
Sudan in 2012… and things started to change, I realized that speaking the
language was not the same as speaking the culture. I had no clue about the
customs and values
, I didn't understand social cues as well as I thought I did
and I realized that the idea I had in my head of what Sudan was like was just
that – an idea in my head. What was most shocking perhaps was my utter refusal
to abandon my British values, values I didn't even know I had.
I began to understand
people, what they mean, how they act, but I refused to change – its not that I
couldn't, I wouldn't. I refused to
adopt any customs bad or good because I felt like a fraud. I knew it wasn’t
really me.
As you can imagine,
life became very confusing, you look like one thing but feel like another. It’s
almost like being adopted – you know they are not your biological parents, but
really, they are. I decided to look into my roots and try to understand the
concept of countries, races and ethnicities from within – there had to be
something that could extinguish this exhausting anguish.
Soon after I began researching African and Islamic history, I came across things that challenged strong
concepts we have, and are raised with. Perhaps the most prominent discovery was
when I realized no race was a ‘pure race’ as at some point we’ve all mixed,
even those claiming to be indigenous. When we look back in history, it is clear
that human beings are wonderers, in search of food and shelter. Food and
shelter comes in the form of land, whoever finds that land, stays there – until
another group militarily superior overthrows and enslaves or massacres them.
This basically means that ‘looking a certain way’ doesn't make anyone more or
less belonging to a land, it just shows how powerful you are in your ability to
stay there.
Take America for
example, White Americans are the majority – the land belonged to a complete
civilization before them, but due to being militarily superior, they massacred
them and now the land belongs to them. Take Sudan, in ancient Nubian times, the
Assyrians came (they discovered iron) and massacred the Nubians and claimed
themselves the kings of Nubia and Egypt. And now, the people who live here no
doubt have a mixed heritage of Assyrian, Nubian, Egyptian and later on Arab
blood. Just as civilizations wondered, nowadays, immigration means that my
parents were able to move to a new land, as the land they grew up in could no
longer serve them.
And so, in the same way
that an adopted child has roots that connect them to their biological parents
(particularly if the parent wished, but couldn't take care of them) I have
roots here in Sudan. But the fact still remains, it was Britain that took care
of me, it was Britain that watched me grow.
As a person of mixed
cultural origin, I will tell you this – our understanding of others is
profoundly deeper than those who are not mixed. I know Sudan very well, because
looking Sudanese, allows me to see other sides of this place. I know Britain even
better, not because I’m British, but because I grew up there. Britain is the
country with the values I believe in, but that doesn't mean I don't understand
well and respect Sudanese values.
In the same way, President
Obama is an American and understands American values and believes in them.
However he understands many other values too - This is why he is loved by many,
because he knows how to speak to all of us.
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