By Ariik Atekdit – Wau, South Sudan
Tuesday, February 26, 2019 (PW) — If my name is John and I speak English language so fluently and I put on English gentleman’s suit in the village and refuse to sit on my African traditional mat or skin then I am culturally invaded.
If I claim to have forgotten my mother tongue because of my 10 years in town, then I am culturally lost.
And again if I support all sport teams and clubs in foreign lands in the West, all against my African ones. If I can memorize dozens of western clubs and their players when I can’t know, how many clubs are in my country or could I remember one name of my national best players, then I am made to hate my values.
If I buy all sports clothes from the European teams and with faces of their players on. What is it that will show in me that I am an African?
If I only argue much on the so-called international politics and care less about my home country’s politics and concerns then there is no reason why one day I should beat my chest for pride.
If I hate my countrymen for their tribes at the neighborhood but love and trust the Whites from the distances for their race then I am inhuman.
If indeed that I have turned down everything and claim that Africans are godless peoples who have no religion, then what is it that I am doing? I am attacking God for having created me as African. And if my people pray to Nhialic, why do you think that they are Godless?
If indeed that I have rejected my grandfather in the village never to sprinkle water on me in his spiritual traditional calabash because he is happy for my safe arrival from a long distance then I don’t even know God for real.
If I have claimed that my grandfather is satanic for having offered a white ram for sacrifices to God because He has just made me returned to the village safely after my 7 years in school or any other national service then there must be something wrong in me.
If indeed, I have been giving my speeches in English language observing that I should not include my mother tongue; what is it that makes me talk to my old parents in English language when I very well know that they have never gone to school?
If we can’t change our mentality about the world & ourselves then we are slaves still. Our psychology is affected. Why would you blindly believe that Satan is black?
You can the author via his email: Atekdit Mawien <ariqdudic@gmail.com>