Alluring
Sayonara
NOTE: It’s a long and serious read.
We have all seen an influx of two varying opposite belief systems, we have the BLM supporters who have victimized themselves in everyway possible, we also have the ana arab coons who look down upon others from a false sense of superiority and relation.
But, no one really looks at the cause. It’s because these youth are misguided and culturally aliterate. It is not enough to speak Somali, make Somali food, and then claim to know your Somaliness.
They lack the knowledge of history, many thinking that our history and legacy were simply colonization, civil war and then failed state. So they assimilate into those two very opposite spectrums as a way to gain self worth from the lack of historical knowledge of ones people.
I can’t blame them, they were never taught nor were most of their parents. They just know the basics and superficial aspects. It does not help that having been born in the West gives them a Western lense of the world that many of us are susceptible to. When the news only reports of pirates, civil war, rape, and attacks abroad. When the textbooks falsify and hide history to make it so that Africa looks like mudhuts in comparison to the grand European cities.
Even the more normal ones have assimilated into the dominant culture of whom they share a skin tone with. That explains the rappers and instagram baddies who are only Somali when it’s time to beef with the j words. Because otherwise, it is not apart of their identity that they cherish unless it’s used as a means of weaponization against others. Still very culturally aliterate.
That is why I think their needs to be a new cultural reinvestment on our parts. Because otherwise, we aren’t a distinguished ethnicity but merely a sheep in a herd who thinks of themselves as different while conforming in every way.
We need to wear our ethnic clothes or even reinvent more modernized styles of the classic fashions. No need to wear an English suit overtop an Arab thobe.
We also must change the discussions that view our ethnicity and culture as a subset of larger things we have no correlation to like Black or Arab. Enough with the roundabout twitter discussions that serve no purpose. Instead talk about the history of Punt, our trading center and strategic placements, our sultanates and kingdoms, our colonies, and our wins. Reinvent pride in things because from my viewpoint, the youth seem to be proud of not being enslaved as if that was the pinnacle of our historical achievements.
Showcase the beautiful cities that were filled with our beautiful people. The nomadic peaceful lifestyle of the people who first domesticated the camel. Give them a history to be proud of, it’s all there but we don’t teach it or even take pride in it.
When you give them their culture and history, they won’t feel the need to assimilate into other cultures when they have a perfect one themselves. In fact, I believe giving them their history will motivate them to want to fix up their country for the better.
We have all seen an influx of two varying opposite belief systems, we have the BLM supporters who have victimized themselves in everyway possible, we also have the ana arab coons who look down upon others from a false sense of superiority and relation.
But, no one really looks at the cause. It’s because these youth are misguided and culturally aliterate. It is not enough to speak Somali, make Somali food, and then claim to know your Somaliness.
They lack the knowledge of history, many thinking that our history and legacy were simply colonization, civil war and then failed state. So they assimilate into those two very opposite spectrums as a way to gain self worth from the lack of historical knowledge of ones people.
I can’t blame them, they were never taught nor were most of their parents. They just know the basics and superficial aspects. It does not help that having been born in the West gives them a Western lense of the world that many of us are susceptible to. When the news only reports of pirates, civil war, rape, and attacks abroad. When the textbooks falsify and hide history to make it so that Africa looks like mudhuts in comparison to the grand European cities.
Even the more normal ones have assimilated into the dominant culture of whom they share a skin tone with. That explains the rappers and instagram baddies who are only Somali when it’s time to beef with the j words. Because otherwise, it is not apart of their identity that they cherish unless it’s used as a means of weaponization against others. Still very culturally aliterate.
That is why I think their needs to be a new cultural reinvestment on our parts. Because otherwise, we aren’t a distinguished ethnicity but merely a sheep in a herd who thinks of themselves as different while conforming in every way.
We need to wear our ethnic clothes or even reinvent more modernized styles of the classic fashions. No need to wear an English suit overtop an Arab thobe.
We also must change the discussions that view our ethnicity and culture as a subset of larger things we have no correlation to like Black or Arab. Enough with the roundabout twitter discussions that serve no purpose. Instead talk about the history of Punt, our trading center and strategic placements, our sultanates and kingdoms, our colonies, and our wins. Reinvent pride in things because from my viewpoint, the youth seem to be proud of not being enslaved as if that was the pinnacle of our historical achievements.
Showcase the beautiful cities that were filled with our beautiful people. The nomadic peaceful lifestyle of the people who first domesticated the camel. Give them a history to be proud of, it’s all there but we don’t teach it or even take pride in it.
When you give them their culture and history, they won’t feel the need to assimilate into other cultures when they have a perfect one themselves. In fact, I believe giving them their history will motivate them to want to fix up their country for the better.