What do you mean by "I’m always going to be too African for my own good"? In the example scenario at "Reclaim the Night", do you mean that it is African to be permissive and tolerant enough to allow the two guys to take over your instructor's role and session? Is it also Western for the lady to not know how to tell the two guys to go away? Also is it African not to be sensitive to what the lady may have preferred in your decision to allow the guys to take over? Did you feel the same way when you visit Africa - Zimbabwe in particular? I read your work, especially relating to Marechera and your teenage life in Rhodesia. I grew up in Rhodesia on the victim end of the racism in that society and of course I say that you were not responsible for Rhodesia's existence in its racist form. You and me were born around the same time in Rhodesia. I just have a bunch of questions for you. How did you manage to retain your Africanness after having left Zimbabwe at 15 years? Could it be what the hostile Ausie environment that you experienced - causing you to reject being part of it/integrated? Lastly, what will be the visible aspects and impact of this particular decision on you as a person and as a writer?
Now you are sounding like a ... Westerner who makes a moral equation out of everything. How disappointing. And the identity politics you bring in is also inappropriate and distorts my original meaning. This is precisely what I criticize the Westerners for in ALL MY WRITING.
What was it in my text that made you read between the lines that these two men, who had come up after the short speech I gave, were taking away my authority in any way? Is is because they were male? I assume this is what the woman I had already demonstrated the techniques to may have been thinking -- but I was not to know this at the time. I train with males on an equal basis almost every day, so I don't have the conception that if a male enters the scene, my authority immediately vanishes. These men were gentle and were adding something new.
So, to answer your question, it is African to take things in your stride. Identity politics is Western, even to the degree that people in Africa may also take it up. It has its origins in Western culture and as a way of psychologically dealing with guilt in the post-colonial era.
The way you asked me your first couple of questions shows that you are immersed in this notion of identity as equaling degrees of guilt. I should be held responsible for not anticipating someone's discomfort, otherwise I am guilty.
If you want to accuse me of that, I will say that I did actually apologize to the woman once she made it clear that there had been a problem.
Is this important? Do you need to know that I'm still capable of self-policing? Imagine if a black gentleman such as yourself had walked up to me whilst she was standing there. That may have frightened her even more. Would you require me to give her a double-apology in that case: once for your gender, and another for your race?
Q. How did you manage to retain your Africanness after having left Zimbabwe at 15 years? Could it be what the hostile Aussie environment that you experienced - causing you to reject being part of it/integrated? ----- A. There were a number of factors. Quite a few. The greatest of these was I ended up in Aus in the mid-eighties, when Western culture could never have been more crass. This was the era of materialism and Ronald Reagan. People just wanted to make money and listen to mind-numbing pop music. I took an instant dislike to the whole arrangement. By the mid-nineties, we had become more multi-cultural, and the cuisine and attitudes were starting to broaden. But, initially, the environment was pretty arid.
Also, I kept having the experience I have outlined above, where people policed my emotions. I was keen to assimilate as a practical goal, but emotionally, my heart wasn't in it. I had to keep persuading myself to try. I'm sure the combined factors of other people policing me and me policing myself made me socially awkward, to the point that not many of my ventures succeeded. -----
Q.Lastly, what will be the visible aspects and impact of this particular decision on you as a person and as a writer?
A. Being African isn't a decision. That was the whole point of my post above, as well as much of my previous writing. It's something deep in my bones, so I will continue to listen to my bones and obey what they tell me.
Q. What do you mean by "I’m always going to be too African for my own good, though."?
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A. It means I have no wish to adjust to a situation where I'm not living in harmony with nature and with other people.
What was it in my text that made you read between the lines that these two men, who had come up after the short speech I gave, were taking away my authority in any way? Is is because they were male? I assume this is what the woman I had already demonstrated the techniques to may have been thinking -- but I was not to know this at the time.
I train with males on an equal basis almost every day, so I don't have the conception that if a male enters the scene, my authority immediately vanishes. These men were gentle and were adding something new.
So, to answer your question, it is African to take things in your stride. Identity politics is Western, even to the degree that people in Africa may also take it up. It has its origins in Western culture and as a way of psychologically dealing with guilt in the post-colonial era.
The way you asked me your first couple of questions shows that you are immersed in this notion of identity as equaling degrees of guilt. I should be held responsible for not anticipating someone's discomfort, otherwise I am guilty.
If you want to accuse me of that, I will say that I did actually apologize to the woman once she made it clear that there had been a problem.
Is this important? Do you need to know that I'm still capable of self-policing? Imagine if a black gentleman such as yourself had walked up to me whilst she was standing there. That may have frightened her even more. Would you require me to give her a double-apology in that case: once for your gender, and another for your race?
Q. How did you manage to retain your Africanness after having left Zimbabwe at 15 years? Could it be what the hostile Aussie environment that you experienced - causing you to reject being part of it/integrated?
-----
A. There were a number of factors. Quite a few. The greatest of these was I ended up in Aus in the mid-eighties, when Western culture could never have been more crass. This was the era of materialism and Ronald Reagan. People just wanted to make money and listen to mind-numbing pop music. I took an instant dislike to the whole arrangement. By the mid-nineties, we had become more multi-cultural, and the cuisine and attitudes were starting to broaden. But, initially, the environment was pretty arid.
Also, I kept having the experience I have outlined above, where people policed my emotions. I was keen to assimilate as a practical goal, but emotionally, my heart wasn't in it. I had to keep persuading myself to try. I'm sure the combined factors of other people policing me and me policing myself made me socially awkward, to the point that not many of my ventures succeeded.
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Q.Lastly, what will be the visible aspects and impact of this particular decision on you as a person and as a writer?
A. Being African isn't a decision. That was the whole point of my post above, as well as much of my previous writing. It's something deep in my bones, so I will continue to listen to my bones and obey what they tell me.
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A. It means I have no wish to adjust to a situation where I'm not living in harmony with nature and with other people.