While my mother and father were proud Africans, I struggled with knowing what being African really meant. I couldn’t understand the Patoir my parents spoke to uncles, aunts, and family friends ,I couldn’t name any of the foods my mom had to travel to special markets to buy, and I couldn’t really tell you much about what life was like in Africa . My limited knowledge of being African consisted mainly of two things- I knew my family was from Cameroon and I had a last name that no teacher could ever pronounce correctly on the first try. As I grew older I began to pick up on certain words, I could name some of my favorite foods my mom picked up, and through pictures and conversations with family members I had a vague image of what life was like …show more content…
“Dorcas tell the American we said hi”, “Oh look it’s the American girl!” people would often say in French to her thinking that I couldn’t understand them. I was just as Cameroonian as anyone else here I thought to myself. In fact, my mother was the first of my family to move away from Cameroon in the 90s, a majority of my family on both sides still lived here, I remember seeing baby pictures and hearing stories about spending some of my infancy here, and yet I wasn’t really seen as a fellow Cameroonian, I was seen as “The American Girl”. Once again I was confused on what it meant to really be African but there was no better place to fix my confusion than where I was, being surrounded by family and friends, so I continued on as normal enjoying my summer doing things like going to the Mefou Primate Sanctuary, visiting the National Museum, and eating out at local restaurants and boulangeries. Without even realizing it I began to develop my own definition of what being African meant. Being Cameroonian is more than just a simple matter of origin or the history of the country’s independence and reunification, it’s a mindset and