Where are you local?

Overview:  Have you ever been asked, "Where are you from?"  For some people this is just a question that will have little impact on his/her/their day.  For others, it is a subtle way of telling someone that you do not seem to belong here, so where are you "really" from.  We studied Ibsen and Lahiri.  Both Nora and Gogol found their surroundings to be quite significant in determining their senses of self.  However, asking "where you are from" can be deceiving.  If you are of Nigerian decent, for example, but lived in Germany your whole life would you say you are Nigerian?  At the same time, if you were of German decent but lived in Nigeria from the age of one, where are you from?  How does skin color make this challenging?  Think about Gogol, who was introduced as the "Indian architect."  If he were white, would his "place of origin" need to be a factor?

Writer Taiye Selasi’s speech provides some fascinating perspectives that might come to your rescue.

“What are we really seeking, though, when we ask where someone comes from? And what are we really seeing when we hear an answer?” enquires Selasi, who is tired of being referred to as “multinational.”

Countries, she says, represent power, and as recent immigrants know all too well, “”Where are you from?” or “Where are you really from?” is often code for “Why are you here?””

Instead, of asking “Where are you from?” we should be asking, “Where are you a local?” The difference, she says, is in the intention of the question, and shifts our focus to where the heart of human experience occurs.

Directions: Selasi proposes a 3-step test to determine where you’re a local. She calls them the 3 R’s: Rituals, Relationships, and Restrictions. “Take a piece of paper and put those three words on top of three columns, then try to fill those columns as honestly as you can,” she says. “A very different picture of your life in local context, of your identity as a set of experiences, may emerge.” In this blog space share your findings. How would you answer the question, "Where are you local?"


Check out Taiye Selasi's novel, Ghana Must Go: