The vote for white privilege

America's election of Donald Trump represents a number of things in my mind..... as I shared with anyone Black, White, Republican, Democrat, Conservative or Liberal who cared to listen today, the results were evidence that Americans hate Black People, Latinos, Gays, Female Leaders far more than they love their country.

I say this unapologetically because they made a decision to take the biggest gamble with someone who has zero experience, has never held an elective office, and who has said and done the most despicable things we have ever witnessed in American politics. This apparently was because they couldn't bring themselves to vote for a woman with decades of experience who not only promised to represent but has a track record of representing the most vulnerable members of the American population which includes the so-called White majority who feel left out and is "hurting".  America rejected the candidate that said there is a place for all of you and embraced the candidate who said there's only room for those who are like me - white male and privileged.  In a nutshell, America chose Hate over common decency, pragmatism, optimism, stability.

I also think that fundamentally the election results are a reflection of the sense of entitlement that White America feels - the rhetoric of "I'm hurting so it must be the fault of the Blacks, the Mexicans, the Muslims, the Syrians, the Gays - they are to blame for my factory closing and a new one not being opened in its place". They are to blame for the death of the manufacturing industry despite clear evidence that this industry is dying all over the world. It is the sense of entitlement that prevents White America from taking a long hard look at itself and asking how can I adapt to fit into the modern, digitized, fast-paced world. And it is white privilege and pandering to it that makes politicians promise to bring back long derelict factories and manufacturing jobs rather than providing clear evidence of worldwide trends and providing alternatives for the so-called left behind masses to adapt to the new world we live in and specifically to globalisation.

Today, I lost it and spoke through tears as a colleague - a White Liberal - tried to explain to me that Hillary could have done more to reach out to those who felt disenfranchised, who felt that the economic growth that Obama has achieved against the odds, has not benefitted them. I lost it because I believe that the only way to appease these people - the Trump voters - would have been to tell them that their grievances, their anger, their hurt was all that mattered. Simply repeating her pledge to fight for all Americans, in particular the poorer ones by making the wealthier pay their fair share, was not a strong enough message. Leaning further left than President Obama, was not enough for the White silent majority because in actual fact their rejection of Hillary Clinton and embrace of Donald Trump was never about jobs, or the economy or a rebellion against the establishment. It was a retaliation against a changing America, against a black President - in the words of political commentator Van Jones, it was their "whitelash".  The mere fact of having a Black President, who is undoubtedly one of the most successful presidents this country has seen, was more than their racist selves could handle.  Their sense of entitlement is so strong that they found a champion in a man who embodies all that is wrong with the world. He made a promise to them and no one else and they fell for it hook line and sinker.

But even we give White America the benefit of the doubt and agree that they have been ignored by the Obama administration - suffering in silence, we would be disingenuous if we don't also address the plight of other groups in society that have a lot to complain and lash out about.

Let's start with Black men for instance who have a one in three chance of ending up in prison. Let's process that for one moment - growing up in America, these are the odds that black boys face - if the statistics don't seem realistic to you, then please take a moment to watch Ava Duvernay's documentary, 13th.

Then there's the average college graduate in America, who have been told all they need to do is to work hard - they've done that, four years of an undergraduate degree, followed by a postgraduate degree, unpaid work experience...because they recognise that the world competitive and they have to do all that it takes to set themselves apart. They'e taken out loans and now they face the reality of a job, any job that simply pays them a living wage - their dreams deferred in favour of stability.  They earn a salary that covers their crippling student loan repayments, with just enough left over to live....not plan for a future....just live, one pay cheque at a time.

Then there's the American Muslim, who subscribes to the American dream with such fervour but has decide whether they are willing to openly display their religious beliefs for fear of exclusion or worse, retaliation. Their reality is one of having to jump through hoops to prove their loyalty to the country of their birth or nationality and the resignation to the fact that they will be racially profiled at the airport, and will be blamed every time someone that claims to share their religion commits an atrocity. They will be judged for not doing enough, they will carry the shame of that person, and be accused of not condemning the actions loudly enough.

Let's talk about the so-called middle class for a moment, a phrase which means very little other than a way politicians seek to appease Americans by suggesting those who belong to this group are an example of some kind of success. The reality though is with less and less job stability and greater income disparity, the middle class is constantly struggling to make ends meet and is more often than not, a pay cheque or two away from homelessness.

Last but by no means least, can we please address the elephant in the room - the Native American - the only group that can legitimately ask for their country back - the level of injustice  they face at every stage of their lives is astounding - 1 in 4 live in poverty, they lack access to healthcare and have a lower life expectancy rate. And yet everyone acts as though they don't exist and each year we celebrate taking their country away from them and retell the lies of American history erasing any agency they had in the future of their country.

So White man or woman who is hurting, please take a number and get in line. Not only is gap between rich and poor growing in America, it is growing all over the world. The difference between the USA and other parts of the developed world is that people in other devloped nations can take comfort in the fact they have access to a decent education and free or affordable healthcare - two areas that President Obama made his focus and that your President Trump will single-handedly destroy.  I'm sorry but I refuse to give you the benefit of the doubt when you claim to be justified in rejecting excellence in favour of insanity because you're are hurting. On the one hand you claim to be anti-big government but yet expect the government to fix your situation? What happened to pulling yourself up by your boot straps? Isn't that the same thing White America has been telling the descendents of those it once enslaved for decades, without even the slightest irony? 

The truth is you voted for Trump because you believe that the government is here to serve you and you alone to the complete exclusion of others!  And that is precisely what Trump sold - it is what he represents to the majority of White America! A leader who will fight for them, place their interests ahead not only ignoring others but to the detriment of others. Isn't the adage, God Bless America....and no one else?.

Your vote wasn't a protest vote against the establishment, it wasn't about electing someone who tells it like it is - it was purely and simply about restoring White America to "its rightful place" - a place that has no room for anyone that looks different or thinks differently.

My only hope is that Trump will show you that, like you, he  is a selfish, shallow racist-misogynist who cares about no one but himself!

Dear America (specifically those of you who respond to the movement "Black lives matter" with "All lives matter"),

This morning as I listened to NPR's newscast, I heard about a fatal shooting of a black man by a police officer and thought it referred to the one that took the life of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge two days ago but it actually referred to Philando Castile in Minnesota just yesterday. 

On my morning commute, I watched the video of the fatal shooting in Minnesota and wept. I tried with all my might not to weep but I couldn't stop myself from sobbing and wiping my tears and sobbing some more. 

It made no sense to me - why would you shoot someone after giving them instructions and them following your instructions? Why would you shoot someone multiple times before assessing whether they are an imminent threat to you? Why would you handcuff their partner who again posed no threat and who remained calm throughout the whole incident which resulted in death of her partner in front of her child? Why would you treat her like a criminal when you should be getting her assistance? I don't understand it! 

And to those who want to sweep these extrajudicial killings under the carpet, let me ask you this - how many more black men and women need to be killed by enforcement officers before you acknowledge that there is a problem? Before you stop this crap about all lives matter knowing full well that your race is not endangered?

As a black foreigner living in America, I am apprehensive about driving around the country as I feel that makes me vulnerable to arbitrary stops by the police that could end up being fatal. I am apprehensive about my husband driving,  wearing a hood, walking, standing outside a hotel, simply living in full view of armed police officers because who the hell knows what the next reason will be for a black man to be killed. I am apprehensive about my son misbehaving in school, messing around in a playground, being in a certain neighborhood, being the naughty 10 year old he sometimes is, because God knows what could happen in a country that has zero tolerance for black children. 

I am sick and tired of hearing white people, black people who think they're exempt from police brutality try and justify it - he should have taken off his hood, he shouldn't have been out at night, he shouldn't have been selling loose cigarettes, she shouldn't have answered back to that cop, he shouldn't have been playing with a toy gun, he shouldn't have had his music on so loud, he shouldn't have run! These are not valid defences for murder - so stop focusing on the victims and start focusing on the perpetrators. 

Black lives matter because they are endangered - because many people in America do not value them - because many people in America think they can be taken away - because many people in America's justice system believe there should be no accountability for those who kill black men, women and children. 

So let me remind you that Black lives do matter. They matter and we will continue to remind you of this in the hope that it will some day register with not just the killers but also with the apologists.

The unintended consequences of our democracy

Many of us are still reeling from the UK's vote to leave the European Union - and by all accounts even those who voted to leave are having second thoughts or had secretly hoped their votes wouldn't count for anything.  Apparently some of the leave voters explained that theirs was a protest vote to send a message to the UK government and the EU. Sadly their gamble landed the whole country in a big mess and reversed a 43 year old relationship sending the world stock markets nose dived losing about $2 trillion dollars. And by all accounts for as long as there is uncertainty, the chaos will continue and it will continue to affect us all. For me, what became abundantly clear from the fact that we now have to deal with the repercussions of a British Exit caused by the Reckless, the Stupid, the Uninformed and the Xenophobic, many of whom acted on the blatant lies and the fear-mongering of those leading the "Leave Campaign", is that democracy ain't all it's cracked up to be.

To quote a friend - on why the F David Cameron would gamble with our lives and our children's future - "What the hell do we elect politicians for if it's not to make choices?" Therein lies the problem - the notion that the people should be consulted on every decision especially one so major is just absurd. The reality, as we are now witnessing it, is that we should never assume that everyone who has the right to vote, gives it the level of seriousness or solemnity that it deserves. For some people a slogan "We Want Our Country Back!" is enough to send them into fits of nostalgia about bygone days of the British Empire when their beloved nation successful managed to invade  90% of the world. For others it's those "bloody foreigners coming here and taking our jobs" despite the fact that reliable sources including the Conservative government's own reports note that employment trends have been the same for decades and that the most important factor for unemployment rates has been the economy rather than the influx of immigrants. And let's face it with an unemployment rate that has in fact fallen to 5%, we're 0.3% worse off than the US and 0.8% worse off than Germany. There are the claims about our national health service (NHS) and the strain being a part of Europe has brought on it, yet independent sources note that EU immigrants make a more positive contribution to the NHS than UK natives both in terms of the jobs they occupy and the contributions they make when they work. And then there are those who feel that we have inherited Romanian/Polish/Bulgarian criminals who have apparently brought with them a wave of crime and it's all because the EU has forced us to accept them as Europeans instead of regarding them as less desirable than our Western European pals. The reality is that national crime rates are down and they fell significantly in areas of the UK that has experienced mass immigration from eastern Europe.  There's also this claim repeated so often by Boris Johnson (the leader of the "Leave Campaign") in spite of its inaccuracy, that the EU is threatening our sovereignty because we don't get to determine everything that happens with our money and within our country. The reality, however, suggests otherwise - in fact Section 18 of the European Union Act 2011 stipulates that EU law has effect in the UK only because UK law so provides and in a 2014 case, the UK Supreme Court ruled that in the event of conflict between the country's fundamental constitutional principles and EU law, UK courts should give priority to our fundamental constitutional principles. 

But let's put fact and law aside for a moment and simplify the argument - when you join anything, be it a gym, an education institution or let's even say a religious cult, there are rules by which you have to abide in order to secure your membership or affiliation. So why would it be any different for the largest economy/trading bloc in the world? Why would we assume that we can reap the benefits - 48% of our trade in April 2016 - without adhering to the rules that go with that relationship? The even greater irony is that  many of those rules despite what the leaders who are so concerned about your welfare would have you believe, have actually benefitted the ordinary UK citizen including the numpties who voted to leave:

1. According to a 2011 Government report, being part of the EU single market may have resulted in benefits of up to 6% higher income per capita (about £3,300 a year per household);
2. Membership in the EU has allowed UK citizens to study, work and access social benefits in all EU countries;
3. The EU has strict rules that requires its members to ensure the cleanliness of drinking water, and of the water in which we bathe;
4. The EU Climate and Energy Package is a set of rules that compel EU states to meet key targets including a 20 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions and a 20 per cent improvement in energy efficiency;
5. Under EU law, it is illegal to make an employee work for an average of more than 48 hours a week; 
6. Temporary Agency Workers Directive aims to guarantee that those hired through employment agencies get the same pay and conditions as employees in the same business doing the same work;
7. The EU Court of Justice has ruled that individuals have the right to demand that search links remove links with personal information about them, if that information is ‘inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive’;
8. Low cost airlines and coach companies have flourished because EU law has reduced the bureaucratic burdens imposed on them by national governments.
9. The EU has scrapped mobile roaming charges within its borders meaning that British travellers can make a call in France without facing exorbitant and unfair roaming fees when they return home;
10. The EU has reduced the costs for deploying high-speed electronic communications networks and investments in broadband networks supporting high-speed internet and regulation of the use of wireless technologies, such as 3G and LTE.

The claim that the EU is undemocratic because we don't get to control those who make decisions that affect our lives is the same claim that people who did not vote for the Conservative party but are being governed by them or did not vote for Brexit but now face the prospect of no longer being part of the European Union can make. It's called democracy. Just because you're outnumbered doesn't make it any less democratic. As far as the 28 member unelected EU Commission is concerned, the reality is that the country does have a say in their selection - they are nominated by their government and serve a term of five years. Simply because every Tom, Dick, Harry and Tracy of the British population isn't consulted during that term doesn't make the process undemocratic. To put it simply we elect our leaders, they make decisions on our behalf including a decision to select those who will make decisions in the EU. 

In all the Brexit hysteria, those who campaigned to leave on lies and half-truths fail to acknowledge the role Britain itself has played in the world and why many immigrants and children of immigrants have every right to claim a home in their former "motherland". That the first and third largest immigrant groups in the UK come from a former British colony (once a single nation) should come as no surprise given the fact that India and Pakistan (formerly known as the British Indian Empire) were plundered by Britain for decades with the spoils still present in British Museums and on the Queen's head, makes an even stronger case for them claiming Britain as their home. 

But beyond that, the fear of immigrants simply does not reflect the reality - there are over twice as many Irish immigrants in the UK than there are Nigerians immigrants. And despite the use by UKIP of an image of Syrian refugees arriving in their thousands, which was in fact a photograph taken of refugees arriving in Slovenia, Britain has granted asylum to just over 4000 Syrians refugees since 2011; nearly 10 times less than Germany! 

The UK referendum on EU membership proves that the brand of democracy that the Western World peddles so faithfully and so condescendingly all over the world, simply does not work without an educated and informed voting population and without an outright ban on misrepresentations by politicians campaigning for one side or another. As things stand, uninformed voters make decisions based on headlines without reading the fine print or fact checking, and the rest of the country, and because of globalisation, the rest of the world, has to deal with the repercussions. Elections are not practice runs and democracy should not simply be about one woman/man one vote - decisions that affect our economy, our future and our children's futures cannot be treated like an episode of X Factor. Now that we are faced with the reality of a British exit, even if unintended by some, that will no doubt force the EU to do some soul searching,  we can only hope that the next UK leader will do the same. At the very least when faced with the choice of gambling the country's future in exchange for a majority rule, they will ask themselves the question - should a decision of this magnitude be left in the hands of the British population? 

The 2016 Oscars or When Chris Rock lost his Integrity

Why do I get the sense that people who ought to be able to stick to their principles, increasingly demonstrate that when the chips are down, they choose awkward acquiescence over confrontation, which while difficult, at least demonstrates that they still possess that rare quality called Integrity. Let me explain..
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The Oscars happened last night after a social media campaign that seemed to finally bring home the message about the lack of opportunity and recognition given to actors/directors of colour in Hollywood. 

The #oscarsowhite campaign seemed to finally get the Academy to pay attention.  An announcement reassuring the public that they could and will do better. It was a start and many of us felt that maybe things would change for the better.

And then on the night of the ceremony,  someone in their infinite wisdom thought it would be better to make light of the campaign by reducing it to a series of disrespectful gags. We went from a campaign that included a poignant message to a case of "it's those blacks complaining again". In the words of Chris Rock "not everything is about sexism...not everything is about racism".. as he made a case that the #askhermore campaign was oversensitive because in his opinion, there was nothing sexist about reducing a woman's red carpet interview to an episode of "let's dress Barbie". In Chis Rock's words - the reason why the interviewers don't ask men is because they're all wearing the same thing. I assume that the racism portion of his argument referred to lack of awards not necessarily meaning that the Academy is racist. Perhaps like Charlotte Rampling, Chris Rock thinks it may simply mean - black people were terrible in films this year.  In other words let's all (women and people of colour)stop being so damn paranoid. 

Then there were the short videos - remakes of the year's nominated films with black Hollywood stars who joked about being the real stars of the films or more deserving than the white actors who starred in them. 

And as if all that wasn't enough for us to get the message from the Academy, there was the "let's end Black History Month on a low note" part. This is the one where Stacey Dash known for her "Stop complaining about slavery and asking for special treatment black people and just work harder" philosophy was brought out to wish us all a Happy Black History month. The same woman who has argued that there is no need for a Black history month. So the message I can only assume was let's ridicule things that matter to you black people. Wow...thanks Academy!!

Oh and did I forget to mention Chris Rock reducing Jada Pinkett-Smith's very valid boycott to a jibe about the insignificance of her opinion because she was not invited anyway. So essentially no one cares what you think because you are not even part of this prestigious club that I've been invited to. It's like the Mexican Trump Campaigner advocating for 'the wall' now that he's on the inside of the good ole US of A.  

Before I forget, there were also the interviews of black cinema-goers all of whom had only watched "Straight outta Compton" and none of whom had heard of or seen any of the nominated films. So in other words - why the hell should you be given awards for serious films when all you ever go and see at the cinema are Madea films? 

As I watched these clips from last night, I couldn't get over the total and utter disrespect shown by the Academy and Chris Rock. On the one hand the Academy  promised to do better while on the other telling Black people to stop their complaining because let's face it, worrying about who won best cinematography meant we weren't being lynched anymore. It's the whole #firstworldissues thing. Such a privilege to be able to sit in the same room as white people watching Brie Larson give an Oscar-worthy performance - why do we continue to bite the hand that feeds us?

The more I think about the Oscars - though I promise not to after finishing this piece - the more infuriated I become. The Academy just gave us a big F you and they got Chris Rock to hold their middle finger up for them. 

I hope upon reflection Chis Rock will see what a disservice he did to his fellow actors - those with genuine and valid concerns who either boycotted or voiced their concerns. By allowing the Academy to reduce their protests to skits and gags that suggest either sour grapes (cos you weren't invited) or petty squabbling (cos look how far you've come), he has undermined valid arguments about deep-seated racism that allow an unapologetic celebration of white privilege and continue to allow those in power to do nothing to create a level playing field for all. 

Sorry Chris but sometimes it IS sexism and sometimes it most definitely IS racism. It's sad that you can't face up to these issues without dismissing those with the courage to do just that! 

Long overdue and somewhat personal

It’s been a while – in fact if I’m honest this year has been rather lacking. I haven’t written much even though I started the year with the goal of writing a blog post each month – life took over. And it didn’t inspire.

Then as luck would have it last month a friend of mine invited me at the very last minute to a talk by Elizabeth Gilbert  - she of “Eat Pray Love” fame at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). The event was organised by Greenlight Bookstore and although I had no idea at the time what to expect, the words BAM and Greenlight Bookstore were enough to convince me.  And as it so happened, this was exactly what I needed - a rather unexpected intervention in my struggle to find my inner creativity.

The event, entitled Unbound was in the format of a hilarious conversation between Elizabeth Gilbert and the brilliant playwright Sarah Jones about Gilbert’s new book, a non-fiction, unapologetically self-help tome entitled Big Magic- Creative Living Beyond Fear.  As I sat in the audience with my girlfriend who is a writer working on her second novel, I felt completely refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to embrace my art. Elizabeth Gilbert is funny and honest and self-deprecating in a way that was completely energizing.   She recognises that she has critics, many of them; some that she acknowledges would even try and help her gain the credibility of a serious writer that she lacks, according to them. She jokes about the NPR-types who insist that when she talks about the characters involved in her writing process, one of whom is “Fear’, they attempt to throw her a lifeline by suggesting that she is simply using metaphors to describe her creative process. To which she responds emphatically that these are not metaphors but real aspects of who she is as a writer.  She is a breath of fresh air in a world of New York Times-quoting, self-appointed critiques that pride themselves on finding fault with other people’s art rather than creating their own.  As I laughed deeply at some of the comments she made, I couldn’t help but think back to another writer, one whose work I adore, Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie who once said that her novel, Americanah was her “Fuck You!” book – in other words when she wrote it, she decided that she could care less what people think or say, or the labels they decide to attach to her work. How invigorating that must feel!  Like Chimamanda, I loved Elizabeth Gilbert’s honesty. It takes a certain maturity and self-assuredness to say to hell with the naysayers and I think for so many of us who dream of a more creative life, of taking our creativity to the next level, the opinions of others represent the hurdles we face and often struggle to overcome. 

In response to an audience member who asked how could she tell whether she was good enough to do the creative thing she loved – what if infact she was just mediocre at lots of things, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about being the type of creative person who has focused on one thing with a dogged determination and gotten better at it over time. This acknowledgment, though obvious to some, goes against the usual rhetoric of the natural born artist – we have become more accustomed to the accounts of knowing that you have something special from an early age. So much so that when some of us don't feel that way, we conclude that it must be because we have no God-given talent and content ourselves with a life of banality.  Ms. Gilbert doesn’t claim to be born with this talent, instead she says that she knew writing was what she wanted to do from an early age and decided to stick with it. She concedes that she was probably not that good to begin with but knows with absolute certainty that she has gotten better with time and practice.  In her honest and open accounts, both during the conversation and in this book, she encourages her readers/audience to accept their flaws and still embrace their art. She makes a distinction between our ego – the thing that drives us to want more and more “likes” on social media and our soul – the thing that makes us do something even if no one else in the world reads, buys, listens to it, just because it makes us happy.  Yes she resorts to catchphrases at times to get her point across but just because I don’t subscribe to the notion of “Big Magic” doesn’t mean I don’t agree with her message.  In a similar way, I couldn’t stand the catchphrase “Lean In” – for Godsake’s it should be lean forward….you lean forward not in – but that did not stop me from relating to so much of what Sheryl Sandberg had to say.

And now back to me and my writing. I love writing and I love reading and this is what I want to do in my free time more than anything else. I love reading what I’ve written and what other people have written. At the moment I’m reading Edwidge Danticat’s “Untwine” as well as Jojo Moyes “After you” and Tanehisi Coates “Between the world and me” because each one, in its own way,  feeds my hunger for beautiful words and incredible stories. So thanks to Ms. Gilbert I am reading again and writing and who knows what the future holds. I am not setting myself any goals but I hope you’ll be able to read me more often than you have this year and I hope that I’ll inspire you to do whatever makes you happy…..even if you do it for an audience of one!

My "f*#% you" to Facebook apathy

I have decided to quit Facebook indefinitely. To be honest with you it was a long time coming as I've grown increasing tired of the constant navel gazing. I mean let's be honest, how many f-ing selfies do you need to take before you've convinced your self-absorbed self that you're beautiful or rather that you photograph well? And yes so you signed a contract or closed a deal, some people negotiate ceasefires between warring parties or resuscitate people for a living but you don't see them regaling us with tales of their contribution to humanity or world peace now do you. But even with all that silent suffering, I kept coming back, dare I add like an addict. So I guess the straw that broke the camel's back was the reaction to two recent stories/status updates that I posted. One involved a celebrity and as I would have predicted within hours there were comments and "likes" and it felt like I was having a real conversation with real people.  The second related to a critically ill child in need of medical care, post a liver transplant and depressingly that post elicited one like in a day and a second the following day. In that post, I pleaded with those on my Facebook to help me raise a modest amount for a friend's campaign whose goal was to help the girl's family with hospital treatment that could save her. It was met with a deafening silence. Not only did I find that deeply disheartening (let me be honest with you... or as we say in Krio "tell friend true nor pwell (spoil) friend"), but it reminded me of how fickle and ineffective a tool Facebook is when it comes to real, meaningful interaction with people we know... some of whom we may even love. It tells me, not necessarily that my 100 odd Facebook friends are not genuine friends - I make a point of culling my numbers often so without a doubt, many of them are - but that they do not want to engage in anything meaningful via Facebook. As such I have to conclude that as a social media tool, Facebook holds no value for me. If it's superficial engagement I want, there's twitter. For meaningful conversations, there is Whatsapp, making Facebook redundant, even superfluous! 

On the one hand I hear the arguments that we prefer light-hearted interactions on social media. I get it but then I don't actually, in all honesty, I don't get it because no amount of ignoring "heavy" posts and news items makes them go away - it just makes us apathetic. It makes us fair weather friends...ready to share the laughs but running a mile in the opposite direction when there's pain.  In real life - away from our computers and smart phones we can watch mindless sitcoms and reality shows while at the same time processing news reports - sometimes uncomfortably depressing but burying our heads in the Real Housewives of X town doesn't exactly make those reports disappear, it just makes us ignorant of what is going on in the world and even more depressing, it means we are not part of the solutions to those problems.

At the same time I also think that the tendency to only post bad news, whether it's about Ebola orphans or newly reported natural disasters without offering solutions or glimmers of hope - indications of how we can ease the pain - is completely unproductive, even exploitative. It's like "disaster porn" addicts - you know the types who love to observe and even profit from people's suffering .... in a completely detached way. 

So all this to say Facebook has ceased to serve a purpose for me - long live Whatsapp for my family and friends! And for those whose daily musings are a source of endless amusement to me (you know who you are), please join me on Twitter!! We don't even have to address each other directly - just keep on posting funny things that make me laugh - it's that simple! 

Power Women 232

The silver lining that has emerged from the dark cloud that is Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone is the number of phenomenal women who are doing something to make the lives of victims, their carers and their affected societies better.

What better day than International Women's day to recognise the incredible work and sacrifice of one of those phenomenal women. 

Power 232 - a network of young professional women - launched a campaign in August last year aimed at recognising and rewarding the tireless and selfless efforts of healthcare workers dealing with the Ebola epidemic. Through donations from individuals and businesses, Power 232 creates care packages for healthcare workers that include essential items like soap,  toothpaste, tea, milk, and biscuits, cornflakes. They also include 'Thank You’ cards that remind these amazing carers who risk their lives each day to help others, just how much they are appreciated. 

Today, these amazing women honoured one of those healthcare professionals on their Facebook page with the following:

Dr Fanny Koroma

Meet PowerWoman Fanny Koroma, MD. We at PowerWomen232 have waited until International Women's Day 2015 to feature Fanny because she is one of the numerous unsung female Ebola heroes across Sierra Leone. A committed Christian with a passion for singing, Fanny graduated from the College of Medicine and Allied Sciences, University of Sierra Leone with an MB.Ch.B degree. With a firm belief in leadership, she served as President of the Sierra Leone Medical Students' Association (SLeMSA), which is Sierra Leone's chapter of the International Federation of Medical Students' Association (IFMSA), the only UN recognized student body with over 100 member countries, this is in addition to membership in numerous organizations including the Sierra Leone Junior Doctors' Association.

When the Ebola outbreak began in Sierra Leone, Fanny was attached to Connaught Hospital as a House Officer. She worked in the outpatient department which is the first port of call for ALL patients, doing screening and deciding who fits the case definition of Ebola. She did this on average of 3 times a week with little or no personal protective equipment (PPE). Fanny had many scary moments, each time a patient she had screened was confirmed positive for Ebola, it took an emotional and mental toll on her; compounding her mental anguish were the deaths of several outpatient department nurses who contracted the virus and subsequently died. Through all this, Fanny continued to show up for work day in and day out. She finally broke down when her immediate boss and mentor, Dr T.T. Rogers contracted the virus and died, she was placed on self observation for 21 days and those were the longest 21 days of her life.

During her 21 days of self observation, Fanny had a lot of time to think. She felt 'helpless' people were showing up at the hospital when it was too late due to fear. She wanted to do something different in the fight against Ebola. She felt she would be of better use at the community level were the problems could be arrested before escalating to the hospital. Fanny joined the World Health Organization as a Tracing Mentor/Coordinator in Kambia, Northern Sierra Leone. In her current role, she is in the field everyday, in villages and quarantined homes; following contacts and conducting case investigations to get epidemiological links/chain of transmission. She also ensures that people in quarantined homes get all the necessary food, security and communication needs to enable them to comply to the terms of the quarantine. Additionally, she ensures that contact tracers visit quarantined homes for monitoring twice a day.

Fanny is saddened by the toll Ebola has had on health care professionals in Sierra Leone, especially the more experienced doctors; she was hoping to work with them, to learn from their experiences. Many of them have died after contracting Ebola. Even more troubling to Fanny is the huge death toll of both Ebola and non-Ebola causes in such a short time span.

According to Fanny, Ebola has changed the face of medicine in Sierra Leone, for doctors, nurses, medical students and patients. “Ebola has been an expensive lesson for Sierra Leoneans,” she says “from issues like hygiene, to managing hospitals, and how to approach medicine when a majority of the population prefer to seek health care needs from traditional healers, we must do better, Sierra Leoneans deserve better.” In the midst of all this, Fanny is forward thinking, a visionary; she is looking forward to a health care system that works in Sierra Leone, one with the right policies, administration, infrastructure etc...and she is hoping to make a significant contribution to the turnaround of our healthcare system.

We at PowerWomen232 are so proud of Fanny, at a time when those in the medical profession are sacrificing their own lives in the Ebola fight, she has stepped forward, to offer her services to humanity. Dr. Fanny Koroma, on International Women's Day, we salute you, we beam with so much pride, you and countless other women ‪#‎MakeItHappen‬ in this‪#‎Ebola‬ fight. We simply say thank you for your gift to humanity, thank you for your gift to Sierra Leone.

To learn more about and to support Power 232 - please visit their Facebook page  or follow them on twitter . As the name of the campaign suggests, in order to eradicate Ebola we need "All hands on deck!"

The more things change....

I started writing this post in the thick of the Ferguson protests and Israeli bombings of Gaza - before the body of Michael Brown was buried, before 519 Palestinian mothers buried their children. But as the French saying goes it was plus fort que moi - it was all more than I could bear. I spoke to a close friend of mine in the Netherlands and she asked me what was wrong with the world - where had our humanity gone? So the original title of this post was "To the vocal supporters and silent accomplices of murderers and mass murderers: Where is your humanity?". 

I began the post by talking about Michael Brown, an unarmed boy, gunned down by a policeman, shot no less than six times. And then asked how such a deplorable event could be met with the silence of some or even worse, words and actions in defence of his killer. Where is the humanity of such people?   

Then yesterday the grand jury decided that they would not indict Mike Brown's murderer. The man who shot an unarmed person 6 times, who pursued him and then boldly declared during his testimony that his victim looked like a demon. 

It has taken every effort for many of us to not despair at America, especially white America and its blatant disregard for black lives. The fact that there is no collective outrage at the jury's decision reminds me of how and why slavery flourished for as long as it did. The fact that there are some who argue about grey areas and feel ambivalent when it is crystal clear to anyone with compassion that Michael Brown was murdered...in cold blood... wrongfully - is that clear enough for you? There is no debate to be had, no justification - Darren Wilson should not have fatally shot an unarmed boy! There is not a single video or picture that would make that conclusion any different so I won't even dignify the desperate arguments that have surfaced with a response. 

Like those who supported slavery and apartheid, there are people, many of them in America's police forces, who do not see Mike Brown or black people as human beings deserving of their compassion. History is far from a distant memory - we pretend things are different today because certain laws are in place that prevent us from committing the crimes we did against the innocent in the past but Ferguson and the countless other examples of Mike Browns and Trayvon Martin... all over America are reminders that little has actually changed. 

The fact that we have to remind people whose compassion is reserved for Darren Wilson who lost a job as opposed to Mike Brown's mother who has lost a child that #blacklivesmatter is an indictment on American society. 

Darren Wilson's life and the lives of white men like him are not at risk. The lives of white police men are not at risk! For all the protests in Ferguson and elsewhere in the US, there is zero evidence of retaliation against white people or white policemen. Yet black boys and men continue to fall..... 

So I choose unapologetically to fly the banner for black lives because they are at risk in America. I choose to speak out about those lives not because I don't love humanity as a whole but because today, at least, Whites do not need my compassion. Darren Wilson and his white colleagues do not need me to raise funds for them, white men in the street do not need me to protest about society's injustices against them. Those who are privileged by virtue of the colour of their skin do not need me to speak out for them. Mike Brown, Kimani Gray, Trayvon Martin, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Eric Garner - the countless black boys and men who have lost their lives because of the colour of their skin - the countless who are incarcerated because of the colour of their skin - they do! They need us to speak out and say #blacklivesmatter America #blacklivesmatter World! 

Let's bring real sexy back

I realise it's been a while...quite a while. Since I last posted in July, I've drafted several blog posts....on Ferguson, on Ebola...on Palestine...on discrimination. All quite sad or angry and none of that have given me the energy or courage or desire to complete. So here I am back on The Hibiscus Notes...writing.

Ironically this is a subject I've blogged about on numerous occasions, in various ways. It's about how we women are portrayed in the media, more specifically the way our bodies are portrayed.

The reason I decided to blog yet again about this...hopefully from another angle is because of a video I just saw - Heather Headley's video "In my mind".  As I watched Ms Headley sing her heart out about lost love - I was reminded of how sexy she is in that video...and yet she's fully clothed. The skin we see is limited to her midriff but in my humble yet objective opinion, she's still hot. It's the way she moves, the flash of a little flesh but not too much that keeps you guessing. That in and of itself I believe is sexy - the promise of more...maybe.

I contrast that to the numerous famous and not-so famous women these days who strip right down to the bare minimum - i.e their birthday suits. Whether on their videos, in magazines or on their Instagram accounts. They regale us with their butt and boob selfies - which not surprisingly have ceased to shock our sensibilities. Each time I see these half naked or very naked women, I can't help but shake my head in the manner my grandmother shook her head when I wore crop tops at age 15. Perhaps with age I've become my grandmother, prudish and judgmental but I'd like to think it's more than that.

Infact I find it almost laughable to observe one famous woman after another engage in one-upmanship - desperate to outstrip her peer - to shake that bare booty harder, faster - to shock by showing more. Although if I'm honest once we've seen you bare butt, oiled up and gyrating in music videos, we've seen your boobs in their full glory and your neatly manicured vajayjay - there's not much else left now is there? It makes me wonder what the future holds for our daughters. I wonder if when they're adults, women will take to performing sexual acts on their naked bodies in order to grab attention because let's face it, it's going to be hard to top a full frontal.

There are many people who argue that stripping down is a woman owning her sexuality... maybe for a few it is...but I highly doubt that the majority of these women are mature enough to fully grasp what that means. Most have simply been told ..by men...that their bodies are beautiful. Either they have convinced themselves, or let others convince them, that this is all they have to offer the world. And so they put it on display.  And of course for some women, their bodies...half clothed or naked, are their money-spinner - some might even say their only discernible talent. And that's all well and good but forgive me for having a hard time celebrating the pornification of my gender.

Interestingly there's been one constant over the decades - the men.... have remain fully clothed. Poor things- how sexually repressed they must feel.

Of course no amount of me ranting or my friends and I lamenting about how we wished the world valued women for their brains more than it does for their bodies, will change the way things are. I've learnt to accept that this is our modern world. Girls will continue to imitate their idols by stripping down to take selfies, or becoming increasingly obsessed with the size of their booties.

And for my part, I will continue to shake my head and secretly pity these body-image-obsessed women. I will continue to celebrate real sexy as demonstrated by the women whose clothes flatter their figures but who prefer to leave the stripping to private sessions with their partners. And the real sexy we see in the confident female commanding everyone's attention in a meeting. Now that's worthy of a comeback.

Sierra Leone's Ebola outbreak and Nigeria's abducted girls - reminders that we need better governments

The kidnapping of the schoolgirls in Northern Nigeria is one of the many recent tragic world events that forced me to turn my Facebook account into a tool for advocacy. Another is the tragedy taking place in Gaza - the senseless killing of innocent civilians, children included. So with the outbreak of the deadly disease, Ebola - starting in Guinea and spreading to Liberia and Sierra Leone - you would think that I'd be riled up and ready to take my position on the virtual soap box. Instead I feel powerless - as though there is not a thing I can say on Facebook that would change the present tragic situation in my country and its neighbours. 

With the loss yesterday in Sierra Leone of the leading doctor - a virologist who selflessly served his people and died doing so - that sense of powerlessness is even more pronounced. I am certainly not one for evangelical pronouncements on social media forums but I truly believe at this point that only God can save West Africa from this disease.

Yet in all my powerlessness, I am also filled with anger - anger at our governments. At the Nigerian government for waiting for weeks before looking for the Chibok girls. At the Sierra Leonean government for failing to take action early enough to stop the spread of Ebola, for not closing its borders. We only need look at our neighbours in Liberia to see how Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has dealt with the outbreak where there are considerably fewer cases and even fewer fatalities. Instead we are reminded that we have a government that is made up of "square pegs in round holes". One whose top ministers are simply not equipped, not experienced or not knowledgeable to do their jobs. These tragedies remind us of how wholly inadequate our governments are.

I recall going to Uganda a couple of years ago for a friend's wedding, this was a time when the land locked country was witnessing yet another outbreak of Ebola. There was certainly concern but overall the government did what it needed to do and the cases were few, and the fatalities even fewer. The effort was led by the Ugandan government - not its citizens.  Yet today citizens of Sierra Leone and Nigeria feel compelled to do their elected government's jobs. We are organizing ourselves to call for the return of the kidnapped schoolgirls; meeting with their parents; lobbying western governments to help. We are raising funds to help fight the Ebola outbreak; raising awareness about how to not catch the disease, and even more importantly, how to stop it from spreading. And while I recognize that concerned citizens of the world are all implicated and should all do our part, I feel compelled to point out that part of doing our part is holding our elected leaders accountable.

Shouldn't we be asking them about why they appoint people who are ill-equipped for certain key posts in their governments? Why are we not telling them, reminding them that they hold the primary responsibility for our well-being? Why are we accepting term after term their underperformance and over-rewarding? It's become commonplace for African ministers and senior officials - correction, even mid-level officials to get rich while in office, all the while doing very little to improve the countries they were elected to run or the lives of those who elected them.

I am angry but not at you, the ordinary citizen in Freetown or Lagos, London or New York, because you haven't posted something about Ebola or the Chibok girls or because you haven't donated to a fund you have no idea will make a difference to those tragic situations. I am angry at the leaders and their cohorts, the greedy, the corrupt, the lazy, the ones who think running a country is a job that can be done in between lining their pockets. I am sick and tired of us giving those fools a "get out of jail free" card so they can stick around for four or five more years to finish building that ridiculously huge mansion. Terrorism in the form Boko Haram and the outbreak of a deadly indiscriminate disease are not matters that should be taken lightly. So why are our governments not treating them with the sense of urgency they deserve? Why is the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health trying to put a positive spin on its daily updates on Ebola - when there is nothing positive about 225 confirmed deaths. More than 100 days since they were abducted, why is the Federal Government of Nigeria not doing everything within its power to find these girls? Why are both Governments acting like these catastrophes are not their's / their catastrophes, first and foremostly? When tragedies strike in parts of the Western world, we hold those government to very high, sometimes impossible standards. We expect nothing less than their absolute best and when they fail to deliver we call for their removal. When will African citizens in Africa and it's diaspora start holding their governments to the same standard? No amount of status updates, fundraising or peaceful marches will #bringbackourgirls or #kickebolaoutofsierraleone without a plan of action from those in power. We cannot do their jobs for them so let's stop trying and let's start telling them to pull their bloody fingers out!!!!

The joys and pains of Motherhood

I tend to be quite cautious about what I share on Facebook. While I don't want to come across as someone who carefully manufactures a picture-perfect Facebook life -only posting flattering holiday or family pictures where everyone is giddily happy - at the same time I would generally prefer not air my problems on social networks. The trivialities of life are fine - I'd happily tell all about my little missteps, or failings but larger, more real issues I'm afraid have to be left for person to person interaction. So when a friend did what I would ordinarily consider "overshare" today about her feelings of being unappreciated by her children and their father, I must admit that my immediate reaction was to cringe. I cringed not because I couldn't relate to what she was saying but because I thought here she was baring her soul for all one hundred and something of her so-called friends. I almost in-boxed her to ask her what was going on and if she needed to talk. But then I thought better of it and decided to respond directly to her posting my comment for other women who have similar sentiments to read.

All too often mothers are silenced by their peers, their partners, their children, by society. To speak about motherhood in a negative way can raise eyebrows and elicit whispers. Either you end up becoming the object of pity by the self-declared supermums or everyone starts walking on eggshells around you as though you're mentally unstable and could snap at any moment. Yet it is perfectly acceptable to have moments of doubt or misgivings as girlfriends or wives, so why is it unfathomable that we can experience the same thing as mothers?

From the changes our bodies undergo during pregnancy to the incomparable pain of childbirth, to the incredibly difficult post natal period where women either feel overwhelmed by the reality of having a living breathing being that requires their constant attention - to the unbearably painful and emotional early stages of breastfeeding and then the emotional rollercoaster of being all things to our children while managing our household and/or maintaining full time jobs and ensuring we look good enough to dissuade our partners/husbands from straying - women seem to bear it all....at times stoically, at other times with outward joy. For the most part, we realise that the rewards are far greater than the agony we go through - we bear the scars of motherhood with a sense of pride - the stretch marks; the hanging tummy or mother's apron as it's aptly known. We say goodbye to the idea of wearing teeny bikinis because there is this incredible person in our lives, who loves us unconditionally and makes us laugh and smile and cry and we cannot imagine ourselves without them....even if ourselves before them were skinnier and less sleep deprived.

Yet there are times when motherhood does feel like a thankless job, when it takes all the strength and willpower to stop yourself from having the outburst, from crying, from locking yourself in the bathroom and demanding a moment's peace from everyone. There are times when we have to, we need to take a break from the running around and taking care of everyone, making sure lunch and snacks are packed, uniforms are ironed, classes are attended - when we simply need to stop and ask ourselves "who is taking care of us?" And at times the answer we come back with is terribly depressing and yet we still press on. After all, this is our calling, so we tell ourselves, so quitting is simply not an option.

But if we are going to press on as primary caregivers, as fixers of everything - psychiatrists, book keepers, drivers, lovers, cooks, teachers, which I fully accept, surely we should be allowed to scream when it all gets overwhelming. Our genuinely expressed anguish shouldn't elicit cringes from our friends who are all too familiar with the things we're complaining about. We should be able to say that we feel unappreciated without being made to feel like we are letting the 'side' down...not quite coping as expected. We shouldn't feel the need to compete with the domestic goddesses who too, more likely than not, have moments of self-doubt and angst. Most importantly we should be able to tell our children and our partners how we feel. We should be able to ask them to do better, to consider our feelings too without it being seen as emotional blackmail or worse still, that loathsome sexist put down....nagging. 

Because of my reaction today, I want to apologise to all the mothers who've ever felt dismissed by their friends and their loved ones. You are right to feel overwhelmed, angry, taken for granted, even depressed at times. Those feelings are valid given what you go through each and every day. Seeing your children grow or your partner become more successful may not be enough to appease you so my hope is that, like my friend, you will find the courage to tell those who matter in your life how you feel. I hope that they will love you enough to listen and to do something about it - to start to see you as more than just a person whose role in life is facilitate their lives. And more importantly I hope you will start seeing yourself as more than their cheerleader and recognise that you are a person in your own right - that before you were a mother or a wife, you had interests, a goal, a focus! In remembering that, hopefully as mums, we can focus more on taking care of ourselves and being our own biggest fans rather than waiting for the one day each year when the people we show love and appreciation 365 days - return the favour.

Living Single in Africa

Dubbed the African version of "Sex and the City", An African City has been greeted with a lot of buzz on the social media and beyond. The series is available on Youtube and consists of ten episodes (seven have aired so far) that give us a taster of the lives of  "Five beautiful, successful African females [who] return to their home continent and confide [in each other] about love and life in 'An African City'! "
A friend posted the pilot on Facebook before it aired and I must admit that I was intrigued - it looked both interesting and refreshing -life in one of our fascinating, colourful African cities. Also the story of the returnee is one that I'm familiar with, having lived in three countries in Africa as either a returnee or a friend of a returnee.

With episode 1, my hopes were abruptly dashed - instead of observing five exposed women for whom the African continent was not a 'foreign thing', I witnessed five condescending Americanahs.... 'Johnny-Just-Comes'; 'Summers' or 'Just-kams' as they are known depending on where in Africa you are. The first episode was so full of cliches that I cringed as I watched. The women have such conk American accents that they almost sound like caricatures. I would not have been surprised if they burst into "OMG Brittany...whatever...LOL" at any given time. All I could think in my exaggerated pan-West African accent (used for effect) is "What is dis Non-Sense?" To add insult to injury one of the silly characters lamented about not being able to get Starbucks anymore - I mean who on earth misses Starbucks in a continent that exports the best coffee on earth. To use an American expression that our five protagonists can probably relate to - "really dude....?"

Determined though not to write it off...after all on paper there was not a single reason why I shouldn't like this series...convinced I would be able to relate to some of their experiences, if not all - I decided to dig my heels in and continue watching. All I needed to do was grit my teeth and sit through seven fairly short episodes (around 20 minutes each). I discussed the series with my equally unimpressed friend who lived in Accra as a 'returnee/expatriate' for a number of years and managed to convince her that it would get better....it had to.

So after watching all seven episodes, some more painful than others, I've decided to see the glass as neither half full nor half empty, rather than tell you what I think is wrong with An African City, I prefer instead to give you a list of its Pros and Cons. I don't want to be accused of being a "Hater" or not celebrating African Success so let's go with the list approach and I'll let you judge for yourself.

Let's start with the positives - that way if you love the series you can stop after this list and not be tainted by my negativity. Here goes:

1. Fabulous African City - An African City is set in gorgeous, progressive Accra. What better African City to set a series that celebrates a new generation of Africans than in Accra, the poster child for the "Africa Rising" rhetoric.
2. Beautiful Black Women - The five women featured in the series are stunning without a doubt....of different hues, shapes and sizes but each one embodies our diverse beauty in the continent and particularly in the region.
3. African Fashion - I love how they showcase African fashion - each episode features beautifully crafted clothes - some Western but most with African fabrics. The people behind the series even provided the link for one of the designers that they use on their Youtube page. I think this aspect of the series is spot on because whether you are a "homegrown" African or a returnee, the most important relationship you'll have in any African city is the one with your tailor/dressmaker. They may frustrate you and cause you to blow up their phone when your outfit is not delivered on time but when they come through, there is no better feeling than being able to walk into a crowded room with your one-of-a-kind, made-to-measure fabulous piece of Ankara bliss.
4. Relationship drama - The various relationship dilemmas are interwoven in each episode making for relate-able viewing no matter how old you are or what your marital status is. The reality of being single in any city produces interesting anecdotes let alone an African one where married men happily feature in your dating pool - and yes before you cry stereotype, that is is more of a reality in our continent than in say, New York, Paris or London. I recall when I first moved to Tanzania being asked on a date by a man and with my naive "Johnny Just Come" self, assuming he must have been not-married because why would a man with a wife and children at home take a woman out on a date in full view of society. Turned out he ,,was married and society was fully aware and fully accepting of his behaviour.  
5. Women confiding in each other - Who does lunches/dinner parties/drinks better than women? For me the fact that these five women are the main feature of the series, with the various men merely serving as a backdrop - to illustrate the tales they tell - is a recipe for fascinating, eye-opening, mind-boggling exchanges. When I think back to the conversations I had about boyfriends, sexual experiences etc during my single days, I realise that if my exes had been flies on the wall during those moments they would have gasped dramatically and probably dumped me immediately afterwards. Among single women though, no topic is taboo....the size, the way it's used, the willingness or not to take the "southern route", when single women get together - it's like a multiple therapy session where everyone gets an opportunity to air their issues and offer advice, opinions, support or just a listening ear. It's both fascinating and hilarious and while married women can also produce many side-splitting female get-togethers, we tend to be a little less generous about dishing out information on our sexual experiences - a singleton can laugh about the guy she dated with the "Idris Elba face and micro-penis" but a married women would be less willing to share unflattering stories about her life partner's bedroom skills or lack thereof with a group of friends, no matter how close. 

But here is where I think the series needs serious editing/polishing/revamping before it can claim its rightful place among brilliantly executed web series like Misadventures of awkward black girl or Shuga that are embraced by both young Africans back home and in the Diaspora. Here is my list of the pitfalls of An African City...its 'Cons' if you will....

1. Un-African Africans - after the first episode one of my girlfriends sent a message asking a group of us who had lived in Kampala as 'returnees' in our late 20s whether we were "that condescending". I immediately responded in the negative - while we bemoaned all the idiosyncrasies of living in an African city after spending decades in a Western one, we were never that disdainful. What you get in "An African City" is a bunch of self-congratulatory Americanahs (I failed to spot the British accents in all seven episodes I've seen even though at least one claims to be Brit-educated) who have a serious superiority complex. My experience in the three African cities I lived/spent time in, was of friendships that included both returnees and "home-grown" women. I remember a fabulous dreadlocked chick in Kampala who used to read poetry - she was born, studied and grew up in Uganda and I could relate to her as much as I could relate to the women who had the same Western education as me. The exchanges of the women in An African City reminds me of an expatriate dinner party I once attended in Freetown where white expatriates (oblivious of the colour of my skin and my origin) sat complaining about the locals and how hard it was to get "good help". Suffice to say that was the last time I spent time with that group of people. The women in this series are incredibly condescending and seem completely clueless about how this may come off to a "local".  In one of the episodes the main character Nana Yaa is shocked at the fact that her Ex's girlfriend spoke to her in twi...and half-heartedly regrets that she (and no doubt her friends) cannot speak a 'local language'. I mean "Are you kidding me?" (exaggerated generic West-African accent comes out again) - "are you an oyimbo/obroni/jungu/muzungu/wate-man that you cannot speak your own language?" *mcheewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww* or *tsssssssssssssst* - "Foolish gyal- you bettah go and learn". Word of warning to all you Americanahs/Europeanahs out there, if you plan to go "back home", or as you might say, back to the "motherland" I suggest you brush up on your wolof, twi, yoruba, igbo, krio, swahili, luganda, shona or whichever language applies because living in African City and not being able to speak like the "locals" is simply not an option. You may as well be a foreigner...heck as far as Africans are concerned, you may as well be Chinese.
2. Unrecognisable African names - when I heard the name Bamidele pronounced in one of the episodes, I almost fell off my chair. It was like I had been transported to middle America and was listening some foolish girl called Tiffany mispronounce an otherwise simple Yoruba name. But I soon realised that if one of the main character's name was being butchered - "En-GO-Zee" then what hope was there for poor "Bami-Day-Lay" whose face we did not even see (again...please read in appropriate African accent). Please, a word of warning if you are going to make a series set in Africa featuring African women, getting the names pronounced properly is a basic requirement. Even the character called Makena....for many of the episodes I was convinced her name was Makina....as the friends kept calling her Mak-eee-na, it was only at the end that I realised that it was infact Makena pronounced in Kenya "Ma-kay-nuh". I don't know how the Africans behind this series could miss such an obvious issue or where they so absorbed in their own American accents that they thought African viewers would be happy to see their names butchered? Every word these women utter just sounds foreign to my ears, to quote a Youtube viewer, who was clearly irritated my Nana Yaa retort to the Immigration officer who told her (rightly) to join the line for foreigners, who on earth says "I'm Gheh-Nay-An"? My reaction when I heard her was - Wha' be dis NON-SENSE? (said in a Nollywood-esque accent).
3. Too much too quickly - as I watched episode after episode, my head went into a spin with the number of issues the girls were "dealing" with at the same time. It may be true that in real life in one sitting you and your friends talk about parents' expectations, dating, government contracts, poor infrastructure, careers, exes, red tape - but on screen, that simply does not make for good viewing. An African City comes across as an attempt to cover all the bases when it comes to living in modern day Africa but for the viewer it's simply too much, too quickly. The subjects, most of which are pertinent could have been dealt with in far more depth if they were broken down, yet there were times when it felt like we were going through the creator/director's tick list. Okay - married African men -tick; corruption -tick; poor customer service - tick. And then there is the long list of Ivy league and Oxbridge schools thrown in here there and everywhere - all of them ticked off the list. Every single one if the characters - major or minor seems to have graduated from either an Ivy League university or from Oxford or Cambridge - I almost want to shout out as I watch- it's okay if you graduated from CUNY or South Bank University ladies....really you can still return home and do well. 
4. Juvenile on so many levels - I kept trying to refresh my memory with every episode about my late 20s, early 30s....was I this immature? Either these women are getting starry-eyed as they make ridiculous declarations about 'love' or someone being their 'soulmate' or spouting cliches like "I gave you seven years of my life". Or the creator is dedicating entire episodes to quirky but hardly common experiences that involve either men playing "Fling the soiled condom" in their girlfriend's apartment or going down there to check whether their girlfriend 'smells nice' - or taking loud bathroom breaks immediately after sex - Again I ask you - What nonsense is this? Does the creator really mean to tell us that Ghanaian men have a habit of throwing soiled condoms around an apartment to see where it lands or that they don't go down on their women before doing the fictitious "belly button test" or that they develop diarrhea immediately after sleeping with their girlfriends? Chale ah beg o! Perhaps these oddities were featured for comedic effect - a fact that was lost on me but I think the creator missed a trick because there are so many pertinent issues that could have been dealt with, with maturity. For instance the "to wear or not to wear a condom" question is real - take notes from Shuga - where a character in the Nigerian version responds to being asked to wear one "how can you eat an orange with the peel on - it's just not the same baby". This is an attitude that is still so prevalent among African men, young and old.  The idea that having a vibrator is something so foreign to Africa and Africans that a customs officer would mistake the infamous rabbit for a back massager is laughable to me - I'm wondering if the creator and director have had the privilege of visiting the Ghanaian blog adventuresfrom.com . You have to sign a disclaimer before entering the site, that is how risque it is. The first time I heard about it was when a friend sent me a link which gives a whole new meaning to the term 'going native' - it blew my mind! Another issue that could have been dealt with in a more mature and relevant way is the whole "to go down or not to go down on your woman" debate. This topic is fascinating because the likelihood of a man going down on you actually varies significantly from one African city to another, ...I would even go as far as saying from one ethnicity to another - while a Munyakole man in Kampala may happily do it, a Hausa man in Lagos may not be so willing. It depends entirely on cultural taboos and this really would make for a fascinating analysis.
5. Africa is not a country - while I think it's commendable that the creators of this series are trying to paint a Pan-African picture, I don't think it works. First thing - Stop with the "since I came back to Africa...since I came back to the continent" - Accra is not Nairobi...Nairobi is not Johannesburg....and Jo'burg is not Addis. While there are certain similarities -there are more differences than there are similarities. For instance customer service at Java's in Nairobi is excellent, yet go to Bancafe in Kampala and you'll want to throttle someone. Freetown has power and water rationing but Abidjan has no such problem. Women in Dar-es-Salaam tend to wear Westernised clothes whereas women in Ouaga will rock their African print and Dutch wax in the most elaborate styles. There are similarities but there are differences - many differences. And the attempt to create a group that represents 'the continent' - Sade being half Nigerian; Zainab - Sierra Leonean; Ngozi-Nigerian and Makena born in Kenya (I assume to Kenyan parents) simply falls flat when there is no follow through. The only thing I see from all of them are bland generic Western cultures - perhaps with the exception of Sade who has a bit of African spunk. They could be any group of women from any random city - London/New York/Paris - and no amount of pronouncements about "Ghana being the place of my birth,... my parents birth" changes that. It's odd because the creator does not have to look far to find true Afropolitans (to steal an expression coined by another Ghanaian) in African cities. There are many who in spite of being away from their country of birth or origin have maintained a connection with said African country that makes returning home relatively easy. Yes ofcourse they will bemoan the bureaucracy and inefficiencies in countries that are mostly developing, they will also discuss experiences that they may have taken for granted in the West but they wont in any way be handicapped by their Western education or upbringing. They can flip from their Oxbridge accents to a conk Ugandan one when the need arises; depending on who they're talking to they can either "chuchote à la Française" or launch into nouchi when trying to get a bargain in Cocody market. And then there are the Africans who move effortlessly from one African City to another - from Abuja to Harare to Libreville - all in a week's work and they are equally at ease in one city as the next - authentically Pan-African. Instead what we get is a group of über-Westernised women who seem to observe Africa from the outside. Watching the seven episodes, I simply can't get the image of the film White Chicks out of my head - as Nana Yaa or Sade or Ngozi speak all I can hear is "OMG Brittany...can you believe her...I was like LMAO...like seriously".  

Suffice to say An African City represents a start to getting interesting stories told about the continent but it's a far cry from being our answer to Sex in the City - if there is one thing we could say about the women in SATC is that they were New Yorkers through and through - our five fashionistas in An African City are neither authentically Ghanaian, nor West African, nor African for that matter. Personally I think this is a shame because as Africans back home and in the Diaspora we do have fascinating and relevant stories to tell but what makes them interesting is that our storyboards are coloured with our cultural experiences, our versatility, the languages we speak, the cultures we respect, our understanding and embracing of religion - even if its on our own terms. Perhaps the show will redeem itself in the last three episodes, perhaps the women will get accent transplants and befriend a 'local' who may not be so strange after all...until then I'll continue to enjoy the beauty, the fashion and the fabulous backdrop that is Accra.