"For tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today" #AfricanProverb
Dear Folks,
In the year 2000, one day in school back in Lawrence Kansas, my history teacher handed out a copy of the Economist Magazine. On the front cover was the headline “The Hopeless Continent” – in reference to Africa. Instantly, I remember feeling myself shovel a little lower in my seat, as I knew the schoolyard taunts that awaited me if ever I got into a situation with a classmate.(in this era, having any parental link to Africa was considered “uncool”).
A decade later in 2010, the Economist Magazine took back its position and had as its front cover the title “The Hopeful Continent”. Likewise, a few years after this publication, I too would embark on my own personal journey in search of all that was true, a myth or hopeful about the continent I called home.
So this is where the story of this blog begins!
Unlike my parents who had migrated to the U.S. in the late eighties and classified as the generation of “Brain Drain” out of Africa (the process in which a country loses its most able and talented workers to other countries through migration) I was determined that my identity be tied to the generation of “Brain Gain” – the benefits to a country as a result of an increase in the number of highly trained, foreign born professionals entering to live and work)
And so it was, in 2012 I took a step into the relatively unknown of moving to Africa as a young professional. This is what prompted me to pen down my experiences in the form of this blog. Reverse-migration back to the Motherland at this time was still at its infancy. In a nutshell, having made the journey and having returned back to the West – I can say this: Do it, if you are strong in your convictions and passionate of being an agent of change. Just remember that this journey is not for the faint of heart. You will fail as many times as you will succeed – I know I did. Likewise, don’t do it though, if you are unprepared, or using your heart and not your head in making the decision to move back, this method is not sustainable – (what happened with me). I was in my early twenties and seemingly unprepared to cope with the realities of what it entails to live alone in a country that was not mine, regardless of the fact that it was in Africa.
However, in the end, my journey as an African Expatriate was one of courage, soul searching, triumphs, failures, abundance of fun and friendships, and most definitely of staking my claim as part of the narrative of “Africa Rising”
I look forward to giving another go at moving back to Africa – and in the meantime, I like so many of us in the Diaspora, live vicariously through those that have made the journey back successfully.
Thank you for taking time to check out the updated version of the blog. We have evolved since our early days on google blogger – keep coming back for more.
“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for”.
Your Girl,
Juanita Nene
xoxoxoxo
Commentaires