3 Flags, 1 Girl
the Story
3 flags: France, Mali, USA
This is my story.
Growing up in France with African parents. I was raised in the African traditions, and struggled to find my identity as a French girl. In my household, I was an African girl, from the food I ate to the clothes I wore, but at school I was this French girl who had to learn to socialize with classmates with different stories. I moved to the USA 7 years ago and noticed that African American may struggle to find their identity as well.
I want my story to help those in similar situations or who find difficult to find their places in this country.
Podcast 1: growing up in a big city
In large city, we meet all sort of people. People always have opinions on how we should behave. How I succeeded to not let them affect me.
In high school, I would always wear a hair piece, long and silk hair, I felt pretty when I was wearing them. But my classmates didn’t like that and they would always teased me, until I talked back to a girl who mocked my hair in front of everybody. They all left me alone after that.
Podcast 2: French & African origins.
It might be hard to identify your origins when you grow up in a different country. How I embraced my origins.
I would eat African foods at home because my mom only knew how to cook that as she grew up in Mali (a country located in Northwest Africa, famously known for Timbuktu). I would eat French foods at school for lunch, and learn more about French culture through my best-friend who was a french girl.
Podcast 3: Summer Breaks in Africa.
Me retracing my summer breaks in Africa and how hard it was to adapt to the conditions of living.
We would spend every summer break in Bamako, the main city where my mother is from. I hated the living conditions: no running water, no toilet seats, limited food choices. My mother tried to make a pleasant experience for us still by filling up our suitcases with snacks that we liked before leaving France. My father is from a tiny village located Northwest from the main city. I enjoyed this village as we could eat fruits out of trees and see animals, but since it was located near the desert it was very hot and my mother was afraid we wouldn’t be able to handle the heat so she made us stay in the main city.
Podcast 4: The African Man Mentality
One of my friends still hold grudges against his father for abandoning him and his siblings when he moved back to his country in Africa and founded a new family there.
I explained to him that an African man doesn’t immigrate to a developed country to live the “happily ever after” kind of life. He moved so that he can earn more money to support his family back in Africa.
Now, the African traditions don’t allow you to live by yourself. It’s not well-seen. Family is everything. You have to get married, then you have a year after that to be pregnant otherwise people are going to start asking questions.
The kids that they have in the developed country are seen as lucky and won’t get any attention, especially financially because they have access to quality education, food and clothes compare to the kids in Africa.
When the African man gets a stabilized life in his developed country, he goes back to his original country and marry a woman so that he can support her and she can live a comfortable life.