Aloha! Dear friends,
Oh, how I love America. My late American fiance’s favourite photo of me is one in which I have fabric that looks like an American flag wrapped around my head like an African woman’s head dress. That’s the photo of me he framed and kept on his desk in his downtown Honolulu law office. I was diffident about having a photo of me – for all to see – amidst heavy law books and framed copies of his certificates from Harvard and Notre Dame universities. Now I relish the gesture.
In the photograph, the stripes of the American flag can be seen on my head dress and on my body you can see some of the stars embroidered on the bou-bou I’m wearing. The image I wanted to project is that of a proud African woman who is equally (and unabashedly) proud of America.
About this time of the year – Memorial weekend – I join the rest of America in paying tribute to their military men and women. They are the ones who have played an especially significant role in making America what it is – a great country that welcomes immigrants from all parts of the world and comes to the aid of oppressed and afflicted around the world.
During the Memorial season I try to honour the soldiers by at least listening to their stories. I attend church events which honour them. Sometimes I send out emails reminding all to do what the Bible says: Pray for the peace and prosperity of whatever land God takes you to. He gives us where-ever our feet treads upon.
I usually turn on TBN which does a good job of honouring servicemen and women. On that channel I listen to Dave Roever over and over again talk about his pain and suffering and how God has given him the grace to live on and to use his experience to encourage other soldiers. Roever’s face is disfigured from the burns he received in the frontlines of the Vietnam war.
My friend, Blanca, who is from El Salvador, feels the same way about America. One year – when I was living in Hawaii – she got lots of orchid leis from her job and we went to the military cemetery and laid them at the graves of the soldiers. I think that was for Veterans’ Day. We also got to chat with family members who were visiting the graves of their departed loved ones. Two women at one graveside said they still come to the cemetery to honour their uncle who died in the Korean war.
I fell in love with America even before I came here. In my teens I memorised Emma Lazarus’ poem inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty.
I love to celebrate Black History month too. Two years ago my aunty, my friend Florence and I celebrated the month in a big way. We invited African and African-American drummers to my aunty’s African store and they took turns to perform. The African-American drummer taught us to drum and how to chant African songs. Many of the Africans who attended said they had never drummed before. They had to come all the way to America to touch a drum for the first time in their lives.
I also had the opportunity to speak at a church that year. I told the largely African-American church that they are our “Josephs” sent to prepare America to receive future African immigrants. Slave trade, was evil, but God has turned it around for the good of many of African-ancestry. I thanked them for the price they and their ancestors paid for the many benefits all black people enjoy today in America.
Some of our people find it difficult to show love for America even though they enjoy the many benefits of living here. Some of them don’t have much love for Nigeria either. They are quick to join the natives who don’t appreciate their country in blaming America for everything wrong in the world. I usually ask them: Then why did you come to America? So you think America is a racist country, but you left your country where Black people are in charge and flew over several other countries where Blacks are also in charge to come here.
Yes, I sure do love America and proudly express that love whenever I can. But I love Nigeria too, Africa also, so I will not allow the West to export the increasingly decadent facets of their culture to Africa without a fight. They have redefined marriage, gender, family, conception, contraception, tolerance etc. and they intend to force their new-fangled definitions upon Africa through their media, movies and development aid. Many in Nigeria, Africa and many other parts of the world would agree with some of Boko Haram’s claim that Western culture is sinful. They would disagree with them though on their means to reduce its impact on other parts of the world.
Some United States natives and organisations sound like they consider activists who fight for the expression of the Christian worldview in the public square to be more dangerous than Boko Haram or Al-Qaeda. They call their organisations hate groups and persecute them.
(The words on the base of the Statue of Liberty come from the last five lines of a poem titled “The New Colossus.” It reads: “Give me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore/Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me/I lift my lamp beside the golden door!)
