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A letter to Kenyans Abroad - by bikozulu
kiterunner
#111 Posted : Friday, August 30, 2013 7:33:55 PM
Rank: Member

Joined: 7/9/2011
Posts: 730
Location: Nairobi
Lolest! wrote:
Siringi wrote:
An oga has also penned an interesting piece get time and read it id a dogz life

american-life-rudolf-ogoo-okonkwo

Grim picture. How long should one stay in the diaspora before cutting losses if things turn bad? I know some who face hard times refuse to come back home coz they fear their society will laugh at them



The fear you speak of is very real, look at this thread, returnees would go insane if they came back and tormented daily if this this thread is anything to go by.

The Nigerian writer has brought out virtually all the challenges diasporans face in a lifetime in very lucid prose
our goals are best achieved indirectly
wazuaguest
#112 Posted : Friday, August 30, 2013 7:57:08 PM
Rank: Member

Joined: 2/9/2012
Posts: 576
quicksand wrote:
Siringi wrote:
An oga has also penned an interesting piece get time and read it id a dogz life

american-life-rudolf-ogoo-okonkwo


That was a sobering article ...waa! Sad Sad Sad

sobering.seems things can get really out of hand.The person who said East or West home is best might have been very correct.The support systems we have in life are very important.
Africa belongs to Africans.
kiterunner
#113 Posted : Saturday, August 31, 2013 3:56:06 PM
Rank: Member

Joined: 7/9/2011
Posts: 730
Location: Nairobi
ANOTHER ONE FROM NIGERIA

http://www.theguardian.c...-arrogant-just-got-back

“I just got back.” It’s a phrase that’s said to pepper the conversations of Nigerians who have returned home to live and work. When confronted with the erratic power supply, or the four-hour traffic jams, or the day-long petrol queues, they sigh and say: “I’m not used to this. You see, I just got back.” So often do these returnees utter these words that they have come to be called IJGBs.

After Home Office vans began patrolling London’s streets telling illegal migrants to “go home” – making legal migrants of all backgrounds feel unwelcome too – some in Nigeria now wonder if this will mean a new wave of IJGBs.

The story of the African diaspora returning home to seize new economic opportunities is a familiar one, trumpeted on mainstream news channels and backwater blogs. The continent is poised for unprecedented growth and, all over the world, young African professionals are heeding the call of the motherland and returning to lend their expertise. From founding start-ups to working in established companies; from oil and gas to film distribution; from government appointments to niche private sector roles, the African marketplace is thronging with Africans who have lived and trained abroad. Yet, where some see a Marcus Garvey-style exodus to the promised land, I also see a similar pattern to that laid down by European colonisers in the 19th and 20th centuries.

When IJGBs arrive on African soil, many come with a set of Victorian-era assumptions. The natives are backward. By natives I mean those who have not lived or worked or studied abroad. The native, with his questionable degree from a rundown local university, does not have the skills needed for a modern business world. Thus the best jobs should go to the IJGBs. They have not flown south and crossed the Atlantic to be clerks and graduate trainees. They are here to be district officers and bank managers and live in the best sequestered accommodation.

Where possible, they ask to be paid in foreign currency. Where possible, they found clubs of IJGBs and limit their contact with the natives to a minimum. And often a foreign accent, preferably British or American, clings to their speech long after they’ve graduated from IJGB status to “I’ve been back for a while now”.

There can often be one standard for IJGBs and another for everyone else. In Nigeria, where a year of national service is mandatory for all who have graduated before 30, the most likely to wriggle out are the IJGBs, with the excuse of illness, busyness or just a general inability to cope with the truly horrible living conditions that home-trained graduates must have no choice but to endure.

I discovered that I had unwittingly imbibed some of the prejudices of the diaspora when I attended a reading in Lagos where the audience comprised chiefly of Nigerian students and graduates. Their questions showed great erudition; their contributions were abreast of contemporary discourse, and the breadth of literary knowledge on display put my own paltry store to shame. And what other reason for my surprise, but that I had unconsciously believed all I had heard about the Nigerian graduate. I felt like a reader whose knowledge of Africa had come from Joseph Conrad and Joyce Cary who then stumbles on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart for the first time. I felt chastised.

This is not to say that there is nothing the IJGBs have to bring to the story of Africa’s development. We need bankers from Goldman Sachs and legal minds from Clifford Chance. But we also need financiers who know the saving habits of market women in eastern Nigeria, and lawyers who know how to move around a Lagos high court. Most importantly I feel that diasporans must accept that, with the internet, knowledge is migrating faster than we can pack our bags. We are arriving on a continent where the natives are armed with local expertise and a knowledge of the outside world. Let us remember this if we decide to heed the writings on the vans. We are arriving to be partners, not lords and masters. So let us tread softly and tread humbly.

- See more at: http://bikozulu.co.ke/a-...kenyans-abroad/#comments
our goals are best achieved indirectly
masukuma
#114 Posted : Saturday, August 31, 2013 4:36:53 PM
Rank: Elder

Joined: 10/4/2006
Posts: 13,823
Location: Nairobi
lol!
Nameme wrote:

Take heart Gish..five yrs ago i financially helped one of them to go to Oz..before he settled he always called me back here, but now that he is settled and has a well paying job..he went quiet, last month i thought i should call him to see if he is ok,,this is how he responded, "hello,wha' u want?" huh,,i told him,"nilikuwa nakujulia hali" he disconected the phone and never called back. Tell 'em Biko, East or west..nyumbani ni nyumbani.
- See more at: http://bikozulu.co.ke/a-...kenyans-abroad/#comments
All Mushrooms are edible! Some Mushroom are only edible ONCE!
ecstacy
#115 Posted : Saturday, August 31, 2013 4:57:22 PM
Rank: Elder

Joined: 2/26/2008
Posts: 4,449
masukuma wrote:
lol!
[quote=Nameme]
Take heart Gish..five yrs ago i financially helped one of them to go to Oz..before he settled he always called me back here, but now that he is settled and has a well paying job..he went quiet, last month i thought i should call him to see if he is ok,,this is how he responded, "hello,wha' u want?" huh,,i told him,"nilikuwa nakujulia hali" he disconected the phone and never called back. Tell 'em Biko, East or west..nyumbani ni nyumbani.
- See more at: http://bikozulu.co.ke/a-...enyans-abroad/#comments[/quote]

Laughing out loudly Laughing out loudly
Siringi
#116 Posted : Saturday, August 31, 2013 9:58:02 PM
Rank: Elder

Joined: 6/8/2013
Posts: 2,517
Applause Applause Applause Haiya @kiashes Bikozulu surely touched raw nerves 628 comments and 924 tweets nit counting retweetsPray

masukuma wrote:
lol!
[quote=Nameme]
Take heart Gish..five yrs ago i financially helped one of them to go to Oz..before he settled he always called me back here, but now that he is settled and has a well paying job..he went quiet, last month i thought i should call him to see if he is ok,,this is how he responded, "hello,wha' u want?" huh,,i told him,"nilikuwa nakujulia hali" he disconected the phone and never called back. Tell 'em Biko, East or west..nyumbani ni nyumbani.
- See more at: http://bikozulu.co.ke/a-...enyans-abroad/#comments[/quote]
"😖😡KQ makes money for everyone except the shareholder 😏😏 " overheard in Wazua
pariah
#117 Posted : Saturday, August 31, 2013 10:46:34 PM
Rank: Member

Joined: 11/24/2011
Posts: 833
poundfoolish wrote:
Nabwire wrote:
This is the point where I give up, wacha nikajipatie sshughli!



I cringe when i talk to Nairobi women... that accent? GALS!!! Cant you just drop it.. what the Effff

Something in between Shanikwa and Hillary Rodham... worse accent in the world



That accent is so arghhhhh ,

Besides the accent, my pet peeves are am kujaing (for am coming) or anaa (for another). . . . . add your here
xyzee
#118 Posted : Saturday, August 31, 2013 11:12:16 PM
Rank: Veteran

Joined: 1/9/2009
Posts: 1,262
why is the american english by blacks and whites different?

I find it easier sometimes to understand whites or is it just me?
Upako
#119 Posted : Saturday, August 31, 2013 11:12:17 PM
Rank: Hello

Joined: 8/31/2013
Posts: 4
This thread should be renamed mafeelings or mauchungu. Kenyans seem to have mingi bile for others. Wacheni mafeelings. We all have peeves, but that should not become a stereotype about everyone in the diaspora.
These are probably the same people who talk I'll of their pals because their pals have made it. They simply can't be happy for anyone and feel good about putting other down.
Biko has brought up some issues that may be valid, like diaspora guys knowing what's best for the country and so on.Its annoying yes, but it's the same behavior practiced by people especially sports fans when watching their teams from the sidelines. I don't see anyone causing pande cause of that.
Lakini watu wa mafeelings, No one likes people who reek of sweat and foul body odour, so for someone to come here and use that to justify a reason to hate on the guys fortunate enough to have traveled is just wrong. Ombeni pia mbarikiwe mtembee nchi za mbali.

kysse
#120 Posted : Sunday, September 01, 2013 12:45:50 AM
Rank: Elder

Joined: 1/17/2013
Posts: 4,693
Location: Earth
I once found myself among latinas who's english is very poor even though they live in an english speaking country-They are actually very proud of their spanish and speak it everywhere instead of english.
Now I had trouble conversing with them in english hadi they kept asking, you speak good english? better than us? you from africa? -they don't know kenya,every black is from africa or SA.

To help me converse, I had to pick up their 'broken english and accent,learn few spanish words and within a short time I was really enjoying it cz it's like song.smile.
Had I spent more time there,ningekuwa naongea na twang ya spanish and poor english.
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