Comfort Ero, artistic director of African Stages Association of BC. Photo courtesy of the African Stages Association
As the world’s second largest continent, Africa, with its multiplicity of history, peoples and cultures, is still often misunderstood. In one of his dissertations, African historian Paul Tiyambe Zeleza suggests that the interchangeable use of the term “Africa” with “Sub-Saharan Africa” ultimately gives a racialized view of Africa as the “black” continent. In other words, Africa is often viewed along ethnic lines.
Who is African?
Originally from Nigeria and currently the Artistic Director of African Stages Association of BC, Comfort Ero initially started this group to promote the African culture. Although there are thousands of cultures within this part of the world, Ero says that they concentrate on things that are common to all Africans, like storytelling and dancing.
For Ero, the word “African” refers specifically to people from Africa, whereas “Black” refers to everybody with African heritage, like African-Americans, Afro-Brazilians, etc. She says, though, that sometimes people wouldn’t want to be called “Black,” but she concedes that there’s no harm in saying it if it’s not used in a derogatory way. “Personally I don’t care, because that’s who I am and I’m a dark person,” she says.
Zico Draoui, who came to Canada from Tunisia in 1985, now owns and runs a French-Tunisian restaurant called the Carthage Café. In his native Tunisia, the genetic makeup of the population is a mixture of Berber, Arab, European and Sub-Saharan African.
Draoui’s opinion is that anybody with an African heritage is considered African, including the African diaspora who have been residing in different parts of the world for centuries. And for him, African does not necessarily equal Black. When Draoui used to work in a casino, a customer asked him where he was from; he replied, “Africa.” The customer remarked, “You’re not from Africa. You’re whiter than me.”
Both Ero and Draoui believe that any person living in Africa is considered African, including the people of European descent who have been there for generations. Ero says that Africans are very welcoming and accepting of people, as long as they reciprocate the warmth that they’ve received. And so, Ero says that “African” can be a term describing ethnicity, but it can also be referring to a place – where someone came from; it depends on the context.
For example, Draoui says that even in the Olympics you see black and white men and women who all play under the flag of South Africa – they’re all African.
On a Pan-African Identity
Advocates and critics both contest the merits of having a unified identity.
For Draoui, he is a Tunisian first, before anything else. When people ask him where he’s from, he’ll first say his country of origin. And if people don’t know where it is, then he’ll explain which continent it’s from. “ First, it’s your country before anything else,” he says. “If I say I’m from Africa, it’s too big.”
Ero says that in certain ways it’s good to have a Pan-African identity, because some countries are so small that being able to identify oneself on a macro level would be more beneficial. But when it comes to cultural values, she believes that it’s better to identify with the tribe they come from, and it’s important to preserve that bit of inherited culture. “The African identity tends to unify people and create progress for them.”
Draoui believes that Africa is the future. In his experience, some Africans may hesitate to say where they’re from because of the negative publicity they receive. But, “Today, and maybe in the future, all the continent of Africa will say with pride, ‘Yes, I’m from Africa,’” he says.
Ero says that to be African today means to be a person like everybody else – it is just an area describing who you are. And she also expresses pride in being African. “[African] means to be proud of who you are, wherever you’re from. And we shall look ahead.”
