For the diaspora, on the occasion of our Independence Day
We understand your desire to be proud of your country. She is yours, and like everyone that has ever identified with anything, you want to think of her as beautiful, worthy of your dedication.
We also understand that, through no fault of yours, we receive this day differently. October 1st has meant many things to many Nigerians. For example, I cannot imagine the excitement and optimism with which my grandmother faced her first, the actual day of independence. Having felt the newness of a child not long before, now being able to call her country her own. Hers to claim and theirs to forge, not as the queen would have it, but as they wished. Optimistic because every leader is a freedom fighter and democracy is sacred. Unfortunately, I cannot say that I know that feeling of newness, that possibility of influence.
On the other hand, that pride I know. That beat-your-chest, stand-up-straight pride from calling a place your own might be our great unifier. Independence Day points us home if anything. It calls to our sense of identity and reminds us that not many places can bear that title. Our responses to this prompting, however, might be where we differ.
Like in any close-quarters relationship, Nigerians at home are intimately acquainted with her imperfections. We are more comfortable with disappointment in our country mingling with pride and sometimes (if not often) overshadowing it. To say that Nigeria is deeply flawed would be to put it mildly. We could explore and expand the individual and collective systems that we have watched (and maybe even helped) break or those that have sagged under the weight of overexertion and negligence. However, I would rather not, at least not today. Suffice it to say that Nigeria offers her inhabitants a storm that must be continuously braved. For many Nigerians at home, we do not get to choose which emotions October 1st leaves at our doors. National pride without frustration seems unrealistic, and frustration alone just makes one angry all the time.
Nonetheless, the undeniable truth remains that home is home. Nigeria is soothing in its familiarity, and there is definitely comfort in being immersed in a people and culture that you can identify as yours. Our country is, unfortunately, sweeter from a distance, the kind afforded by wealth or actual geography. In the punchy yet apt tone I have come to expect from Twitter, someone tweeted that the Nigerian dream is to miss Nigeria from abroad. From my experiences and conversations, I cannot truly disagree. We want our love undiluted with resentment; we want our identity divorced from discontent.
Even though we receive it differently, we know this day is yours, just as it is ours. Envy or separation cannot arise from circumstances neither of us could control. Today, we celebrate, we remember and we hope.
We are together in our longing for more.
Yours,
The Ones at Home.
Itunu Speaks has written a beautifully relevant response to this piece.
