K: Culture

By: Khadij Tandja

1. When you know your culture, you know who you are, where you come from.
2. You have a place to call home.
3. You hold your head up high and proudly claim your uniqueness, basking in the knowledge of your diverse background.
4. My culture defines everything about me.
5. The beauty and grace of Africa is recognizable when you see me. It’s an Africa that they never show you, one that is not hidden beneath the veneer of poverty and hunger.
6. It is an Africa that beckons everyone to come home, where different identities, culture and languages conjoin as one.
7. That is the real Africa. The one that I know. It is not hidden by ostentatious elite who let their desire to exploit our riches overtake their greed.
8. So do you know where you come from? Do you know your culture?
9. Are you from Asia where culture is not just limited to the Chinese and Japanese?
10. Are you from the Caribbean where ackee beckons you to dine with saltfish? Where the islands are many but the people are one.
11. Or are you from here? The solid ground of America, land where our family has come for better opportunities, where we have toiled and cried, hoping our suffering will not pass on to our children?

12. What is the place you call home? What is your culture?