Member-only story
Being the outsider
The many degrees of separation
Gora, barang, stranac, mzungu.
Words that were said to me because quite simply that is the word that is used, however you never quite know what connotations lie underneath. If you’ve never heard one of these words before, then you’ve never lived or visited one of the countries I have. You see, all these words mean one thing — foreigner.
That’s not the direct translation of course, one means whitey, another means Frenchy, and another means from another placey, but the intention is there. To separate us and them.
But are the barriers that sometimes isolate you real, or does it depend on our approach to them. Do we play the outsider, or are we really shut out?
By your look
Having grown up in a largely homogenous town, in a country that my roots go so far back, it has been deemed boring, I never looked different. My skin was the same, my wardrobe was mostly the same, and I didn’t have weird tattoos or piercings (those came later, and aren’t visible).
There were other kids in my school who were different though. Skin colour was the main difference as their accent was the same, they weren’t first generation. Their clothes were also the same, but that’s because we all wore school uniform.
