Ahh, a White Man

There is an African proverb that goes, "On his first day, the stranger should open only his eyes and ears, but not his mouth." Because when you find yourself in unknown territory, it is wise to first "look and listen", something our ninth grade history teacher told us to do whenever some imbecile was too loud again and interrupted class. Back then I thought always repeating that simple but annoying phrase should effectively make kids shut up but no, not really. People will always act smart because they think they are. And that, I assume, is something about many foreigners that Africans don't like very much.

My Cameroon pocket guide begins with citing that proverb. I thought it was not too bad, and I therefore tried to put away any preconceptions I had and absorb everything like a sponge. One is bound to be labeled as ignorant if he starts out thinking of all the people here as being the same -they clearly distinguish between people of different tribes-, but with the right attitude, he will enjoy the personable people that most Cameroonians are. Of course it isn't until you travel the remote countryside and ask a local chief for permission to spend the night in their village that it becomes really special. But getting settled in the political capital where so few foreigners come (as opposed to coastal Douala, the country's financial and industrial center) has also been interesting so far. As the country's second largest city it attracts Cameroonians from all provinces and it is the first time I see so many churches and mosques together in one place. I may have my opinion on religion but it is good to see that over here, Christians and Muslims peacefully live side by side and have better things to worry about than looking at each other with suspicion. Better things like food, Samuel Eto'o (football player), taking their kids to school, killing mosquitoes.

Or more reliable electricity and faster internet, in my case. What's new to me but typical of poor countries is that bad infrastructure severely limits your mobility and productivity. I used to think that Italy and, to a lesser extent, England have bad roads but coming here really puts things into perspective. For businesses that can be devastating of course, but foreigners don't all come here to do business. Diplomats don't suffer much from bad infrastructure; some NGOs okay, especially during crises; but tourists no, since the ones who come here probably all have too much time, and the reason why tourists go anywhere is to be away from home. Because at home, things are (too) familiar.

A few days ago, my colleague invited me to his place, to meet his wife and little kids. He told me it would be exciting since they had never seen a white guy before. It must have been the equivalent of the average family man in China returning home with a black man to show to his 5-Year-Old. Their first reaction was priceless: "Ahh! What's wrong with that.. person?!" There are business meetings that my colleague goes to without me so as not to draw too much attention with my white skin. Man..

But in South Africa, the Chinese living there have just recently been officially added to the category of "Blacks". In an attempt to compensate for the harm done to the black community during Apartheid, the government now favors blacks over whites in many things that it controls (messed up). I THINK it was decided it would be wrong to disfavor Chinese along with "Whites" in this context; anyhow, as a result, in South Africa we are now regarded by law as "Blacks". That must be good news for the Chinese entrepreneurs there.*

So, Africans apparently don't recognize yellow as a skin color and I have thus found myself an identity crisis I never knew existed: an ethnic Chinese wondering if he's black or white!



On a side note, that English version of the proverb is at least the translation of a translation and representative of the contents of this blog which aren't double-checked for accuracy, mostly because I'm not a reliable investigative journalist (I'm not a journalist) but also because internet here in Cameroon is just depressingly slow.
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