Sorry I’ve not
been consistent with my blog, I’ve been super busy and super tired, also my
internet has been acting very strange. I’m going to post more on what I have
been up to but for now, I have to rant about a few things.
So first of
all, I got into Nigerian Law School, yay me!! As of Monday this week, I started
the Bar 1 program. The Bar 1 program is for students who studied law in foreign
jurisdictions. This includes students that studied in the U.S, England,
Cameroon, Ghana etc. Though these students are foreign trained, they are
Africans. I’ll say that about 75% of the students are Nigerian and the other 25% are
from other AFRICAN countries.
Now tell me
why my new colleagues are having difficulties saying my name, not remembering my
name, just saying it. When I was in the U.S I had people come up to me and say
my name was “interesting” or “unique” or “difficult to pronounce.” You’ll have
to forgive me for thinking that people in Nigeria would not have the same
issues with my name.
In the past
week my colleagues have butchered my name like no one ever has and it has been
very disappointing. I guess I was expecting too much when I thought Africans would
ATTEMPT to properly pronounce my name. It was so bad y’all that one girl even
went as far as to ask me what my English name was. Really? My English name? You
can’t pronounce my native name? My name is too local for you ma’am? So I’m the
fool for attempting and correctly pronouncing YOUR native name? oh okay!
I spoke with my
cousin about the situation and she said they were forming. I honestly did not
wat to believe her but sadly I feel she is right. If they truly are forming, my
question is why? Like why bother? We know you went to school abroad, hell we
all did. So who are you trying to impress? We’ve all travelled outside the
country, we all have passports with stamps in them, so what’s the point?
This whole
experience has been a sad one. We are Africans, the world turns their nose on
us, why do we constantly do it to ourselves? I honestly had high hopes for the
next generation of African leaders but if we can’t even maintain our native names
or accept other people’s native names, then I weep for the future.
My name is EKIB say it with me (Eh-cub)
whole time I've been pronouncing it as Eh-Keeb. Now I know.
ReplyDeleteLol, that's a lot better than Erica! :)
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