Taiye Selasi: Don't ask where I'm from, ask where I'm a local
تاي سيلاسي: لا تسألني من أي بلد أتيت،إسألني من أين أنا محليا.
In her writings, Taiye Selasi explores our relationship to our multiple identities. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
في جولة كتابي الأول.
alas, with a lie:
from Ghana and Nigeria,"
from England and the States."
إنجلترا و الولايات المتحدة."
and grew up in the United States.
and raised in Nigeria,
a British colony,
وهي مستعمرة بريطانية،
in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
في المملكة العربية السعودية.
also called me "multinational."
على أنني " متعددة الجنسيات."
with the writer Colum McCann.
of locality in writing,
for going on two decades.
naturally occurring things,
was an absolute,
had disappeared -- Czechoslovakia;
failed -- Somalia.
that didn't exist when they were born.
لم يكونا موجودين حين ولدا.
be born, die, expand, contract --
قد يولد،يموت،يتوسع،يتقلص--
for understanding a human being.
to discover the sovereign state.
اكتشاف مفهوم الدولة السيادية.
of sovereign statehood,
only 400 years ago.
masters degree in international relations,
لشهادة الماجيستير في العلاقات الدولية،
to re- or un-define myself,
أن أعيد تعريف نفسي أو أن ألغي التعريف عنها،
"What is an Afropolitan,"
that privileged culture over country.
could relate to my experience,
كانت لهم نفس التجربة،
didn't buy my sense of self.
لم يتبنوا رؤيتي للذات.
one such critic asked,
تساءل أحدهم ناقدا،
on a Ghanian passport?"
who was born and raised in Ghana.
ولدت و ترعرعت في غانا.
Ghanians of Lebanese descent.
من الغانيين من أصول لبنانية.
knows Accra like the back of her hand,
، تعرف آكرا مثل الجزء الخلفي من يدها،
I thought, "She's not from Ghana."
اعتقدت،"أنها ليست من غانا."
that all her formative experience
أن كل تجاربها التكوينية
where all Ghanaians had brown skin
from countries sets --
the singular country,
the penny finally dropped.
كان النقطة المضيئة.
I proclaimed onstage.
from the United States," isn't the truth.
ليس صحيحا.
with the United States,
the town where I grew up;
المدينة التي نشأت فيها،
where I spend Thanksgiving.
is not my passport or accent,
أو لكنتي،
and my love of Ghanaian food,
with the Republic of Ghana, writ large.
where my mother lives,
where my father and I talk for hours.
حيث أتحدث مع والدي لساعات.
that shape my experience.
of "Where are you from?" --
about who and how similar we are.
عمن نحن،وكيف أننا متشابهون.
and I see what, a set of clichés?
مجموعة من الصور النمطية؟
the myth of the nation of France?
أسطورة الأمة الفرنسية؟
a set of experiences.
وسأرى مجموعة من التجارب.
rituals, relationships, restrictions.
whatever they may be:
مهما كانت:
saying your prayers.
do shopkeepers know your face?
suburban rituals in Boston,
معروفة من ضواحي بوسطن،
my mother brought from London and Lagos.
جلبتها أمي من لندن و لاغوس.
polite with our elders,
مع من يكبرنا سنا،
ours were rituals of the global South.
كانت طقوسنا من جنوب العالم.
or to southern parts of Italy,
أو للأجزاء الجنوبية لإيطاليا،
of the people who shape your days.
your Facebook friends.
your weekly emotional experience.
تجربتك العاطفية الأسيوعية.
my twin sister in Boston,
our rituals and relationships,
where are you able to live?
from feeling fully at home where you live?
أو أنك لا تحس أنك في الوطن حيث تعيش؟
economic inflation,
التضخم الاقتصادي،
where you had your rituals as a child?
طقوسك حين كنت طفلا؟
والعلاقات،
"Where are you now?"
"أين أنت الآن؟"
on top of three columns,
رأس ثلاثة أعمدة،
as honestly as you can.
بكل صدق ممكن.
of your life in local context,
came to Germany on scholarships.
إلى ألمانبا عن طريق منحة دراسية.
and lived there until age 10.
وعاش حتى سن العاشرة.
he studied in London,
درس في لندن،
in northwest Argentina,
from Germany, what is now Poland,
والتي هي بولندا،
and nine years ago came to Berlin.
وقد عاد قبل 9 سنوات إلى برلين.
the weather, the food, the friends --
الجو،والأكل و الأصدقاء--
Udo could pass for German,
يبدو أودو ألمانيا،
so needs a visa to live in Berlin.
ويحتاج تأشيرة للعيش في برلين.
has largely to do with history.
بشكل كبير بالتاريخ.
of Buenos Aires and Berlin,
needs a visa to visit Nigeria.
لتأشيرة لزيارة نيجريا.
"not really Nigerian," though,
is undoubtedly one of his homes,
هي بالتأكيد أحد أوطانه،
by the political conditions
بظروف سياسية
most meaningful rituals
and Udo is from Argentina
and their restrictions are the same.
"Where are you from?"
than "Lagos and Berlin,"
"لاغوس و برلين،"
we can always zoom in closer,
"Where are you from?"
with the language of locality asks us
to where real life occurs.
of countryhood, the World Cup,
mostly of multilocal players.
من لاعبين متعددي المحلية.
for human experience,
but my parents come from Nigeria."
لكن والدي ينحدران من نيجيريا."
belies the inflexibility of the units,
مرونة الوحدات،
bumping up against another.
ببعضها البعض.
suggests overlapping experiences,
تقترح التجارب المتداخلة،
that can't be denied or removed.
التي لايمكن إنكارها أو إزالتها.
that we do away with countries.
for national history,
and community exists in context.
these things are important.
هذه الآمور مهمة.
began with reference to nation,
بدأت بالعودة إلى الأمة،
from would tell my audience who I was.
سيعطي جمهوريفكرة عمن أكون.
when we ask where someone comes from?
حسن نسأل من أي بلد ينحدر شخص ما؟
when we hear an answer?
Mexico. Poland. Bangladesh. Less power.
المكسيك.بولندا.بنغلاديش.قوة أضعف.
we're playing a power game,
بصدد لعب لعبة القوة،
of multi-ethnic countries.
or "Where are you really from?"
أو" من أين أنت حقيقة؟"
William Deresiewicz's writing
their environment is diverse
and another from Pakistan --
والآخر من باكستان--
are doctors or bankers."
another Pakistani,
وباكستاني على آخر،
student body diversity
are locals of the same milieu.
هم محليون من نفس الوسط.
of the economic spectrum.
الآخر من الطيف الإقتصادي.
and a Nepali housekeeper in Delhi
ومدبرة المنزل النيبالية في دلهي
in terms of rituals and restrictions
من حيث الطقوس والقيود
with coming from countries
to "go back" to Ghana.
"للعودة" إلى غانا.
but I can't "go back" to Ghana.
لكن لا يمكنني "العودة "إلى غانا.
and find it exactly where we left it.
ونجده تماما كما تركناه.
will always have changed,
لا محالة سيتغير،
about is human experience,
disorderly affair.
وغير المرتبة.
locality bespeaks humanity.
فالمحلية تنم عن الإنسانية.
about where a story is set,
the characters start to feel,
and the vocabulary of coming from
ومفردات" قادم من"
into mutually exclusive categories.
في خانات حصرية حيال بعضنا البعض.
multi-local, multi-layered.
ومتعدد الطبقات.
with an acknowledgement of this complexity
not further apart.
وليس العكس.
like everybody here.
but a citizen of worlds.
بل مواطنة من عدة عوالم.
Rome and Accra."
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Taiye Selasi - AuthorIn her writings, Taiye Selasi explores our relationship to our multiple identities.
Why you should listen
A writer and photographer of Nigerian and Ghanaian descent, born in London and raised in Boston, now living in Rome and Berlin, who has studied Latin and music, Taiye Selasi is herself a study in the modern meaning of identity. In 2005 she published the much-discussed (and controversial) essay "Bye-Bye, Babar (Or: What Is an Afropolitan?)," offering an alternative vision of African identity for a transnational generation. Prompted by writer Toni Morrison, the following year she published the short story "The Sex Lives of African Girls" in the literary magazine Granta.
Her first novel Ghana Must Go, published in 2013, is a tale of family drama and reconciliation, following six characters and spanning generations, continents, genders and classes.
Taiye Selasi | Speaker | TED.com