Musings on Identity

One of the most human traits it seems is the tendency to label people and ascribe to them the seeming universal traits of the group to which they're being placed into.

So for instance, I am a Ugandan. But I also have grand parents from different tribes each and my father identifies as a Mutoro-Munyoro, my mother as a bad ass-But also as a Munyankole-Mukiga . That means during office banter anytime "Westerners" are brought-one can only look at me and they see a menu of stereotypes from which they can pick as a point of attack.

I've been asked whether We Banyankole marry our cousins. Why we Batooro like to sleep around. Why we Banyarwanda (This person apparently had one other item on his Joel tribal Ala carte menu) like women with large ankles.

And on and on. Mostly harmless but sometimes insidious and but always perplexing especially fro a people that quarrel and put up a fuss when stereotypes of black people or African people are put up.

The WWF depiction of a Ugandan wrestler. Subtle

"This is not us" cry the people who are not infested with flies and emaciated when they see images of their fellow Africans being passed around . It's a shout of indignation as they complain that they're not a homogeneous group. That people are different and have vast stories and experiences . The essence of who they are cannot be simplified in images.

The same face we put up to claim unfair discrimination and characterization, we also use to defend the traits ascribed to the group we're in but might not necessarily portray.

Don't mess with us Bakiga. Hooo, we beat.

Nyowe ndi Mutooro. Itwe Tuli Calm( I'm a Mutooro. We're Calm" )

No true Ugandan can support gay rights. How? Those are Western things of the UK.(Never mind that the UK is further east than Uganda.)

Often we engage in a variation of the "No True Scotsman fallacy". It goes like this.

Person A: "No Scotsman puts pineapples on his pizza."

Person B: "But my brother Craig likes pineapples on his pizza."

Person A: "Ah yes, but no true Scotsman puts pineapples on his pizza."

It's a sly move. Setting a standard for essential features that make one a member of a certain group when really they are not essential at all.

I encounter this when I tell people that I own no cattle, find women with large and small ankles equally attractive and think that milk tea is the devil's attempt at nauseating us to death . "You're not a true Westerner they say". Often, they're from Western Uganda themselves.

It puzzles me that the same people that announce their individuality simultaneously try to apply social sanctions on people for not fitting the archetypal roles they have been assigned. You must like this or do things like that because you're from this place. I mean, how else can we fit you into our understanding of the world. I might actually have to get to know you as an individual. Who has time for that?

We really are a curious bunch of contradictions.