Protests in Kenya Shows Kenyans the Real Cousins of Black America Wish I Never Moved to Ghana

Tuesday, 25 June 2024

By: TB Obwoge

I lived in Kenya and left rather abrubtly, moving to Ghana in less than 3 months after leaving Kenya. When I was in Ghana I regreted it often though I had only a few people I could count on. Most saw me an ATM machine.

Social media shows that Black Americans are easily pushed by what is thrown in front of our faces. Kenya never needed a gimmick to push for tourism, it has always been a place where people from all over the world flock to visit. The country is naturally beautiful, even without development.

Now Nairobi looks more like New York City, feels even colder like it as well. However it was always the easiest place to walk, as a matter of fact when you speak of walking, Kenyans flock to the streets to walk.

Unlike Ghana where you see everyone jumping onto some form of vehicle, the roads are horrible, even the paved roads which are never maintained. Ghanaians show this in their larger sizes compared to Kenyans who started gaining weight during the Covid-19 lockdown. Hell even I stayed in my small place sometimes during Covid in Kenya.

It was also colder, another difference from Ghana, Kenya can get downright freezing at times. Especially during the rainy season. Kenyans are no where near perfect, I don't ever want anyone to think there is a perfect place to live or perfect people.

I know that in Kenya no one ever called me fatty, fat pig, biggie, big momma, white in any form or way. A woman on TikTok Live lied and claimed that Kenyans called people 'mzungu' as a term of foreigner, she lied.

The term means white person, there is even a plural form for white people. In Ghana when I didn't answer to their names for white people, they called me white, even openly wanted to argue with me and 'teach me' how I'm white. They always used my skin shade, while darker foreigners, espcially other Americans always thought I was lying.

I hated getting bullied everyday and every place I went in Ghana, they never let me have peace. I had to learn to ignore everything, the way some Ghanaians taught me to ignore children sleeping on the streets and every societal ill they had learned to ignore.

It was so hard, I though have so much more respect for the migrants in America and other places. I even hugged a Haitian woman in the Walmart not to long ago. I cried with her.

Her and I both agreed that America is so diverse, she smiled and told me about her life in Haiti, her family, we then talked about how the president of Kenya William Ruto was sending troops into her country. This, this topic boils my blood.

Espeically today after seeing Kenyans being shot and dead bodies on the streets of Kenya.

Watching them protest reminds me of the struggles Black Americans dwelt with, we had to hit the streets for every right we have as Americans.

We protested for decades about everything, Kenyan youth were out there today, 25 of June and they did the damn thing. Even burning down buildings and breaking into parliment.

I'm not going to lie, Ghana left me needing serious therapy, the bullying, the hatred, the scamming and being sexually assaulted. The fact that even the police don't care and never did anything to help me get closure and justice.

The fact that every Ghanaian you see or meet proclaims they're the politest people, yet those living outside of Ghana even report being scammed and robbed by their own.

Now more and more Black Americans are telling how they were treated like foreigners and overcharged for everything too.

The bullying, even though over 50% of Ghanaian women are obese, Ghanaians even the women bullying for being too large. But that is not all, your skin too dark, bullied, you have vitiligo, bullied, you white or they think you are white, bullied, anything different, bullied. I have found so many in Ghana that laugh at rape but the same for Kenya and America too.

I talked to so many people, have out over 500 cards and never met one Ghanaian that made me feel at home, outside of living with Ebo and his family. Sometimes his family would leave me out, thinking a white person was too good for them. Even living with them they'd throw me into the white person circle but Ebo didn't.

He did ask for too much but when I didn't have he also gave when he could. I thought he would be a forever friend. Yet when I returned to America he started asking more, he wanted me to bring him here but he has no money for the travel.

He would ask and expect money and gifts but I have always given him so much money to waste. I always gave to him when I had it to share.

Enough of Ghana, today once again Kenyans made me miss them, I always was able to have a great conversation with Kenyans. English even though much more British than Ghana would ever be was widely spoken. I have never had a Kenyan laugh at me for saying a word wrong in Kiswahilli.

Kenyans see their lives being ruined and they have always gone to the streets to make their government listen. In Ghana they dance and sing, then blame their government and even foreigners. At those times it becomes scary living in Ghana because Nigerians are usually always the blame, then recently Ghanaians turned to blame Black Americans living in Ghana.

Living in Kenya with the eception of the Chinese, I never heard such hatred as I saw in Ghana, I never saw the xenophobia and didn't have to prove I wasn't Nigerian in Kenya. The rent was monthly and never raised when they found out I was an American. Kenya was much better in many ways, even when I travled on buses they stopped at real rest stops with toilets and running water.

But I gave up quickly, funny thing in Kenya immigration you couldn't easily pay your way into a residency permit, everything is done online too. Kenyan in terms of digitalization, police reports and real police report numbers are much more advanced than Ghana. I was never made to feel like such an outsider.

Another thing, not all Kenyan political leaders are Black people either, Ghanaians are not ready to let someone that wasn't born in Ghana or that has a different skin shade be a political leader.

Thank you for reading 🙏🏽 Please consider buying a coffee for Lacey’s House efforts in Gender Equality & Children’s Rights.

©️TB Obwoge 2024 All Rights Reserved