Where Our African Heroes

I recall as a child hearing about the Ugandan president Idi Amin and at one time hearing the news that he was on exile in Saudi Arabia. Last week we had a movie brought home titled The Last King of Scotland which apparently is based on the events of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's regime as seen by his personal physician Dr. Nicholas Garrigan during the 1970s. How clueless of me to not know that he was a brutal dictator, so as I sat to watch the movie assuming that this movie was trying to show us the history of Idi Amin's which it had indeed removed my blindfold but it was through his physician and from the first scene how Dr. Nicholas travel in the bus meeting an African woman who invite him for one night stand, showing us how energized through this night stand. The movie goes on smooth until we reach on a special party held by the President or on nightclub I can not really tell where we are shown how African women dancers dancing topless and with Dr. Nicholas meeting one of Idi Amins' wife where he gets involved with her physically and this scene has been detailed. The movie swerve that the wife get pregnant from Dr. Nicholas and the journey of the women to abort herself and the brutality that happened with it.

Normally I watch a movie and forget about it, this movie left me with intense anger, my African in me was so angry as how our African women had been portrayed in this movie. As an African I wonder do we have in our history heroes that we could look up to and we can portray them in a movie that can do them justice. Isn't high time for us to bring the glory for those who did us proud in Africa or there is none of them to mention.

I watched this movie and had a question that is this all we have in Africa to show to the rest of the world.

This movie have been directed by Kevin Macdonald 2006 and had won Oscar and nominated for many other awards.

Acceptance For Who We Are

By Nasra Al Adawi

Being A Women of Color does not imply a tag of ethnic or certain race. I as one I have gone through of journey of discoveries I should have loved both side of who I am. I can only explain it that growingn as an interracial child is not easy. There are days I wished I looked more Arab and there were days I wished my skin would have been darker. My visit to Tanzania in 2006 on a mission to meet women with breast cancer taught me many other lessons about myself. I'm African and it is so sad that I have missed learning about my African heritage. I have missed knowing what it Africa is all about. Now with my father gone I'm trying to retrieve how was his life as an African man who was born in Zanzibar in which he had rich heritage of another African Island called Comoro Island…

I remember when I went to visit women in the hosipital they really glowed in their own natural color, I realized I did miss that. I use to worry about my skin tone as it was not as my mother who is originally Omani. My hair was not good enough for me, it was afro but it was not coarse hair, I was so dissatisfied of what God had gave me, so I splashed myself with hair straighterner and now when I decided to stop, having been living in chemical so so long. My hair without straightener is impossible to manage, I could hardly comb it. I realized what I have done to me. I decided I would no longer splash myself in makeup, be as natural as I can be. As for my afro hair is long story, I failed to keep it afro, being bold was not appealing either. I'm still looking for ways to get my natural hair back, I just don’t want to be straightening my hair on a lifetime basis.

I regret that I did not take the opportunity to try writing my father letters in Swahili, I would been now writing poetry in Swahili and all I'm able to do is just converse in Swahili. I would have made my dad proud of me, instead of complaining about receiving letters written in Swahili, I should taken at least an attempt to try learning on my own. Yet the journey of learning is endless so I have to put my learning hat and be ready to seek knowledge, as fountain of knowledge is open for those who seek it.

I recently realized that I'm beautiful the way I am and I have to keep reminding myself that to accept the person I am. For I was born as this, take me as I am with all my flaws.