The Afro-Arab Corner

“This painting is thought to be a portrait of Ira Aldridge who was one of the first black actors to play Shakespeare (just a quick aside here: Ira Aldridge was forced to leave the segregated US and go to Europe in the 1800s so that he could actually have a career).”

Source: http://yatesem1.msu.domains/dangers/introduction-to-othello/ 

“Culture is not just a legacy inherited, it is also a vision that is accepted.”

- Mouloud Mammeri (Kabyle writer, anthropologist and linguist).

The meaning behind the colors are as follows:

Blue (amidad) represents the Mediterranean Sea, whose shores have been occupied by the Imazighen (plural form of “Amazigh” referring to the Berber people) for millenaries.

Green (azegzaw) represents the green land of North Africa, which has been cultivated by the Imazighen since the Prehistoric times.

Yellow (awragh) represents the Desert, primarily. However, we also like to describe it as the color of joy and gold.

From the 20th century, we have been indoctrinated and blinded to believe the form and carelessly neglect the content of our reality. The Utopian vision of post-independence Arab nationalist leaders negated audaciously the marginalization and impoverishment of black communities. We have been silenced and censored on our own misery. We have been reminded ceaselessly that we are nothing but second-class citizens. Our history, past, traditions and customs have been eradicated. We have been forced to internalize a present that does not belong to us. They manufactured it in various shapes and forms to orchestrate us. They made us live in a Freudian state of denial. 

Some people may say:

“Black and Arab are not mutually exclusive”

I would say: 

I was always expected to choose a sphere to fit in. I was taught and lured to fit in. I was confused but obliged to fit in. I learned how to fit in. I submitted to their sphere. The one that they have drafted and designed for themselves. As if humanity was presumed to fit in. I am who I am and I create my own sphere.