To Be Honest…where do our stories live?
Where do Africans and Black people go to tell their stories here in NZ?
Which platforms take the time to shine a light on our experiences?
Which spaces open their doors to us so we can congregate?
Who is listening to us when we talk about the matters that pertain to us in this country?
When I did a quick google search
to see what the internet had to say about African and Black experiences in NZ, here’s what came up:
A handful of articles about Africa Day, because this is when we become the most visible.
2. The same recycled census statistics about the number of Africans in Aotearoa.
3. A handful of articles from the covid year covering Black Lives Matter, with a short-lived interest on our experiences with racism in NZ.
4. And then a scattering of powerful individual stories that are often buried under algorithms and headlines deemed “more relevant”.
But where are the stories about our everyday lives?
Where are the stories about our joys, our pains, our day to day lives simply existing in NZ? Where are the stories that capture our ongoing journeys trying to navigate and negotiate our place and belonging in Kiwi society?
Where can we go to find those stories? Share them. Read them. Relate to them. Connect with them and the people behind them.
To be honest,
I think it is about time we had more spaces and places where we can just be whole, vulnerable, complex people that can speak in the ways that we want to, about the things that we need to without fear, and receive the understanding and validation that we have searched for from many.
Consider this the informal opening that space for us and our thoughts.
And your formal invitation to join the conversation here at To Be Honest (TBH)!
Expect a series of unfiltered thoughts from me as they arise - and you can be sure that they will - but also, send me your thoughts, observations, and topics of interest that you would like covered. This is for you, me, and all of us who wish we saw our Afro-Kiwi perspectives reflected in the media we consumed.
So, for now friends, I’m signing out. I’ll catch you at the next link up for some more honest thoughts!
Yours always,
Moche of the Ubuntu Project xx