Know Your Roots ???
My name’s Rock. In a way people I hold dear to me inspired me to write this blog.
Walking with my aunty across the market of St. Albans through a sea of people from every part of the world, I thought to myself wow!
Someday, every part of the world will have huge populations of mixed nationalities like Britain. I told my aunty I was proud that Britain was such a tolerant country and that I was proud to be British...and so began a friendly debate with my aunt on ones roots which lead me to think deeply.
So here I am blogging away about the thoughts I generated from my debate.
I ask you: do you know your roots??? Do you consider your roots to be British because you were born here? Or do you consider your roots to be in the place where your family and you migrated from?
What do you see yourself as?
Often I say to people during the Olympics which country do you support? Usually the reply is they support the country which best describes their ethnicity i.e. their roots AKA what they ticked on their census form.
But I say to them wait a minute, weren’t you born in Britain? Aren’t you British? Shouldn’t you support them equally? Often the reply goes something along the lines of: ‘I’m British on paper but X in blood!’ X: being the country which they believe holds their culture and describes their ethnicity.
If we are talking about blood, then ironically we can trace it all the way back to our very first ancestors in Africa. Scientific and archaeological evidence have proven this. Mitochondrial DNA and the oldest human corpse have proven that Africa is where our blood, our very first ancestors originated from. So there you have it folks; guess everybody’s got African blood in them.
So here’s the question again: Know your roots?
I know mine....
The very first breath of air I took as I entered the world was breathed in America; every cell in my body contains DNA which had to adapt if my migrant ancestors were to survive the environment of ancient China; that same DNA was traced to Africa where my ancestors first migrated from; last but not least Britain is where my life experiences are teaching me to become a better man and also giving me the knowledge to survive in this harsh but beautiful world.
I am an American British Chinese African and I’m proud of it.
P.S. If you don’t believe me on the Great Africa migrations search it online, search on how humans settled in prehistoric times as well as its important to do so to understand where I’m coming from. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_human_migrations
