Germany’s n-word race debate – BBC
Seven-year-old Timnit Mesghena is an avid reader. In the evenings, she and her father like to sit on the sofa in their flat in Berlin and read to each other. They present an easy picture
Seven-year-old Timnit Mesghena is an avid reader. In the evenings, she and her father like to sit on the sofa in their flat in Berlin and read to each other. They present an easy picture of family happiness.
One of their favourites is the classic children’s book, The Little Witch, an enchanting tale of a witch who flies and birds who talk.
But one day they reached page 94, and a difficult word came up. It wasneger, describing a black boy. It is true that it can mean “negro” in German, but it also means the utterly offensive “nigger”. When the book was written, the former may have been true – but now it is more like the latter.
Timnit’s father, Mekonnen, had no doubts. He is black, originally from Eritrea, and found the word completely unacceptable.
“It made me very angry,” he says. “I know that people use that word to insult me or to give me the sense of not belonging.”
Read More: Germany’s n-word race debate
murad ali March 13, 2013
Mesgena,
Take your shukorina Timnit to Asmara, Keren, Massawa etc..to meet her own lovely and beautiful people and she will be proud of her colour and heritage..
If people have an issue with our colour it is their problem not ours..
Egyptians say “Al-samar nesf aljamal” ..
Roughly translated “By being of a darker skin “ASMAR” you are guaranteed half of the beauty.
A famous Sudanese singer Mohamed AL-Ameen has a song that says:
Asmar jameel fattan!
selam March 13, 2013
let me share my experience with u regards this issue,last year a school where my two daughters attend asked them to donate 50p to help children in Africa.And I gave to them 50p each and went to school .later on when I came to collect them they started asking me to many questions about Africa.At the bignining I was a little bit not happy then I tried to answer their questions by saying you know there are many kids in this world need help maybe next year your teachers will ask you to donate to children in Asia or American and so so.But I was not sure how much were successful from my answer.The thing which made them more unhappy was because they were only one year since they came from Eritrea.Alway I do remember some of their words”we had a clothes, we had a shelter we had good friends, we were eating and drinking”.so we parents must know the pressure on our kids and act in a good way to avoid unnecessary result which could destroy their future.
selam berhe March 13, 2013
it is to be expected that children of African origin would face issues that have to do with race at some point. but if parents are aware of the difficulties that come with being a foreigner then they better start educating their children what it means to be African or Eritrean for that matter sooner than later. how can they do that? plan family days where you would come together as a family. 1. have meals our traditional way (gather around a shahani). 2. we have story telling. tell your children stories that you grew up listening or borrow some from your friends if you have none of your own. 3. read them Eritrean children’s books…etc. you can also keep telling them how lovely our people and how beautiful our home country is. do whatever you need to make them proud of who they are. i hope you try to be creative in order to help your children overcome the problems they face in the world outside the home.
Daniel Teclegiorgis March 13, 2013
ንትምኒት ወርሖ ትምኒታ ኣብ ተማዕድወሉ ዓዲ ክትመሃር ዕድል ስለዝረኸበት ምስጋና ንልዑል ፈጣሪ ይብጽሓዮ። ነቶም ጨኒቑዎም ዘሎ መሳቱኣ ድማ የርህወሎም። ሓቂ ንምዝራብ ግን ኣብ ዓድና ብዙሕ መጻሕፍቲ’ኳ እንተዘይተዓደልና፡ ጸሊም ሕብሪ ንሰይጣን ንኽፋኣተ-መጋብር ንጸልማት ንተስፋ ቑርጸት ዝእምት ኣምሲሉ ዘቕርብ፡ ንጻዕዳ ሕብሪ ድማ ንመልኣኽ ንራህዋ ንሓጎስ … ንጸጽቡቑ ዝእምት ኣምሲሉ ዝእምት ኣረኣእያ ናይ ባህልን ሃይማኖትን ከምዘዕበየና ዝማታእ ሰብ ዘሎ ኣይመስለንን። እቶም ቀዳሞት ጸለምቲ ናብ ዓዲ ጸዓዱ ምስበጽሑ ዝጀመርዎ ጻዕሪ፡ ኣንጻር ኣፈላላይ ሕብርን ሳዕቤኑን ከም ትምኒቶም’ኳ እንተ ዘይሰለጠ ብዙሕ ኩነታት ኣመሓይሹ’ዩ። ስለ’ዚ እዛ ሂወት-ጸጋ ንዝተፈላለየ ሕብርታት ከከምመልክዑ ከተንጸባርቕ ባህርያዊ ስለዝኾነ፡ ነቲ ምስ ሕብሪ ተተሓሒዙ ዝማዕበለ ናይ ባህልን ሃይማኖትን ነጸብራቕ ድማ ከም ታሪኽ መስመር ኣትሒዝካ፡ ከከምትኽእሎ ምእንጋዱ’ዩ። እዚ ሕብሪ’ዚ …..ካብ’ቲ ሕብሪ’ቲ ይጽብቕ ዘይኮነ’ሲ፡ “..ንስኻ ነቦኻ ትመስል ንስኺ ድማ ነ’ደኺ ትመስሊ..” ዝዓይነቱ ናይ ምንብባር ሚዛን ምኹስኳስ ረብሓ ዘለዎ’መስለኒ። እንተ ጸሊም ሕብሪ ግን ኣብ ጀርመን ጥራይ ዘይኮነ’ሲ ኣብ ቦትኡ ማለት ኣብ ኣፍሪቃ’ኳ ንነብሱ ካብ ጻዕዳ ሕብሪ ኣትሒቱ ዘቐምጥ ሚዛን’ዩ ክሳብ ሕጂ ተዓዲሉ ዘሎ። ዝሓይሽ ይፍጠረሉ!
MightyEmbasoyra March 13, 2013
I agree completely with you. Let’s clean our house before we look in to others. The main problem is us. I don’t mean that I am happy to see those words on German books, but I don’t see it anywhere.
Our people say (starting from our churches), Barya timesl kifeti (ugly), harfaf, tselam me’alti, etc
and anything to explain good as ts’ada tsnahka, tsada libu, etc.
Lets get our acts together before we blame outsiders.
Halafi Mengedi March 13, 2013
Race issues are hardly avoidable. Not only in Europe, in the middle east , or in the United States, racism in its many shapes and forms exist.
Arabs call the darker skinned Africans “Abed”-to mean a nigger. Many Egyptians don’t even consider themselves Africans. They tend to believe that they are part of the middle eastern countries. No wonder therefore many Egyptians call blacks Africans as though they lived in the Middle East or Europe. The Nazis used to portray the Jews as vermin and stuffed mice (many of the Jews had been rich and their wealth had been reflected in the their heavy weight stature. Then German started to call them “hasaku_ or vermin).
Eritreans themselves show racism. Unlike these days, Eritreans used to think they were the best, the most advanced, the most white, “qota” the most Everything. PFDJ changed all the feeling of superiority. Now we are like Gpcies hated by Ugandans, Egyptians, Ethiopians, you name it.
I remember some Eritreans used to derogatorily call “Tigrawots” ..Agame, Komal, sah-sah, resah… If you are also very , very dark..some Eritreans call you “Kunama”.”baria”…etcetera.
I hope life has taught us Eritreans to respect humans no matter what their race is .
Saba March 13, 2013
Halafi Mengedi i liked your comment because you said it the way i also experienced it.
Well, i grew up all my life in germany.. So i can tell from my perspective since i am reaching soon 28 years that it is upmost important to teach a child everything possible about africa, country´s history,culture,traditions.. Important is the explainations and keep the child also mixed within ones community. This is upmost important for ones self-esteem and identity.
My mother´s aged woman between 50-60years could not know all this since they neither nor anything except war, and passed through arab countries and less education.
This was also a huge challenge for them and i think they could hardly imagine how it feels for a DIASPORA child in a predominately “white” country!
Actually, there is a huge difference between for example those Diaspora kids living in the US ,Canada and UK then to those living in Germany,France,Sweden and so on.
Those who are raised in english speaking countries face less hurdens then those non-english speaking countries. In non-english countries you are undoubtly a minority. Children have much lower self-esteem, drop quicker out of school, have much more complexes, fall easily into drugs, mix with very wrong people, loose hope quicker.
If you are good or may have a very good talent you will be less honoured then any low talent white person. Ofcourse there are exemtptions but among those i know and my experience i hardly saw them.
I know what i will teach my child, alot about the country, travel with him to different african countries, explain about untold history as far as i can find facts and of those “told” ones. Make him understand that education is upmost important. I dont have to pressure him by telling him that he needs to be tripple times better to come half as far as those others.
Most important if it is faced with racism to kill it by reacting cool, ignoring it and kill it by itself.
For example someone would call monkey.. i would really advise to call him pinkish pig, or walking dead-body..
If someone would call him SHIT/KACKA then call him DIARHEA.
If someone would call him NIGGA to call him NIGGA too, because the N-word has no harm if you let it be.
N-Word is a word can be used to ANYONE! It doesnt reflect a color. It was mainly used for dark-skinned people but not exclusively!
Most important is by education all i can advise, instead of making it a big thing which will worsen the feelings and increase insecurity!
David March 13, 2013
Saba,
“N-Word is a word can be used to ANYONE! It doesnt reflect a color. It was mainly used for dark-skinned people but not exclusively!”
Are you sure about that?
Keren March 13, 2013
Saba, I disagree with you, are you for real this is what you will teach your child to say if someone calls him ”SHIT/KACKA then call him DIARHEA”. However I agree with what halafi mengedi said, racism is every where including in Eritrea and Eritreans. Lets teach our children to respect every human being regardless of their colour. And to ignore and to keep away from people who are racist no matter who they are. I tell my kids they are lucky to be educated here and to utilise every apportunity presented to them, and they are doing well in higher education. This is not to say they have never faced any racism remarks from their school friends when they were at primay school, but they were equiped with the knowledge of who they are. Tell your children the truth, I tell them that as a school girl I had to travel to the next village every day to learn as our family didn’t have a car. We were happy people with a lot less material than what they have. ate most of the time shiro because meat were expensive. At home we have every friday night is a traditional food for dinner including shiro, their father and I tried all our best to tell our kids the truth so if they hear that Eritrea is poor country or rich country they know it first han from thier parents. If you tell your kids the truth there will be less surprise.
aSha DiYe beraki March 13, 2013
why on earth take the word “nigger” personal? My approach will be to teach the kids not to take it personal. True, easier said than done. Explaining to them in languages and manners they could understand that “nigger” has nothing to do with who they are. Make sure the kids does not confuse “nigger” with being black or African or of African decent.
The worst one could do is try to hide or avoid it. Help the kids understand it like any other profanity. If a black persons feels abused or insulted when some one says “nigger” that is exactly what the abuser wants. If you could help the kids understand it, never to take it personal, and ignore it, then it will never matter to them.
concerned Eeritreawi March 13, 2013
I have children myself and it is very true that the children only see the different skin or adults for that matter before anything. I sent my oldest to Japanese pre-school. The first three months she did not say a word in the class, she was the only beauty in the school, but in a serious note I started going to school with here and stayed longer before and after. I started talking to the teachers and that made her feel at ease. We have to remember kids perceive very well and we as parents have to make sure that the school or daycare they attend is fit for every color and gender. IF that is not the case we have to prepare ourselves for challenge. IN any case my kids loved the school and transferred with great confidence to kindergarten. They still keep in touch with their pre-school friends. As parents we have to be a part of their daily events. The kids feel great when we take them to their friend’s birthday party etc and connect with their parents as well.
There are lots of books and history written in the past that we might like them but our kids will have to face them. We as parent have to spin it into positive by explaining to the young that in the past people were not very informed or knowledgeable of one another. It is much better not build hate into our kids’ heart.
Keren March 13, 2013
Concerned Ertrawi, well said thank God there are parents like you.
concerned Eeritreawi March 13, 2013
“There are lots of books and history written in the past that we might like”
Please read it as we might not like
diamond March 13, 2013
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