Today’s BBC Radio 4 "Start the Week" has an interview with writer and broadcaster Ekow Eshun. Eshun discusses his new book "Black Gold of the Sun"

"which describes his own personal journey back to Ghana in search of roots, family and his own identity".  A couple of weeks ago I listened to  a 15 minute extract from the book on Radio 4’s "Book of the Week"  as part of the BBC’s "Africa Day" (unfortunately the programmes are only kept for a week).

Eshun tackles identity and duality as he searches for "home" and begins with the loaded question that Black people in Britain are continually asked "where are you from"?

Apart from the fact that he is an excellent writer, Eshun is not afraid to expose his true feelings about being a stranger in his own Land who is often the subject of mockery from children calling him names on the street to the point where on one occasion he has to run away.  On arriving back at his friends house he asks what a certain word means  only to be told that it means "white man"!  (I cannot remember the word so if there are any Ghanaians out there please let me know what the word for ‘white man’ is.)  In Nigeria the word used is "oyinbo" .

Now for an African to be called "white man" in Africa is a pretty shocking experience and  definitely guaranteed to bring about a reality check.  Eshun is left feeling "dumb and excluded".  Who was he? an African American tourist? a Ghanaian returnee with a phony accent?    Having also found that he has a white ancestor who was a slave trader, Eshun concludes that nothing is "black and white" and that "everyone is complicated" and "even African people come from somewhere else".

And then there is THAT loaded question:
Q "where are you from"
A "from ……." 
Q "No I mean where are you REALLY from" and then follows the
    "oh really you don’t look like a…….." .
Eshun and I agree on THAT  answer "we are from everywhere".  Belonging and identity are extremely complex notions in today’s global experience.  Often where we are from depends where we are at a given moment, who we are speaking to and in what context, in other words we belong to so many different places.   Eshun concludes and again I have to agree with him again "you belong to where you live and you should make that places yours", which right now makes me Spanish from a village in Andalusia.  Actually pretty near Africa in many ways!

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