Mzungu?

Hello family and friends,

Thanks for reading my blog again, I enjoy writing and telling you about my time here. As usual I hope you all have been working hard and studying hard. I heard the economy is going back up so "woo hoo" to that. I don't get a lot of in depth news about the US so I have to rely on what I hear on the the Tanzanian news channels. The other day I experienced something that kinda shocked me but I guess I could have seen it coming at some point and time. An older gentlemen called me an "Mzungu". I looked around wondering if there was someone else standing near me, he obviously wasn't talking to me.

Side note: According to Wikipedia, Muzungu is a word that has become to mean "white person" in many Bantu languages of east, central and southern Africa. There are a number of variations depending on the location. Any light-skinned non-asiatic person could be addressed as Mzungu/Muzungu in the region.

Now that you have the definition are you as surprised as I was? How can I be mistaken for a white person? I like to think I'm a nice mixture of Caramel and dark chocolate :-) I can honestly say in all my years of being on this earth I have never been mistaken for a white person....LOL. During training, my fellow trainees were taught how to dodge being called an Mzungu and deflect the attention away from their skin color. I didn't pay attention to that part of training, I was probably getting coffee or something. I was prepared to text Jenna, Jayce or Adrienne, other volunteers, because I had no idea how to respond. I proceeded to tell him my name in hopes that he would understand not to call me that again. OK, the conversation went on and he referred to me as an Mzungu again. I again reminded him what my name was, and he said "I know, your name is Shani". I asked why he kept referring to me as an Mzungu? I am the same color as he, my hair is almost as kinky as his, and we have some of the same features. His response was that although i was correct about my features and skin color, I still come from America. I couldn't argue with that. He said unfortunately we don't have a name for an African-American because we don't see many of them, so I would have to settle for being called Mzungu. WTH....I said it's very offensive to me and to White Americans, I cant believe I found myself defending white Americans but hey. I guess no matter how much I think I am integrated I am still seen as an American, whether I am dark in skin color or not I come from America. I speak English, I have opportunities that most Africans will never have and I can leave at any time and return home to a nice comfy couch. I thank God for giving me this opportunity and showing me that I am truly blessed, at the end of the day it doesn't feel so bad to be called an Mzungu. I think the moral of this story is if a Black person is ever mistaken for a White person they must be in Africa :-)

Sunshine & Rainbows!


I love you all,

Shani K. Cephas