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BEING GERMAN IS MORE THAN BEING WHITE

~ Che

Being German is more than being white – as hard as this may be to grasp for someone who is fully genealogically descended from the whites of the Germanic and other European tribes. And – this is more important – also as hard as this might be to conceptualise for someone who is descended from the black tribes of the African continent. Children of migrants however, in the second and further generations, may sometimes – but not always – be in a better position to more easily perceive the self-evident and natural truth of this reality. Being German is more, deeper, then being a colour or a name. The nation has a heart, and it pulsates with the love of those who call it, intimately, Home, each in their own way; who identify with it; who carry within themselves the urge to protect it, it’s history and its values, to develop it and move it forward, to interpret it from the depths of their own personal authenticity.

One of the most incisive challenges that face people who do not seem to be fully descended from the white stock of the teutonic tribes – as impossible to measure as this may be – is to experience their German-ness being questioned, the authenticity of their citizenship being attacked, their loyalty and love for their home being subjected to scrutiny, and their sense of belonging being trampled underfoot or conditionalized. It takes many forms – be it divisive politicians who publicly try to awaken resentments against german footballers of a different background, or be it cowardly citizens who shoot on darker-skinned germans, or be it the encountering of a glass ceiling in the corporate world. Eventually it all crystallizes into experiences that make the so-called ‘german of migrant origin’ feel that he or she is systematically or instinctively excluded from certain opportunities or from deeper degrees of appreciation and acceptance, either due to distrust or dislike.

Some people react to this challenge by succumbing to the temptation of going through extra lengths to prove and justify their right of belonging, either by demanding for acceptance or struggling to be twice as good in everything. Some other people’s reaction to this subtle wall of rejection might be in turn to mirror this wall by transmitting the negative experience inwards into an exercise in self-rejection. And then there are those whose radical reaction may be a partial or even total rejection of their host nation, Germany, leading to the curious instances of children or grandchildren of migrants – in a kind of cultural trauma – suddenly reverting back to the cultural background, the seat of which their parents once left behind. This creates the impression of a desperate scramble for an illusion, because inspite of everything, they still find it hard to totally detach from Germany in form and in attitude.

If being German is then not about being white or bearing a certain type of name, what then does it entail to be German? Some will tell you it is about an ascribing to and a living of certain ‘Values’. You will hear of ‘punctuality’, ‘hardwork’, ‘tenacity’, ‘exactness’, ‘discipline’, ‘perseverance’, ‘straightforwardness’ and similar things. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it is not as simple as that. True, these values and virtues are highly priced in the german soul from time immemorial, but in truth they cannot be germanized and apportioned to only one people. They are human qualities that can be lived by all peoples who so desire, each in their own way. Conversely, within our german societies you will also find those who do not embody these but rather other characteristics – and yet they are german too. Apart from that, following this line of thinking is what often leads to the ‘herrenmenschen’ mentality, the sense of superiority over others, a poisonous inchoate emotion that carries in its heart the seed of future defeats or disappointments of those who hold this mentality. For Values are goals that are continually striven after and served, never owned and mastered.

The global mixing of races and cultures that began hundreds of years ago with the self-propulsion of white peoples and white cultures into all the corners of the earth, continues in its ramifications to press organically forward, irreversible, and keeps on surprising mankind in every new century with the challenges and demands, opportunities and mysteries, and reciprocal developments, it presents us with. And also for the German of part or full African origins, the challenge is not in trying to be like others, or in making a contrived effort to be what you already carry in your soul. For what we carry in our soul is the true essence of being German – it is our love for Germany, our deep inner connection with her, her values, history, language, nature, culture, mentality, mystery, her basic law. It is one of the many puzzles that the global dispersal of races has produced. Just as the white South African is at home there, so is the Black German here. And our most special contribution is exactly that which makes us, to some, so seemingly different: our Blackness.

We should not hide it, we should show it. We should not denounce it, we should celebrate it. We should not deny Germany our uniqueness, we should share it with her. Don’t wait for anybody to accept you as a german; you accept yourself as a german. We accept ourselves as germans. There is that beautiful saying: if no one will give you a seat at the table, bring your own chair along – and enough food for all. Sharing is learning, is refining. We have a role to play in the upholding and further upbuilding of this society, it is a duty. And what we need to accomplish that will be awakened in us by the society itself, if we are bold and innovative and refuse to allow our spirits to be broken. Thus we grow and acquire new parts, by sharing of our origin. Change is happening fast and no one knows what’s coming next, but we can be a part of it. And by claiming and asserting and living our German-ness in the process of transformation, we stop being people waiting to be accepted and acknowledged, and become part of those acknowledging and ushering in the future.

Being german is more than being a colour. It is being a type. It is being a part-bearer of Germany and Germany’s future within you. It is a love you cannot describe.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

Published in the August/September 2016 edition of The African Courier.

THE RE-PRIMITIFICATION OF POLITICS IN THE WEST

~ Che

Once upon a time, Politics was your village against my village. It was that simple. And whoever won, got to have sole Access to the stream, the forest, the fertile land, or whatever else it was we needed to possess in order to survive.

And then gradually came thinkers and philosophers who over time invented concepts like “liberal” and “conservative”, “Democracy” and “theocracy” and “monarchy”, “left” and “right”, and isms to add to the schisms. And suddenly some People in Village A realised that they were more homogeneous with some People in Village B than they were with some others in Village A.

Mankind began to define and unite itself by and alongside abstract concepts and deep inner values. Friendships became rooted primarily not in geneological connections or regional nativity, and eventually not even in nominal adherence to religion; but in “mentality”, “inner characteristics and qualities”, “opinions, views, aspirations”, “outlook on human life”, “convictions about the future”, and such like.

From this point, it was natural that the political understanding and feelings grouped themselves around, or emerged from, these core abstract thinking patterns. Thus did Civilization, originally an agricultural exercise, also find political and ideological expression. As people unite outwardly into groups, they also inwardly divide into political inclinations based on ideological conviction. Partisan politics was simultaneously ideological politics.

And then came the 21st century with its pinnacling of the internet and globalization. The flight of technology pushed mankind into new peaks of the explorability of pleasure, and made strong strides in the social and educational equalisation of mankind. Globalization continues to flatten the earth, spreading the dividends and characteristics of the different civilizations to all corners of the globe. Transportation and communication brings all to all now. And this has awakened new tensions and fault lines.

Suddenly the Earth has become a global Village again, struggling for orientation, looking for direction. And then it begins to dawn on certain people: “Democracy”, “Liberalisation”, “Dictatorship”, “Theocracy”, “Republicanism”, “Fascism”, “Socialism” and all these other concepts are just words which by themselves will not automatically guarantee them what they want. What they want is simple. They want to be at the Top, all others at the bottom. To achieve this, they must find a more primitive, sub-intellectual, emotional level on which to draw supporters around them.

And so new Political Parties begin to spring up which are neither “Right” nor “Left”. They are simply tribal, ethnic, nationalistic, religious, sexually oriented, and – deepest of all – Racial. The concept of self has slipped into the rigid corridor of the primitive group self. “Our primitive group-self against their primitive – and alien – group-self.” Partisan Politics has fallen from the high spheres of objective idealism. What Europe seemed to defeat almost a 100 years ago has reawakened. This is the era of the Re-primitification of Politics.

Don’t expect the newly emergent parties – the AfDs, the UKIPs, the Trump Movements, the PVVs, the National Fronts, and so on – to have, at their core, any deeper message than simply this: “Our race, our nation, our civilization, is greater than every other. So let us come together and make the enthronement of our Own our sole political ideology.” They are the political counterpart of the military version of religious extremism as exemplified by ISIS, Boko Haram, Killer Fulani Herdsmen, and modern day Islamic Terror. They have thereby reduced politics to the level on which it has hitherto been bastardized mainly in the third world and in developing countries, as well as in the dictatorial and less democratic parts of the world.

This re-primitification of politics in the West has brought the high-flying West down to Earth, to the level of the rest of mankind, and compromised the spirit that once strove to be the best. It spells the capitulation of the West.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

SOMETHING TO HOLD ON TO

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

If a true friend is gold, are they poor that have no friends? Or rich by default, for peace of mind is also the lot of the lonely who is spared the irony of the laughter and companionship of false friends? How often have we met with a friend and parted from a stranger a short while later? In these days of sad revolutions and mixed allegations, of spying and cyber double lives, of migration without integration, of religious justice without religious love, of racial reawakening and regrouping, gender re-evaluation, of social re-engineering and hardening, there are some you will meet who will tell you that what they need is not a friend, what they need is honesty and clarity.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

WHAT REALLY MATTERS

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

Have you ever wondered if all the great deeds of nation builders also secured them a mansion in God’s House? Have you ever wondered if all the brave deeds of freedom fighters also helped them in the battle against the darkness in the Beyond? Have you ever wondered if all the profound thoughts of thinkers also showed them the way upwards once they crossed over into the other side? You see, I am one of those people who DO believe in life after death. The question is: Of everything we do while here on earth, which of them really make any difference to what happens on the other side? And then my thoughts go to the little acts of kindness and love that soften the harsh human day and brighten the dark night of inner loneliness. And something tells me that this alone will show the way when one day your feet are lost in another world.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

LONELY HEARTS PLANET

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During the day, they’re saving the world, sharp-minded politicians, stern-faced armed forces, convincing philosophers staring into the camera and huddled around their boardroom tables, anchors, performing the news, personifying stability and the guarantee of mankind’s future – during the day they’re saving the world. At night, see them grope in the dark for a hand, listen for a friend, any friend, yearn for something, anything, to fill inside them this deep hole opened by loneliness. Chronic. Everyday we set out with loud voices and brilliant thoughts to save the world, but who on earth is going to save us too?

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

EVENING SKY

~ Che ~ 2 Comments

I love the sky in the evenings when my spirit is free of ambitions and pressures, conniving tensions, expectations and all those things that seem important. Money, power, fame, renown, popularity, accolade, comfort, praise and other dungeons of the human spirit. Wars of words and weapons. The desire to be better than my neighbour and be seen as being better. It all means nothing now. In this moment of having nothing, I have everything. The vast evening sky becomes small enough to fit into my quiet soul. Good evening, earth. Heaven calling.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE TRUE LOSERS

~ Che

What kind of “soldiers” waylay, ambush and kill an 86yr old man?

And what kind of people celebrate such “brave soldiers”?

Are you not ashamed?

Is this how you want to win human hearts over to your cause?

You are not only killing lives. Even more importantly, you are killing any sympathies that billions of people all over the world could have ever felt for you.

The  more you kill, the more you lose.

Stop it. Become human.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

Facebook Source: original post.

YOU, MY RIVER

~ Che ~ 4 Comments

I see you in this moment as a river, flowing out.

If you touch it, it makes your fingers wet. If you drink it, you get thirstier. If you watch it, you never come to find out its wherefrom or whereto. If you dive in, it takes you to a place from which you can’t return.

So you have to be strong, and outriver the river and outthirst your thirst, for the river flows in you.

And if these words mystify you, then you understand the effect you have on many people.

But when you dive in, dive deep into the river’s bed and clench its roots with your teeth and bite, so hard, that it bleeds. Then will you see the river run…

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

FULFILMENT, AND THE MEASURES OF SUCCESS

~ Che

Everybody cannot be rich and everybody cannot be the boss, and yet everybody can be happy. Everybody cannot be the acclaimed best in their chosen fields of activity, yet everybody can be happy and can know that sense of fulfilment that only joy can bring.

So the question is: What is it, deeper than wealth, health, status, acclaim, power, that can make a human being happy and, through the bequething of joy, give them fulfilment? How does one approach life so as to attain to the highest prize – joy and fulfilment – irrespective of the outcome of one’s most ardent striving and efforts?

Where does ‘Pride’ factor into all this? Must one subdue and swallow one’s pride, or even become uncompetitive, in order to be happy with every outcome? Or can one channel one’s pride to a higher cause, a nobler idea, a deeper clarity?

At what point do all human beings become one, working together towards the same goal, despite all forms of competition? Can this be generic, i.e. applicable in all things? What happens then to the ‘Joy of Victory’?

As the world and the individuals hurtle on at blindening speed towards the pinnacles of Anger, I-am-better-than-you-ism and Hatred, driven each person and each group by the urge to be FIRST, it is important to consider if there is not another measure of success more fulfilling and, most importantly, more sustainable than this winner-takes-it-all competiton model of domination-desire.

Because through the continual establishment of a level playing field in the scientific education sector from generation to generation, a point in time will arrive in the future where too many people and peoples will have the knowledge and the ability to wreak wide-spread havoc on the earth. And then the I-First and I-Only mentality will unleash a terrible War within and upon Mankind, on all levels, that will bring our species to the brink of destruction, if not take us over it.

The meaures of Success and Fulfilment have to be redefined. Success, the chalice of deep inner personal joy, is the development of one’s inherent abilities and virtues to full bloom. Fulfilmemt then follows  in the united pooling of abilities towards an ennoblement of humanity. Victory in this undertaking alone will bring us eternal Joy. In this endeavour one can and should be inspired by others, yes. Also through the healthy ethical competition between people an impetus to innovate and grow is intensified. But a proper context of a shared common human goal will alone make us grasp this: that victory of virtue is victory for all.

Because, as child-like and laughable such concepts as Altruism, Humility, Egalitarianism, Cooperation and Impartiality sound to the entitlement-poisoned modern mind, the truth is that only these concepts and their kind will spare mankind certain self-destruction in the future. And in self-destruction, none shall remain to savour any joy of victory.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

IN OUR DESERT

~ Che ~ Leave a comment

amazon cover copy there is always something more 2015
BIGOTRY CONTINUES to exist upon the face of the earth, but not within its heart. And just as skin-characteristics are skin-deep, so is bigotry only surface-deep. I’m talking about the face of the earth.

But anyone who nurtures bigotry within the heart will continue to nourish it for a long time yet to come. It will not die easily. Is there hope for the flower?

Should I revert to the tales of the heart? Should I revert to the inner sequence? Should I revert to yesterday’s tenderness? The first woman? The last kiss?

Or should I continue into the desert? Should I seek a new oasis and wander after the unknown treasures of the sand? But who can open up the secrets of the sand? A flower?

The first strike was a miss. The first step was the first fall. The first sight was blinded by a pitch-fork. But there will be a second. The second is the other side of the coin.

I want to write a poem. I want to penetrate deep into the heart of the broken home, there where the spirit in us resides. We are all to one another strangers. Bridges we build, communal words we use, eyes we touch when we will, hands we give, yet remain unto one another strangers. The shared blood was poisoned aye ere we were born. The shared earth was divided already long ago and divided we stand and stare at one another across the border, the boundaries of our little egos and remain each alone. But each is but alone. Little egos. Little worlds. Little by little, if watered, like flowers, perhaps, we grow.

The secrets of the sand, approaching, covering up our footsteps. Hey, I wrote this poem before, when I was young. But if I was young then, what am I now, older or younger? For the first poem was the greater and the latter flow gropes for reconnection with the source that thundered out of the young heart of the finalised decision. Seen once. Pondered once. Grasped once. Perceived once. Decided once. At the start of the journey. And everything else is just the hanging on, the wondering, the new search. We have found but have not yet reached the Goal. We are still on the path. Believing in the flower.

This is what I would like to give to you, a flower in the desert. Do not perhaps think that the Desert is more powerful than the flower. Nay. There you would err. But treasure and protect the flower. Water it anywhere you see it. For the flower alone, of all the forces in the universe, can subdue the Desert.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

Taken from my collection of thoughts and stories: “There Is Always Something More.”