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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2017-09-07
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P-wab19Rpc
you know he isn't into men %HESITATION it's such an honor for me to be here I'm such a privilege I mean I have to keep on pinching myself in that you need to make sure that I'm really here they might vary from us headaches told %HESITATION but before I spads I'll just let's get a little bit of background a gate to who I really am so
you know who I am and where I come from so my name is Joe and I want a Cup and I come from Cameroon it's a country in central Africa and it is not a ten years so I know it thing would sue about being at immigrants in a in a foreign country I came here with my family %HESITATION and I'm very fortunate to come from
an academic family as the reason why I came here with you to my parents being invited to I mean what kid you today exceptional skills %HESITATION and so %HESITATION it's really interesting because my sister's ass will know what it's like to be immigrants and countries as my older sister had just returned from a conference in Japan and my younger sister was in the United States of
America for global young leaders conference so my parents and my sister seems to have elaborate CV so I myself I feel very like him feeling big shoes coming in some nights but I believe what I say is something that we all need to know the key to social cohesion lies in perception the key to social cohesion lies in perception and I'm gonna start off my talk
with a bit of a story because I've been told I'm a thirties had that and I hope you enjoy my stories %HESITATION of different experiences I've had inside Africa and someone I take you way back two thousand and seven so many waves of thousand and seven we just came to South Africa this was in August and it was my very first the high school it was
great aids and I came in the middle of the S. everyone who really had the friends you know everything was going good so I was feeling very nervous Alice shaky and it's going to last me am I going to make friends a kinds would speak their language so while all this close to going through my mind ink came this white girl with ginger hair smiling at
me and I shook me to my classroom and I walked in everyone was staring at me like his there had me now and I was looking back at bay and all I could see was five black faces and queens you white faces staring at me and the first thing that came to mind was never been in the same room with this many white people in my
life so it was exciting for me and I was just reading burial I wanted to get the full side African experience so I told myself I need to know the different ways to students know the different cultures and that was my mindset at the time so during break time we went to the school feel that everyone was you know sitting in the different race groups and
I thought to myself I thought apartheid was old by like ten years ago so how come people SO sitting in the preferred racial group the white people sat together at the African stuck together Indians have together and I was like okay what's going on here nevertheless I was still determined to have for the fools that African experience and so during the first break have sex with
the wife pulled and during the second break I sites with that black folk and as always sitting having a discussion any game this black girl you know she was really excited she had that those a new foreign kid in school and she came to me and the first thing she asked me was I in the refugee I was like okay my a refugee and being asked
this question by my own kind left me feeling very confused hours like hawkish as in such a question but then I concluded that it wasn't because she was ignorance this just because she had the perception that all black foreign as refugees and so this was the first of many perceptions of put on me immigrants living in South Africa I believe that our perceptions and misconceptions that
we have about this and that is what actually hinders social cohesion not the section is basically our opinion poll how we feeding and this is influenced by of your cultural background of perception can be influenced by your religion can be influenced by your race can be influenced by your family values so many different things form of perception meanwhile a misconception that is an incorrect way of
thinking about something so you have an opinion but it's not really a true opinion so that's a misconception so Barry me so things in mind and soul agree that someone from Nigeria would think differently to someone inside Africa a rich person will think differently to a poor person at that present within different it's what Indian past seven and a Christian will think differently to a Muslim
so these are all perceptions and so before I came up here tonight so maybe at some standing here you already forming wonder to perceptions about me hopefully good perceptions but but did you know that I'm not really black don't be fooled by the Afro I'm not really black have been told so many times that I'm a really black because I kind speakeasies Zulu but since when
was race defined by language since when was raised defined by language and so six have been told this so many times I I also concluded that you know this was just a perception and when I start to explain that my first language is English and maths by disapproving look from the white folk but how come your first language is English and your African show me your
first language should be something a little bit more travel sounding and so by the time I sat leading to them that I come from Cameroon and Cameroon we have two hundred and sixty travel languages but we have two national languages which is English and French there for my first language is English then they go oh OK now we understand I also remember when I was in
high school they're not history lessons %HESITATION when we're talking about other African countries maybe what talking about that Nigeria Biafra war with talking about their one genocide this is hell stop pause and everyone would look at me and if you show a signal I'm sure Joanne has something more to say about their London genocides because she saw Africa I think to myself we I of Africa
so I don't know if that was a misconception a misplaced identity how much so so these are the different kinds of perceptions that %HESITATION who I faces an immigrant inside Africa in addition to this once in awhile when bill was %HESITATION Nusa outbreak of violence against foreign nationals are often felt %HESITATION a bit easy and safe not wondering if I'm wondering if I'm a acceptance in
the environment I find myself in and I believe that what we can actually do to stop this occurrences is to replace the spirit of the vision with the spirit of Ubuntu and a book to basically means I am because you are this is an ancient African concept that puts humanity at the forefront of our being so you describe differences based on nationality defense is based on
religion because China every other different you can think about so the one to break this title barriers and sixty unites us instead of trying to separate us because of perception so I believe that social cohesion can only truly exists when we start seeing each other as a reason for being now it seems that mother nature is actually much better at interactions that we %HESITATION and if
I remember my bothers you correctly and eco system as a community of organisms that interact with each other in an environment at the end ecosystem you have thousands of different organisms %HESITATION some of them might agree there from someplace else while other organisms that day permanent seem and this competition who for what this competition for what's at this camp close but in an ecosystem each organism
needs the other one to survive and so this look kind of like an example %HESITATION this imagine a herd of cows usually whatever you find cows you will find is but it's called egrets and what is but still east the east that insects from the house and it's beneficial to the cows because they don't have to deal with this insects anymore and is beneficial to the
nth but parents because they have food and said this kind of relationship is called a symbiotic relationship address somebody that's a relationship with some biosis is basically an interaction between two organism that is that is beneficial to them both so this is how we're going to is actually supposed to work practicality and not just understanding when I immigrant comes into a different country is that %HESITATION
forming opinions about them that it's not might not be true rather try to form interactions with them that is beneficial to society as a whole and so I would like to share with you for things that have helped me as an immigrant's inside Africa to form better relationships on the day to day basis number one I ask questions ask questions if you're unsure about anything ask
questions rather than jumping to conclusions about something that might not be cheaper rather I suppose it is this really how it is number two don't be offended if someone has a misconception about you because all they know is all the been exposed to so rather use though pushing me through to China educate them to correct the forty thinking number three you don't pass judgement against people
who have a different perception of from you or people of a different religion it's different races different kasha because they gain all they know is all the been exposed to finally you need to know who you are and knowing who we know it as defined by so many different things but for me I know who I am based on my feet how much heart of god
and second lead my foundation is my family therefore because I know these two things nothing anyone tells me could ever make me feel offended because I know who I am so in conclusion ladies and gentlemen social cohesion as possible when we actually start practicing a boon to and not just thinking about city now understanding it is possible when we start filming the right relationship relationships with
