Amin Maalouf in his book called "Identités meurtrieres", roughly translated as Deadly Identitites, attempts to unearth all the complexities included in this thing we call identity. Recently, i was chatting with a Catalan friend and she was amazed to find out that I was a Caribbean Muslim, of Indian origin living in a country formed mainly by displaced African and Indian communities, brought here by the British to work in plantations, either as slaves or more euphemistically, after the abolition of slavery, as indentured workers. Needless to say, I don´t speak hindi or arabic, just english and well spanish and french. It is always intriguing to see the reaction in people´s faces here in Spain when they find out youré not Moroccan- since the majority of Muslims here are either from the Maghreb, although there are quite a few Pakistanis, Bangladeshis etc. To add to the dilemma, they always seem disappointed when i explain to them i come from the Caribbean and im of Indian origin, but hold it! I don´t speak a word of hindi, expect the basic phrases i would have learnt from the many Bollywood movies I´ve seen...so here I am, a frustrated individual in Spain who is continuously confronted with her multiple "pertenencias", but who feels that she doesnt belong anywhere really. So, my friend Gloria, reminded me of Maalouf´s essays in his book, since he also encounters a similar dilemma, being a Christian Lebanese immigrant living in France, a country he has totally adopted without denying any of his past baggage. This reminds me of the franco-algerian rai singer, Faudel, who in his song "Mon pays", only revindicates France, which he sings, will always be his country. Curious enough, he also sings in arabic and the mix produced is totally entrancing... so we ask ourselves, why is there a need, especially nowadays, to assert one identity and conceal or suppress the multiple others which make each individual unique and irreplaceable? I shouldn´t say a need, but maybe a desire, an urge etc... Well in his book, Maalouf gives many examples showing how historically, peoples have identified with one aspect of their identity- be it Arab, Muslim, yogoslav, Catalan etc only to "switch labels" later under different circumstances.. he stresses, and rightly so, that identity is never a static condition but a lively, continuous dialectic process..whether we choose to give precedence to one aspect depends on many factors. He also interestingly shows in his book how a country and identity influence each other in a reciprocal way.
We obviously need the other to complete the image of ourselves..today, in a session, we were talking about how European communities here in Spain- specifically wealthy English and German retirees, come and settle in the coast and over the years have formed isolated communities where they managed to create almost a separate world apart from the rest of Spain, where everything is in their language, where there is no integration with the host country etc.. However, nobody seems to pay attention to these immigrants who arent even considered as such and who dont even see themselves as such...which leads one to wonder about the term "immigrant" and how it can be replaced quite easily with "poor", "different"; in other words, the other, the one who immediately stands out because he/she is seen as a threat in some way... the immigrant is never treated as an equal, that which is obvious, which leads me to really ponder over the immigrant psyche and how this will be played out in the future..I mean, when an immigrant is confronted with a white, he/she is made to feel his inferiority, his exclusion, his difference, even if only subtly...i don´t want to generalise either, but more and more i find it extremely disturbing to live in a society where u are constantly reminded that u are not wanted or u are an intruder.. i know this isnt always the case but i can also add that it is quite common... Despite the good intentions by some to higlight these contradictions and to force the society to take a look at itself, the media, the stereotypes etc are too strongly rooted to disappear anytime soon...
Anyway, these are just some of my identity musings here in Spain, Madrid to be more specific....
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