Heritage & Slow Living
A sincere journey through identity, family expectations, and university studies to understand and overcome generational conflict in second-generation diasporas.
Multicultural Identity: A Colonial Product or a True Asset?
What does it mean to live between two cultures? A journey through Cameroonian roots and Italian identity.
INTRODUCTION
“You’re all uncultured!”
A famous line from my father, directed at his children with the affection he masked behind blunt words. That day, he left us speechless, who could argue with him? None of us has yet had the chance to truly get to know Cameroon, with the intention of reclaiming our roots. A few years ago, that message would have gone in one ear and out the other; today, however, I sense its weight, in all its intangible complexity.
The need to belong is human and fundamental: we shape our identity through contact with family, friends, and society. Almost all of us are raised within a single cultural framework, but I’d like to emphasize those who live with a plurality of influences, just as a weaver has the chance to create a one-of-a-kind custom-made garment, or to end up with a shapeless tangle of scraps.
The ideal would be to make a nice YouTube video:
“Hi everyone, welcome to my cultural tailoring tutorial: today we’ll weave together two continents in five easy steps, with no effort at all.”
But a step-by-step explanation simply doesn’t exist. Culture is alive, dynamic, it shapes every aspect of our lives, often without us even realizing it. So all that’s left is to return to my favorite African proverb:
If you don’t know where you’re going, at least know where you’re coming from — African proverb
FIRST PIECE: Du Bois and “double consciousness”
Inner Division
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963), an African American sociologist, historian, and activist, coined the term “double consciousness” to describe the experience of those who, as Black people in the United States, are constantly torn between two perspectives:
- on the one hand, their own identity and personal dignity;
- on the other, the perception imposed by white society, which views them as “inferior.”
This inner conflict is not merely psychological: it influences how one moves through the world, speaks, works, and even dreams.
For Du Bois, the condition of being of African descent is a constant oscillation between these two poles, with the risk of never feeling fully oneself. He uses the metaphor of the Veil to denote the invisible yet real barrier separating Black people from white people: living “behind a veil” means being seen not as individuals, but as a stigmatized race; and, under the weight of that gaze, risking seeing oneself through the eyes of the colonizer.
The history of Black Americans is the history of this struggle, of this desire to achieve self-aware maturity, to merge one’s dual selves into a better and truer one. In this union, he would not want to lose anything of his two old souls. He does not want to “Africanize” America, because America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He does not want to “whiten” his Black soul in a deluge of white Americanism; because he knows that Black blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both Black and American, without his fellow men persecuting him or spitting on him, without the doors of opportunity being rudely slammed in his face — Du Bois’s book
Historical Context
Du Bois wrote during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877), when the federal government sought to integrate former slaves into the political and economic life of the United States, granting them civil rights, access to schools, and some political representation.
Racism was direct, aggressive, and pure barbarism. Black Americans had been treated as cannon fodder for centuries, and all of a sudden, with the end of slavery, they found themselves having to manage “a paycheck.” His book The Souls of Black Folk moved me deeply: it recounts this transition in great detail, and I perceived it as a tragedy in which every single achievement benefiting Black people was nothing more than a small consolation in a deeply deplorable overall situation.
Being poor is hard, but belonging to a poor race in a country of dollars is the hardest of all — Du Bois’s book
A little fun fact. The abolition of slavery was not an act of philanthropy it was an economic convenience. North America had become industrialized, and slaves were not suited to the new system: purchasing one required an initial capital investment of tens of thousands of dollars, followed by the cost of maintaining them for life. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, were looking for skilled, low-wage workers who were flexible, you pay them by the day and cut costs.
In any case, Du Bois views Reconstruction as a period of great hope but also of failure, marked by the enactment of segregation laws.
SECOND PIECE: Bhabha and Hybridity
Today, political decolonization has largely taken place, but colonialism continues to live on in language, images, and social relationships.
Today, we have the opportunity to show ourselves and the world who we truly are; each of us, in our own time, must learn how to tailor our own identity into a garment that actually fits.
The foremost interpreter of this sociocultural landscape is Homi Bhabha, a leading contemporary Indian philosopher who has explored how identities are formed in the contexts of migration and globalization.
Bhabha asks: “What happens in the space of daily encounters between colonizer and colonized? What happens in between, in daily contact?”
The most pertinent answers lie in his formulations of the concepts of hybridity and ambivalence.
Hybridity
You are not “just African” nor “just Italian”; you are both, but also something new that arises from the encounter between these two identities: a blending takes place, a creative process that produces new cultural forms.
This condition is not a flaw (as society often leads us to believe), but a source of richness: you can navigate between different codes and reinvent yourself.
You can even move a mountain with just one hand, yet there will always be someone who has something to say against what you do — King Le Yong
In my view, people of mixed heritage embody this richness; they transcend social constructs and leave their mark on the world. Pure class.
Ambivalence
The concept of ambivalence expresses the contradictions that arise when multiple cultures come into contact.
- Attraction: what is different can fascinate, spark curiosity, and seem new and exotic.
- Repulsion: at the same time, diversity can be frightening because it threatens established categories of identity.
The dynamic of attraction and repulsion is particularly intense in contexts marked by colonialism.
As a person of African descent living in Italy, I can feel drawn to the culture in which I live (language, opportunities, role models), but also repelled by it (racism, exclusion, stereotypes). Connected to Africa, yet also distant from it.
Are you asking me for examples that illustrate this ambivalence?
A friend of mine is under pressure from her mother in Nigeria to find a husband, even though she’s studying at a university in Milan and getting married isn’t exactly her top priority right now.
Or, some time ago, I was told about a young boy of Moroccan descent who, in public, ignored his mother because she wore a headscarf. Unfortunately, external pressures had led him to feel ashamed of her, even at such a tender age.
Conflicts between parents and children can lead to a family bond marked by a mix of attraction and repulsion; due to generational and cultural gaps, communication is often ineffective, at least at first. This ambivalence can become a wound or a workshop: a space to actively shape one's identity.
For Bhabha, one does not “escape” ambivalence: one inhabits it, learning to navigate within it.
A Social Commitment
The attraction/repulsion dynamic is unconscious; I didn’t realize my lack of interest in my origins because “I’m in Italy anyway,” but I wasn’t particularly interested in Italian culture either because “I actually have Cameroonian roots” and “after all, these aren’t urgent matters.” I just didn’t see the point, but I wasn’t even interested in figuring it out. Ignoring a problem doesn’t solve it, it wears you down… and you don’t even realize it.
Today I want to skate between two continents like Tony Hawk: speak “Francanglais” and “Nouchi” fluently, compare the Italian mindset with the Cameroonian one, and make an incredible pasta alla carbonara alongside a great domoda.
CONCLUSION
The research I did for this article has challenged my own perspective.
I’ve inherited the history of my ancestors, it must be understood. I grew up in Italy because it was necessary, and for that I’m grateful. African culture has been overshadowed by Western culture historically, in the media, and socially, but I am committed to discovering and valuing it equally, restoring the dignity it deserves and freeing it from the distorted narratives that have defined it from the outside for far too long.
Before being a computer scientist, a dancer, or a citizen, I must first and foremost be a man, and this requires reconnecting with my roots.
Blessed are those who know and live in the comfort of prosperity and continue to enjoy it. Blessed are those who serenely go about their lives, in total ignorance of the comfort of prosperity and even of its existence — African proverb
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- “The Souls of Black Folk” – W.E.B. Du Bois
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