Speech at Century High School Maryland, United States.
Our founder, Kamdi Okonjo was asked to give a speech for Culture Appreciation Week at Century High School in Maryland, United States, on February 24th 2022. The theme was 'Being who you are no matter where you are,' and Kamdi talked about life in post-apartheid South Africa and her encounters with racism and xenophobia.
Excerpts of her speech has been placed below.
Hello everyone,
My name is Kamdi Okonjo and I am a 20-year-old Nigerian girl living in South Africa. I currently pursue joint honors in Film Studies and History with the hopes of pursuing a master’s in International Relations. I am a consultant at a firm in my college called ISCG at DUCG, singer, voice-teacher, writer, and content creator. I am also the Founder of the former organization Teen Tate (The Alliance For Teen Excellence), an organization that aimed to encourage teens to find solutions to Africa’s major issues, and I am currently the founder and CEO of my corporation Africans For Africa.
Being who you are no matter where you are. Truth be told, when I heard of that theme, so many topics just ran through my mind. I mean, there was so much that I wanted to talk about because I have had so many experiences where I had to practice sticking to who I am in the face of adversity. It’s not easy to remember who you are when there are forces outside that aim to erase your identity. I will give some personal accounts of people who tried very hard to erase who I am and my journey to standing up for myself no matter the outcome.
…
Then one day I realized something. My final exams weren’t going to be marked by my teachers, they were marked by people I would not know. I realized that they were training me to hate myself, doubt my intelligence, and reject my potential so that I could fail on my own. If they could convince me that who I was was disgusting and persisted and I agreed mentally, I would become exactly what they said I was. I rejected this idea with every fiber of my being. My parents refused to let me accept what they said. Every day for Sepedi I would come to school from 5 pm to 10 pm and learn the language all over again. I made sure that I rejected everything they taught me, and taught myself to love who I am. I studied every subject back to front, line by line, and left no stone unturned.
In time, I quickly became a pan-Africanist. Every insult to my afro made me want to grow it larger. Every attack on my intelligence, made me want to become even smarter. Every insult to my skin, made me want to flaunt it even more and every attack on my country, made me become a patriotic Nigerian queen. Instead of abandoning my roots, I started to study my roots. I began to learn more about my culture and even wrote on it for my final paper. I turned their attacks around and trained my brain to see them in another way. I began to play them at their own game. Kinda like chess and I won. I graduated with amazing grades to their disdain.
Later, I founded Africans For Africa, a branched-out organization for teens and youths and we’ve got some amazing things in store. I decided to take down Teen Tate and make AFA the bigger better version of it and we are still running.
Now, what have I learned from these experiences? It is so important to remember who you are. I know that my identity is first in Jesus Christ. I know that I am a Nigerian queen and a black woman.
People may see me first as the black girl, and that’s okay. They may see me as a Nigerian girl, and that’s fine. They may see me as the Christian lady and that’s all right because it doesn’t matter. I am not who they say I am. I know who I am no matter where I am, and that is what’s important.
Promoting meaningful and tolerant conversations at AFA
“Really grateful to have spoken at Century High School today on ‘Being who you are no matter where you are’. Spoke about living in SA post-apartheid and my experiences with racism and xenophobia.”