I am Muzungu hear me… Ask you to repeat yourself several times because you said it too fast and I couldn’t translate in my head quick enough.
“Muzungu” (moo-zoon-goo) is Kinyarwanda for ‘white person’. It is my identifying factor. I am put into phones as ‘Claire Muzungu’. This is very common. There are two ways you can be called a muzungu. There is the statement of fact, just because it’s who you are. And then there is the derogatory way. Like when it’s screamed at you on the street outside of a bar at night.
It’s pretty easy to tell which type you’re being called, and for the most part, you get the first option. It’s only in certain cases where the bad one comes out. My host cousins, I guess you could call them, asked me how I feel when I’m called muzungu in a racist way. And do you know what I said? I said, “It’s fine. Worse things are done to minorities in America, so I guess I’m just paying my dues”. The stares and shouts that I get make me uncomfortable enough at times. I can’t believe how someone could tolerate anything worse where they live. Being muzungu, I just get hit on and asked for money a lot. I don’t get threats and I’m not told to ‘go back to my own country’.
I can forgive the stares and the words, because Rwandans don’t see muzungus constantly. Small children are either fascinated or terrified of us most of the time. But Americans? They have no excuse. You see black people, Asian people, Hispanic people, Muslim people, all of the time. There’s nothing weird about it. So, grow up and treat them as they deserve to be treated. How would you like to be treated when YOU’RE the minority and/or in a foreign country.
“Muzungu” (moo-zoon-goo) is Kinyarwanda for ‘white person’. It is my identifying factor. I am put into phones as ‘Claire Muzungu’. This is very common. There are two ways you can be called a muzungu. There is the statement of fact, just because it’s who you are. And then there is the derogatory way. Like when it’s screamed at you on the street outside of a bar at night.
It’s pretty easy to tell which type you’re being called, and for the most part, you get the first option. It’s only in certain cases where the bad one comes out. My host cousins, I guess you could call them, asked me how I feel when I’m called muzungu in a racist way. And do you know what I said? I said, “It’s fine. Worse things are done to minorities in America, so I guess I’m just paying my dues”. The stares and shouts that I get make me uncomfortable enough at times. I can’t believe how someone could tolerate anything worse where they live. Being muzungu, I just get hit on and asked for money a lot. I don’t get threats and I’m not told to ‘go back to my own country’.
I can forgive the stares and the words, because Rwandans don’t see muzungus constantly. Small children are either fascinated or terrified of us most of the time. But Americans? They have no excuse. You see black people, Asian people, Hispanic people, Muslim people, all of the time. There’s nothing weird about it. So, grow up and treat them as they deserve to be treated. How would you like to be treated when YOU’RE the minority and/or in a foreign country.