Can I bribe my Tribe to take me in?

I was up all night watching Black Girls Rock.  I’ve consistently followed the show and I wasn’t going to let not having my antenna installed stop me- thank goodness for internet. The highlight for me was Michelle Obama’s speech.  Michelle Obama is the type I’d luvv to call my first lady. She was eloquent, exquisite, and egoistic in the right way. Being Black shouldn’t define you. She said (can’t remember the exact line) “rewrite the tired old script”.  Well, don’t know if racist comments, behavior, attitude can and will ever be rewritten and boy, hate came with refill, as there wasn’t a dry spell on the absurdity of people celebrating coloured girls. The cup they drank from overflowed. White twitter had no chile. 

But let’s come back home for a bit. Over here we don’t say “Racist. No, we have our own expression “TRIBALISTIC”.  I’m ALWAYS reluctant to tell anyone I meet for the first time the TRIBE I belong to; even though I’d need google map to point me in the right direction and a chaplet to recite 10 decades of Hail Mary’s to protect me from the witches that I’ve being told countless times fly in the day. 

Yes, I’m a foreigner in my TRIBE. Lagos is my village, and it will be until…well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves and say the “M” word. Speaking of marriage, I’ve been advised on the ills of marrying from certain TRIBES. “Ha, IGBO men marry their own”, “TSEKIRI men are wicked”, “YORUBA men are weakling” etc.  

Back to the point. RACISM, TRIBALISM is something that we can’t get over quickly, I’m sure Rosa Parks, Rudy Bridges, Nelson, to name a few will be turning in their graves (with the exception of Rudy), wondering if the march was worth it. But hearing the First lady’s emotional battle speech yesterday, they would’ve exclaimed “everything is alright with the world again” I say YES, and IT IS WORTH THE MARCH. 

I’m not a human rights activist. I’m human and I have the right to be actively involved in things I’m interested in. I shouldn’t be labelled by TRIBE. True, I can’t erase that, neither can the colored ones (I don’t subscribe to bleaching) magically become white. The sooner we can see this, the quicker we can rewrite the tired- worn out- dog eared script that is being recycled from one generation to the next.

P.S. was going for a bang on, drop the mic kinda closing, so please feel free to add a closer of your choice. See below for hints:

The Oba should swallow the words he spewed, or better yet, choke on it.