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Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 2814
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 03, 2006 - 04:21 pm: | 
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This is so emotional for me.
For the first time since my career began, my birth mother's country...SOMALIA...is recognizing me.
Just to let you know--they've always considered me a "loud mouth", "unruly", "DISGRACE"---tainted and corrupted by Black Americans.
They're interviewing me this SUNDAY NIGHT on their national television news program---"60 MINUTES; Mogodishu",
and last week---I was featured in their national newspaper, THE SOMALIA TIMES.
http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:ftk0f_m_zaIJ:www.somalilandtimes.net/sl/2005 /214/01.shtml+Kola+Boof&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=190
This seems like nothing, but trust me---they don't EVER write about me in these countries, because they're ASHAMED of me.
To find out on my birthday, makes me feel connected to Mommysweet today.
Her country has always despised me just like my Egyptian grandmother has.
This is an emotional day.
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Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 2816
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 03, 2006 - 04:27 pm: |
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I wanted you to see the front page, but here' a link to the actual report about my book
http://www.somalilandtimes.net/sl/2005/214/24.shtml
They've never reported anything about my life!---and they know I am Half Somali.
I am VERY NERVOUS to be on t.v. there
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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 711
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 04, 2006 - 03:42 pm: |
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Congradulations! 
We never really know where the sun would shine next, do we? |
Nubian
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 04, 2006 - 03:48 pm: |
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Kola, congrats. Here I found the front page with you down the page.
http://www.somalilandtimes.net/ |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 712
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 04, 2006 - 03:52 pm: |
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(Why didn't I hear about this sooner?)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!:D
And your right about hospitalization accelerating one's maturity. Are you sure your 45? you've said you were born between 1969 and 1972 (my oldest 1st cousin's b-year btw), right?
So.... that would put you between age 37 and 34...... and NO WHERE NEAR 40 YET.
STOP DOING THAT TO YOURSELF. [*wags finger*] |
Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 2833
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 04, 2006 - 04:27 pm: |
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Can you read ROXIE?
Nowhere have I said that I was 45.
Cynique has been saying that to taunt me.
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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 713
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 04, 2006 - 06:38 pm: |
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My bad.
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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 714
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 04, 2006 - 07:22 pm: |
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My bad. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 1748
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 04, 2006 - 08:28 pm: |
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It's OK Roxie.
And that was my "Aunt Bernadette" (not to be confused with "Beverly") that Cynique reminded me of.
Not Auntie Ramah.
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Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 811
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 04, 2006 - 08:46 pm: |
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I only know Auntie Ramah through your book, and I love that woman to death! I SO wish I could have met her. |
Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 715
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 05, 2006 - 10:30 am: |
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Me too.
A pet snake in a vagina....that's awesome in SO MANY WAYS!
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Dahomeyahosi
Newbie Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 17
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 05, 2006 - 10:47 am: |
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Here's hope that they continue to recognize and respect your work. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 1756
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 05, 2006 - 01:38 pm: |
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Thanks so much all.
I did my interview for SOMALI t.v. this morning at a local Los Angeles television studio.
They asked me VERY easy questions and were very nice to me--they interviewed my Black American mother from Virginia.
It was really great.
The only controversial thing I said was that the women of Somalia are the most beautiful on earth and SHOULD NEVER resort to skin bleaching--and that it's degrading for black people to try and look like Europeans.
It airs tonight in Somalia.
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Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 815
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 05, 2006 - 03:39 pm: |
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Hey, Kola.....I don't know why Somali people would find that "controversial"....to me it sounds more like a compliment. You're basically telling them they're gorgeous as they are. If they find "controversy" in that, they have more issues than you can help them with. |
Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 2839
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 05, 2006 - 03:46 pm: |
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It's not about what I SAID Renata.
It's about the "decorum" of PUBLIC SOCIETY.
Certain issues are not discussed "out of doors", and especially not by women.
The fact that the Somalis see me as a BEEN-TO ("American")--Been-to meaning a person who has left Africa and returned to it compromised.....allows me to speak on national t.v. about this issue.
But to Somalis watching t.v. tonight---it is not normal for women to discuss such matters IN PUBLIC, and especially unheard of to accuse Africans of "wanting to be white".
My comments also IMPLY that African men are not nurturing the beauty of African women.
They would rather me talk about ABORTION than such a touchy topic----out of doors----as skin bleaching.
But of course they agree with me!!
Do you see?
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Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 816
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 05, 2006 - 03:52 pm: |
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Now it makes sense.....I seriously keep forgetting how chauvinist some societies can be. |
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 929
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 06, 2006 - 12:16 pm: |
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This sounds fascinating, Kola. What is your opinion about what this exposure in Somalia might mean (if anything)? Are things changing there for women? If so, what role might Somalian expats have in this?
I ask, because here in the Twin Cities we have a huge SOmalian population. You still see a lot of, what I would assume to be, "traditional" gender roles. But you also see a lot of non-traditional stuff as well. Many young women, for example, are students here on campus. |
Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 2845
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 06, 2006 - 01:56 pm: |
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In America, Yvette......EVERYTHING....goes out the window.
It's just like the "submissive" Asian bride.
She gets here and WHAM...she changes into a neck-rolling yelping bitch. LOL
African women IN AFRICA....are notoriously submissive, frisky (meaning they feel sexy in a way that Black American sisters are not allowed to), overworked and put upon.....and largely ignored and disrespected by the African men they CATER TO.
We are taught from birth how to cater to men. And I believe that this is why I STILL prefer the domineering, macho black man---this is why I like suttle forms of "humiliation" during sex---this is why it's so important to me to retain much of "Mommysweet's" housewifery...cooking, planting, praying, cleaning. I am raised from the beginning like that.
So though I have adopted the Black American woman's mouth and in fact, AMPLIFIED it and defended it.....I am still not able to escape what was put into me as a child.
I personally wish that more little Black American girls could wear frilly dresses and be walked everywhere by their fathers, uncles and brothers....and get to experience a society where every black home has a FATHER figure, has women whose ART is how to be a woman.
But then again....you pay
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Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 836
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 06, 2006 - 09:32 pm: |
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Your post reminds me of that Military dude who married some Arab girl (I think from Saudi Arabia, but I could be wrong). He probably thought he was marrying some nice "submissive" Muslim girl.
LOL
They divorced because she was partying too much and not coming home for days. When he started demanding where she was, she left him.
HA! |
Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 2857
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 06, 2006 - 09:37 pm: |
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Yvette--I don't honestly know what's going on with women IN SOMALIA.
I interviewed from a studio in Hollywood.
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Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 2858
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 06, 2006 - 09:46 pm: |
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LOL, Renata!
Yvette--I would also imagine that because there are no "laws" in Africa to protect women or to protect the FREEDOM OF SPEECH of even the "males", it's a totally different story.
I know that I certainly take advantage of America's freedom of speech.
And there is no way that I would be able to LIVE in an African society now, because I'm too willful and belligerent.
I would come upon a young girl being beaten by her husband and DEMAND that something be done.
The husband and his brothers would then beat me!
And nothing would be done.
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Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 934
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 09:06 am: |
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I am by no means an "insider" when it comes to the Twin Cities Somali population. But the women (younger) see to be right in the mix when it comes to work, school (including higher education)--even fashion. I saw two Somali sistahs the other day waiting for the camps shuttle--in their traditional garb, but in well-done, light make-up, iPods and the latest fashion in sneakers!
Now, the Hmong (S.E. Asian) immigrant population, on the other hand, has had a mor emixed experience here. Yes, some of the 2nd generation kids are excelling in schools. But there is also--seems like every year--a high profile murder-suicide in the Hmong population which further investigation uncovers domestic violence and other dysfunction. |
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 935
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 01:33 pm: |
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PS-Kola, what the HECK is up with all the poker spam posts???? |
Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 2869
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 07, 2006 - 01:43 pm: |
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The poker spam posts were meant to ANNOY me, obviously.
Troy took care of it.
About the Asians---not surprised.
ALSO, the African immigrants (Somali) are luckier, because they have a very high profile Black American culture here that immediately transmits styles and behavior, etc.
It's the same if you were to go to Africa. You would immediately recognize images similar to yours that dictate what is appropriate.
IN MY CASE...I am an artist. So I present images that are more traditional, juxtaposed against images of The Oppressor.
My nudity wrapped around the literary books I write are a message saying-----"Naked African women with baskets on top of their heads are brilliant women."
Reading the book proves it and STEALS BACK the image that National Geographic made look backwards.
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