word vomit

yevu! yevu! yevu!

i swear it's like word vomit. yevu is the ewe word for "white person," which i thought was less obnoxious than the twi equivalent, "obruni." but alas, i was wrong...it's just as annoying. it's like they can't help themselves...they have to say it. adults...children...it doesn't matter. it's like a form of tourettes.

i find it irritating for a number of reasons: 1. i'm not white 2. i don't care what you're yelling at me...you could be yelling "bumblebeetuna." it's annoying having anything repeatedly yelled at you for no d*mn reason 3. it's disrespectful culturally...especially coming from someone younger than you, and it's just plain rude/ignorant coming from an adult. needless to say, i spend a lot of time telling people that my name is not yevu, it's julie, telling children that i will beat them if they call me something other than my name, and ignoring people shouting at me in the streets.

christiane (who is french, and by french i mean white) was trying to explain to me that it's not rude, that it's normal in ghanaian culture, and that they even call african americans "yevu." yeah, slavery was the norm at one point, too, but that doesn't mean it's okay.

my colleague, makafui, asked why i didn't like people calling me yevu. i told her that it would be like me shouting "negro, negro!" at her every time i saw her. i think she understood.

*i dedicate this post to jameria, b/c she deals with this pain everyday in america! lol!

malnutrition? aids? malaria?

no, these children suffer from word vomit...