[AFRICAN] American

 The more I look at what's going on in the world, the more I believe that wherever I go I will have hardships because of my ethnicity and race. A black woman living in the United States and an Anglophone in my birth country of Cameroon. The two groups I belong to are groups that face brutality and are stuck in a world that doesn't see the cruelty they have soaked. For years I have confused my identity. Being born in Africa while living in America has caused an internalized puzzlement that I can not seem to understand or solve. At first, to fit in, I claimed the title of an African American and only an African American. I did this thinking that the rest of my black counterparts would accept me. Instead, I was ridiculed for trying to be American, told that I had ebola, bullied because of my ethnic name and dark skin, and told to go back to my country. Feeling betrayed, I turned my back on that side of me and claimed the title of an African and only an African. But living in America, being an African doesn't change how they treat you. You are just another black person that they abuse. So what I am? Who am I? When someone asks me "Who are you?", I looked at them, embarrassed at my inability to state the answer to such a simple but complicated question. Who were the people I belonged to? My African American people-- those whom I face racism and oppression with every day? Or my African people-- those, including my own family members, who have to face the violent punishments of their governments' wicked corruption. The truth is: I am defined by both. The US government may not be corrupt to its beneficiaries but to the people of my skin color, it is. My fellow Africans may have not been brought to a different country by boat to be enslaved, but instead, we were enslaved by the same white men on our OWN land while still facing the same corruption today by our OWN governments. I belong to BOTH groups who have faced violence without reparations. That is who I am. An African born African American who is wounded by both sides of the rope. A rope of blood, slaughter, and injustice. I am ME.