From Africa to Europe: A path to Individualism

French academics educated our generation in ideological vices: universities are gods, technical schools are peasants, and if you want to make it out there, you must choose a side: right or left. When I attended prep classes to enter Political Science Academies in 2007, it was my greatest dismay to realise our education system was flawed.

Today, we are many to be described as unrooted Europeans. We still live in a world where society judges everything we say or do as “right” or “left” and “white” or “black”, when we actually choose to be heavily in the “grey”. We are not right nor wrong, we are in the middle and most of all, a good portion of us want to stay there: this “grey” middle, the path to Individualism.

I was part of the first born generation of an immigrant family in France. Nothing special in that, we are many now to finally realise as adults: our families were refugees. And we were apparently lucky to be born on European territory, privileged some would say. The story behind my generation is bloody and darker than we tend to show, mostly because our parents and families never made much of a deal about it. This was to protect us and be sure we integrate into this new country.

My mothers side of our family was from Spain the furthest back I could track. In the beginning 1900's they decided to join the colonies in Algeria. My family back then was not in the higher ranks of the "Pieds Noirs", as we used to call them. From little pieces and clues I could gather they were all fluent in Arabic, Spanish and French and worked with locals as well as with the colonialists. This is all I could get from my family who never spoke of our home in Saïda, Algeria. Little pieces of history, which ended in blood. Half my family was killed during the Civil War in 1962 and the other half took refuge in France.

I carried the history of my family with me everyday for 30 years and for the good majority of it, I never realised the deep meaning and lessons it inadvertently taught me to dissect the modern world of today, from social structures, to politics and arts. My eyes are still hoping for wonders, but what I truly see are the scares of the past and their implications in our todays life.

Many called us “multicultural” “mixed” kids. We are beings, annoyingly stuck in between the ropes of politic and social structures. Our view of the world is more intricate because our beings are, we are, in the “grey”. We think people are their own self and should not always be judged by the prejudices of a group they seem to belong to. This testimony is not an outcry for social justice but a plea for Individualism, supported by free speech, the right to think our own thoughts and choose reason of facts rather than following an ideology or a mob.

Multiculturalism can be possible and others would say it is an illusion. Again, right in between, my life as many others breathes, thrives and evolves in Multiculturalism because it is in our genes, hearts and mind-sets but at what cost? With a diverse background can come complications and the realisation: our whole planet is a multicultural bubble, which, up until now still fail over and over again on the same ideological, geopolitical and social levels. It failed because people like myself are the results of violating cultural geo-borders, we are badly handled consequences in a circle of violence. Our planet hosts, in the majority of cases, a Multiculturalism nurtured by wars violence and ideological extremism.

Also added to diverse views, different opinions and culture traditions, I have learned to be a distinct individual because the faith for the French Republic did not survive in the hearts of most Pieds Noirs and myself as descendant. The Algerian Nation looks at us with disgust and we can only bow, for the fact: we have no home country where we honestly and safely belong, only left with a very scarce, and almost none existent, community. I decided to take responsibility for my own path and carry this legacy as an individual with no ideological banner to wave.

In Europe, I decided to not submit myself to a group or ideology anymore even for the sake of protecting myself or feeling as I belong, because in many ways it was not a choice I voluntarily did, it was just how it was as I never found a group or ideology to identify myself to. I never felt fully comfortable or even able intellectually to stick to one path, one idea or one side. In this matter, my heritage from Africa defines me as a multicultural woman which does not belong to any mainstream collectives because it is not who I am.

More than a theory, I know and have the firm idea we are individuals, exercising the most precious abilities we have, without fully perceiving it yet: coexistence, self-reliance and an analytic mind. Those do not belong on only one side of a barrier, nor are affiliated to a specific colour. They are keys to a well thought out Individualism to stand in a dialogue where you represent yourself and care to solve the chaos around you as a priority, an act of respect, coexistence with others and self-care. Because hiding behind over-simplified ideologies to make us feel comfortable in the middle of chaos, is not a viable solution. No ideology will ever bring balance to the world, but only the free will and educated choices of each one of us.

Most people are scared to do so, as was I. It is difficult to acknowledge in front of others that my family was on the wrong side of history and mostly put in place the base of todays bad prejudices.

Still, I have begun to see a glimpse of truth and a familiar relation to todays events: acknowledging most refugees welcomed in Europe did not have a choice, because for them it was packing bags or ending in a coffin. Those parents made the choice to save their children and have this history to carry with them in a world far more complicated than before. They are the next generation of unrooted citizens of Europe.

Next time you see a little me in the street, you will realise, with every footstep we are closer to our ancestors strength to survive as much as we are further and further away from home with no way back because it is lost forever, not geographically but well in our minds and hearts.