Just Me...

Bessie’s experience with having to find or create her own frame helps me understand how to understand myself. Bessie had trouble knowing who she was. She was considered one thing by some people and something else by others. Others were defining her by the frames they placed on her. I have something of the same problem. 

I am from Morocco. From the map below, you will see that I am from Africa. Yet, I am not considered African because I am an Arab. Most people think that the Arabs are from the Middle East. The result is that there is a lot of misunderstanding from people. We are African, we are Arabs, most of us are Muslims, but we are sometimes Middle Easterners depending on how the Middle East is defined. Some times the Middle East is only the Holy Land of Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and part of Egypt. Other times the Middle East is defined as Egypt to Iran and Yemen to Syria and Asian side of Turkey. The expanded version of the Middle East is from Morocco to Pakistan and Turkey to Somalia and Sudan. So the frame that people put on me depends on their visions of what an Arab is, their understanding of geography, and other factors. 

      Most of the people I have met in America know only two things about my country – the movie Casablanca and a song from the 70s about the Marrakesh Express.

They try to put me in that context when they learn I am from Morocco. It is not easy to try to create a frame for yourself when everyone is determined to make you crazy. I never saw the movie or heard the song, but it seems this is the most common knowledge for the people I meet. I want to be known for who I am and what people to know the reality of my country, but people are not caring about the truth of my life. I think sometimes they want me to believe that I am wrong and they are right about my life. A lot of people from the Middle East and Africa face this. They assume that we are unhappy there because we do not have what Americans have. They assume that we are oppressive to women and all hate America and that as Muslims we must embrace violence. When we try to tell them the truth, they argue as if we were brainwashed and can not know the truth because we are not American. I can understand why Bessie Head was frustrated and why she did not tell the “truth” about her life. How can she accept her identity when no one else will accept her identity? They made judgments about her before she was even born. What chance did she have to frame herself and choose her identity? Everyone was more than willing to do that for her. She basically got to choose from the frames other people gave her.