Diaspora of the Week - Nigerian-American

Many of you may have this question lingering in your head: "Isn't Nigerian-American the same as African-American?" For those who are thinking that, I ask this question to you: "When you refer to a White American as European-American or Irish-American, German-American, etc?"

When that question is posed, the vocabulary usually changes to: "Well, what is the difference?" Glad you asked because that is the very purpose of this entire blog: to give knowledge of Africa and the African diaspora. Like Europe, Africa is very diverse and rich in cultures (in fact, maybe even more so, since Nigeria alone has at least 250 native ethnic groups). So, now, the question is: "Why are African-Americans not referred to as Ghanaian-American, Cameroon-American, etc?"

African-Americans' ancestors arrived to the United States against their will and were stripped of nearly every single cultural and ethnic tie to their countries. Even though many of them did come from West Africa, records show that there are others that came from every region in Sub-Saharan Africa making it almost impossible to trace back their ancestry without any documentation. All in all, African-Americans have been in this country since it's beginnings and developed their culture from what they were able to retain from Africa here in the United States.

Nigerian-Americans, however, refers to Americans whose parents immigrated to the United States from usually post World War Two era until today. There are some distinct cultural difference between African-American and Nigerian-Americans (like foods, vocabulary/dialect, traditional activities), but there are some similarities. Since I am Nigerian-American, there are certain foods I grew up with that are seldom seen in a African-American household. I grew up not only eating typical American foods like hot dogs and french fries, but also egusi soup with pounded yam, jollof rice with plantains, chin-chin and the list goes on. Many African-Americans tend not to hear about these food until they are older. In fact, I didn't really know what soul food was until I was about 9 years-old. Similarly, due to skin color, like African-Americans, Nigerian-American face and have faced discrimination.

Overall, Nigerian-Americans and African-Americans have very different and distinct cultural experiences, but in some cases they can be similar. I found an interesting website made for Nigerian-Americans and Nigerians living in the US. Below are a few others:

http://nigerian-americanchamber.org/

http://namsausa.org/

http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Le-Pa/Nigerian-Americans.html

Here is also a video summing up Nigerian-Americans rather well.

The Nigerian American Community Part 1/4