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Mama Adobea Nii Owoo is a Ph.D. candidate in Language and Literacies Education and Comparative International Development Education at OISE. She is the founder and lead researcher of the Afroliteracies Foundation, a Ghanaian based think-tank for indigenous African languages.
Mama’s research interests lie at the intersections of language policy, decolonial theory, ethnography, teacher education, and critical action research.  Her doctoral research uses ethnographic film to explore how language experiences shape the way teachers implement educational language policies in Ghana. Mama has taught Spanish and English as foreign languages in Ghana, the United States, and Spain.

I hear that in Japan there is a popular saying出る釘は打たれる; “the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” Without an expert opinion of how thoroughly this saying is experienced in Japan, I surmise that for the Japanese, the Japanese identity is a marker of social acceptance. The perception that an identity is misplaced within this context provokes a form of societal discomfort. And so, for minorities, the question of belonging is a tough and sensitive maneuver. Hence, when my nephew was born in Japan to Ghanaian parents who were learning Japanese, I discussed with my sister how they would help him navigate belonging. “Well, for one he would have to learn Japanese,” she said. But would he feel accepted just by learning Japanese? From experience, I know that the world is a cruel place for minorities who wish to belong. Despite my enjoyment visiting Japan, I was thankful when my sister’s family moved out of Japan just as my nephew started to learn to read. I explain below the complexities of belonging.

I think that when you use language as a lens, you raise a number of questions about Belonging, Identity, Language and Diversity. How does language facilitate belonging in different environments? What about identity? Can diverse societies ameliorate the isolation that a newcomer or a native may sense from not being part of a place? What about homogenous societies? Thankfully, the study of Raciolinguistics is providing the language for articulating many of these complexities (Chow, 2014; Alim, Rickford & Ball 2016; Rosa & Flores, 2017). As for me, belonging is a theme that resurfaces when I have to find a new home as well as pull out my “wiemɔi srɔtoi”, “kasahorow”, chao languages, repertorio verbal, armoire des langues and my plurilingual repertoire.

Montreal is becoming my new home, and with it, I see hope for the survival and revival of my French language skills. Since relocating to Quebec, I have been especially intrigued by one question: how do people’s perceptions about language, identity and diversity affirm belonging for minorities in a shared environment?

For the past ten years, I have not had the benefit of putting down roots in any one country, but I have found comfort in meaningfully engaging with the languages, cultures, people, history, and environments of many cities. Getting acquainted with Quebecois French in Le Plateau-Mont-Royal, my new neighborhood, is keeping me adequately busy. Picking up and using language is one important way for me to feel I belong. My new slogan is “Home is where (the) language is.”

To say I grew up with a fascination for languages is to trivialize my linguistic background. I come from Ghana, a country where 81 languages are spoken. Unfortunately, I was only able to acquire four, counting Ghanaian Pidgin English of course, sshh! Multilingualism is a social commodity in Africa. However, in Ghana, schooling and society introduce you early to language hierarchies, a situation in which society places more premium on specific languages. Now I am embarrassed to admit that I aspired to this ideal: I learned three European languages: English, French, and Spanish, more zealously than I did the other four.  And when the opportunity presented itself to advance my language pedagogy, I put Accra, my home city in my rearview mirror. This is how for the past number of years I have played la “Yuma,” Cuban slang for expatriate (but believe me, there is far more nuance). So far, I’ve lived in six cities. I mostly experience cities through the mirror of language. My experience is that people in most societies find it convenient to categorize others more easily by riding on perceptions about identity and diversity. It is widely known that the way you look largely determines how people view you and relate to you. Language is taken for granted in this equation.

However, language can help us put a lot of these preconceived notions to the test. Thus, stereotypes and societal tropes may guide the labels we assign to a different person. Research suggests that years of European colonialism and globalization in contemporary worlds have exacerbated the social and political imposition of raciolinguistic ideologies on racialized persons (Rosa & Flores, 2017).

Although the spread of multilingualism and language learning should cause us to be more critical when we consider how we affirm belonging, many minorities who share in a dominant culture continue to experience varying forms of ostracization. As a minority, my reality is that of being and becoming ‘other’ enough in order to belong. But it is a never-ending chase to be enough to belong. As in the Japanese maxim, you mustn’t be the nail that sticks out even when you stick out.

Some think that perhaps, when you have the luxury of quality education, economic stability, varied global experience and perspectives then belonging is not so hard. Or is it? I think that for racialized minorities, you still get shortchanged. If you’ve read Frantz Fanon’s Black skins, white masks, you’ll know that his opening chapter “the Negro and Language” prophesies that “The Negro… whoever he is, has always to face the problem of language” (Fanon, 1970 p.18). I believe Fanon was referring to a phenomenon Alim (2016) has theorized through “racing language” and “languaging race”, which refer to conceptualizing language via race and conceptualizing race via language (p.1).

On my part, here are seven of many “languaging race” vignettes I have titled: To be or not to be and become, to speak or not to speak: Black female anecdotes about language, race and belonging in Cienfuegos, Cienfuegos; Sevilla, Andalusia; Athens, Ohio; Toronto, Ontario; and Montreal, Quebec.

1. To be or not to be Cuban in a bodega lining up at the Coppelia for helado. Por que en Cuba todo se convierte en cola! Viva Cuba Libre!
2. To be or not to be an English speaker in Athens because whether or not I explain several times that Ghana’s official language is English, I will every so often be congratulated for speaking very good English not pidgin English. Chale, we go take am like so.
3. To be or not to be understanding that I don’t fit the profile of a Toronto landlord after submitting the required paperwork because—upon finally meeting—he realizes that how I look differs from how I speak and write. Enough said.
4. To be or not to be a prostitute for an old Spanish man because Spanish society perceives black female bodies who share the street as public property. De camino del Lidl en Sevilla una tarde me paró un viejo quien me hizo una propuesta de sexo a cambio del privilegio de una ducha en su casa.
5. To be or not to be forgiving of a recruiter who despite my meeting his requirements refused me a job teaching English as a Foreign language only to offer it again after another Spaniard confirmed who I said I was? My response: Quien fue a Sevilla, perdió su silla.
6. To be or not to be Francophone for a Quebecois who only speaks French when my French fails me in the complicated situation of finding the central cable circuit in my new apartment building because I urgently need internet installed. Pour une fois, les mots me manquent, monsieur.
7. To be or pretend to be a tourist who speaks only English for a Quebecois to believe I am not planning to shoplift but a stickler for reading ingredient labels in a shop before I purchase an item. Pour la deuxième fois, les mots me manquent, madame.

While in Cienfuegos, I went about my best life, easily passing as Cuban the moment I achieved language proficiency. I found that in places like Spain and the USA, it is not enough to speak, write, find dignifying work with the languages you know if you are black. In essence, languaging can be bound up with negative racial ideologies and tropes and so language does not necessarily afford integration nor belonging for minorities. Moving to Ontario was a relief. The existence of linguistic diversity in Toronto offered me a haven. However, when a landlord racially profiled me after we met in person—he reneged on a lease I had signed that he had verbally consented to—I questioned whether I would belong, despite knowing English.

One challenge of belonging for many minorities irrespective of the language has to do with the phenotypical question. Understandings of race and the prevailing race relations in every context are different. Even so individual experiences of racism, discrimination and non-acceptance complicate and provide several nuances to the question of belonging. For some, it heightens insecurity and a distrust of society. Listening to Maica, an AfroAmerican Japanese teenager who is what the Japanese call Hafu or biracial reminded me of the difficulty that minorities encounter in trying to belong even when sharing a language and nationality. Maica’s native speaker identity is not enough to shield her from the ostracization and discrimination of Japanese society.

Alternatively, Tiffany an African American returnee to Japan, who was born and raised in rural Japan until her preteen years before moving to America and learning English has a different experience. She notes that she doesn’t look like where she comes from/was born. However, having the perspective of two cultures has provided her with knowledge for living in the hyphen. The pros of not finding belonging in such situations are the development of maturity and sympathy for the shortsightedness of linguistic racism. But these pros are few and far between.

While I welcomed the possibility of my nephew acquiring another language, I feared that he might encounter the prejudices Maica and Tiffany and myself face. We represent the nail that sticks out. We may want to be hammered down. Even so, we stick out. In effect we are linguistic transgressors and society reflects this transgression to us. Alim (2016) suggests that for this to change, we must think “transracially, “a dynamic process of translation and transgression” (p. 34) in conceptualizing persons who inhabit a liminal line between race and language because both constructs have been narrowly conceived. By doing so we can inch towards social transformation for races who do not look like the languages they speak.

And so, the question remains for me as I explore the opportunity to belong in French-speaking Canada. How do I go about living my best life? I have been quite lucky; many African Francophones have sowed where I am about to reap. And so, I am dropping my guard when it comes to the question of race as I warm up to Montreal. What do I propose that one do with the struggle to belong? How do you embrace learning and loving a language even though you stand out? These are questions we must all begin to address, especially those of us immersed in a language pedagogy that is critical.

I can only suggest that until the rest come around, you be the nail that stands out. Don’t simply stand out, be outstanding, and be an instigator of critical consciousness. Perhaps make plurilingualism your superpower?

References

Alim, H. (2016). Introducing Raciolinguistics: Racing language and languaging race in hyperracial times. In H. S. Alim, J. R. Rickford & A. F. Ball (Eds.), Raciolinguistics: How language shapes our ideas about race (pp.1-30). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 September 2019 from https://www-oxfordscholarship-com

Alim, H. S. (2016). Who’s afraid of the transracial subject? In H. S. Alim, J. R. Rickford & A. F. Ball (Eds.) Raciolinguistics: How language shapes our ideas about race (pp. 33- 50). Oxford University Press.

Alim, H.S., Rickford, J. R. & Ball. A. (2016). Raciolinguistics: How language shapes our ideas about race. Oxford University Press.

Chow, R. (2014). Not like a native speaker: On languaging as a postcolonial experience. Columbia University Press.

Fanon, F. (1970). Black skin, white masks. London, UK: Paladin.

Rojo, L. M., Anthonissen, C., Garcia-Sanchez, I., & Unamuno, V. (2017). Recasting diversity in language education in postcolonial, late-capitalist societies. Diversity and super-diversity: Sociocultural linguistic perspectives, 171.

Rosa, J., & Flores, N. (2017). Unsettling race and language: Toward a raciolinguistic perspective. Language in Society, 46(5), 621-647.