When I think of the great scientific achievements - putting a man on the moon, coming up with the covid vaccine - I think of it as something we've done. I think, "we put a man on the moon." Even tho I had fuck all to do with it.
Back when I lived in Nigeria, I would think, "they've put a man on the moon."
As an African, I felt outside of the world of mankind's successes - and I don't think it was just me.
I can't quite explain why.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from davidnjoku@mastodon.world
@davidnjoku As a woman…
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from sinabhfuil@mastodon.ie
@sinabhfuil Sorry I don't get the point you're making. Are you saying that the same thing happens to women?
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from davidnjoku@mastodon.world
@davidnjoku I'm saying that women don't tend to think it's "we" who have done these things, for some reason
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from sinabhfuil@mastodon.ie
@sinabhfuil 😂
Looking at that image, I can't even begin to imagine why
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from davidnjoku@mastodon.world
@davidnjoku I'm obvviously not mickey-measuring about whose misery is worse, mind!
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from sinabhfuil@mastodon.ie
@sinabhfuil Don't worry, we can all be miserable together 😀
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from davidnjoku@mastodon.world
@davidnjoku This shameful horror might interest you https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2025/1/24/harvard-disbands-slavery-remembrance-program/
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from sinabhfuil@mastodon.ie
@davidnjoku For a long time Africa has been excluded from the global community. The Africans who were enslaved and taken through the new world had their cultures erased and had to establish their own, new culture based on their history and experience. This disconnect further isolated Africa, while immigrants from other parts of the world maintained ties with their homelands. The net result is that as the world slowly got more connected, Africa maintained its aura as the land of huts and safaris
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from jmopp@masto.ai
@jmopp @davidnjoku and even as an african of colonial origin there's a strange disconnect. i get both the we've/they've at the same time
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from mensrea@freeradical.zone
@mensrea @jmopp @davidnjoku Same here.
Back in SA "them" used to mean Americans to me.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from monsoonrains@mastodon.social
@monsoonrains @mensrea @jmopp I feel like the whole world is poorer because of this feeling that Africans have. A billion people - mostly young and ambitious - aren't contributing to their full capacity (unless they emigrate).
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from davidnjoku@mastodon.world
@davidnjoku @monsoonrains @mensrea This is exactly the thing. While the rest of the world's population is on the decline, Africa's remains growing. Yet the rest of the world seems uninterested in nurturing African people's potential
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from jmopp@masto.ai
@jmopp @davidnjoku @monsoonrains @mensrea
A turning point for my life was driving - from Schengen Bridge (see Wikipedia) - to the Calais ferry in 2013. I was struck by the numbers of migrants trying anyhow they could to get into the UK.
What struck me was folk were in the economic prime of their lives, risking everything for opportunity. Determination. Ingenuity. These are the people painted by UK Tories as "vermin". I thought of them a lot when I decided to emigrate from the 🇬🇧 to a welcome 🇨🇦
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from NovaNaturalist@mstdn.ca
@NovaNaturalist @jmopp @davidnjoku @monsoonrains
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from mensrea@freeradical.zone
@davidnjoku @monsoonrains @jmopp it not just a feeling though. there is a distinct lack of access, even here in cape town that's supposed to be all linked up
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from mensrea@freeradical.zone
@davidnjoku @monsoonrains @mensrea @jmopp I think the only people I've talked to (so far) who were like... people I could think "you get it!" about this feeling were Brazilians. South America seems to have a lot in common. Also left out of everything.
But yeah. When you're obviously not included in anything it's hard to think of those achievements as something you can claim.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from len@nyan.network
@len @jmopp @monsoonrains @davidnjoku there are a few from za, like the heart transplant. but i don't think it's really about being able to point to specifics, it's about feeling part of the greater project
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from mensrea@freeradical.zone
@mensrea @len @jmopp @monsoonrains I agree. Sometimes when you can point to specifics it only serves to emphasise how much we're probably missing out on.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from davidnjoku@mastodon.world
@len @mensrea @jmopp @monsoonrains @davidnjoku As an American scientist, I can testify that research publications from South America are listened to/available in the US much more than those from Africa. South Americans justly feel isolated by the north, but their isolation is nothing compared to the isolation imposed on Africans.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from ELS@sfba.social
@davidnjoku @mensrea @jmopp The world is so much poorer for it. It is not just skill, but the energy, the perspective, the optimism. It's not something I've ever experienced in Europe. I mean you do have that here, but it doesn't have the same sparkle.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from monsoonrains@mastodon.social
@davidnjoku synecdoche makes me feel uncomfortable. Unless I was personally involved in something, it feels dishonest to include myself in the we.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from Shanmonster@c.im
@Shanmonster Synecdoche. Beautiful word. Had to google it.
I get where you're coming from, but don't you feel part of the culture that led to all the achievements. Even slightly?
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from davidnjoku@mastodon.world
@davidnjoku I've always felt like an outsider.
=> More informations about this toot | More toots from Shanmonster@c.im This content has been proxied by September (ba2dc).Proxy Information
text/gemini
