Identity Crises

Friday 16 of August 2019

Lets Talk About Identity Crises

Growing up I really struggled with identity crises it was so bad that I'd avoid any conversations or topics that had to do with identity because growing up all I really knew was that I was South African and nothing more. Of course I knew that I was also Angolan because of my parents but to me I was just Angolan because of them and nothing more so every time somebody would ask me a question such as: oh Deborah what are you? I'd automatically respond South African and they'd respond with I already know that but I mean what's your ethnicity/tribe/group of people that you identify yourself with and I'd always respond with I don't really know because I wasn't Zulu nor Xhosa nor Venda nor Tswana, I was just South African and that would make me feel incomplete because I always felt like I was missing a part of me, a part of myself that I haven't yet discovered and that's where being in Angola played an important role of me discovering my ethnic group, my people. The Bakongo people an ethnic group that's part of the Bantu tribe and I kid you not I went ham after finding that out, I read articles after articles, watched videos after videos and finally I'd come to know who I was, who I really am and that was Deborah Makaya Antonio a South African Angolan Mukongo.