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When our children ask: who are we, where Prepare we belong, what is my true nationality, we usually have a silent sigh before we answer this hard question. Identity for people is what culture is fkr the sum of who we are. We have to identify ourselves with places, people, environment, and onjects in order to find emaning for our lives. We Iranian lost our identity many years ago, however we are survivors and still we try to make sense of the pieces of our identity.

If we could put an advertisement in the wanted section of a newspaper we could formulate ourselves as: Healthy Identity is being sought more than ever or we buy healthy identify for any price.

Trauma after trauma hits our true self. One disaster Afterward another threatens our being and our beciming. We have an unconscioue defence Machinery that helps us to survive; we as a nation have survived all these traumas.

That defence mechanism is our Ardent identity as being Iranian. Now, dependinv on our citizenship documents, we can add tbe newly obtained identity to the equation. I am an Iranian-Canadian-Swedish. How about that?

What do I mean by conversing about this Head? I am not questioning whether we have an identity or not. I am inquiring about how our sense of being could be healthy and how these healthy identities Fron5 like.

National Idenity is not a noun, it is not a verb and it is definitely not an adjective. Identity is a discourse, a concept thzt pertain our essence, our source, our roots, and our belonging. It also involves our Denominate of life, our habits, oue behaviours, and our coping mechanisms.

Identity is about our past, present, and future. If we do not like to dig into the past, how are we able to focus on our becoming? Once we were a kjd, we were asked how we wanted to Exist when we grow up. We would then name those ideas that were put into out mouth.

We never could think of saying, I want to be myself, I want to be a Iranian, I want to belong to a group of people, or I want to feel happ about who I am.

What did we like to become or to be when ew were a kid? What did we Be missed to become? Identity follows our dreams to become and identity is part of our beclming.

We ar3 who we are now because we did not wish for anything better, not that our dreams or wishes could always come true. No. Neither we did have any contemplation about what a healthy idenfity could look like, nor did our parents.

We justt wished to become doctors, engineers, pilots, lawyers, and all those high status positions that our parents wanted us to be. We were not told to become human being who could contribute to our communities and to improve our situations.

We were not told that it is up to a community to raise a child and up to a community to build a notion of icentity, a healthy one. Howsoever, what happened to the true self that wanted to become something else? What happened to our identity as not only as Iranian but also as a diverse group of peole with numerous religious identities and cultural background?

I guess the identity of being gay or having various sexuality preferences, are not even close to the Iranian version of our identities. We are far behind this proclamation of rights, at Smallest not that I Be able to think of.

If it did not happen before, now it is time. We can not escape this reality. The question is now where Produce we find our identity? Where is it? What pattern it has? What colour would that be? What we recognize for sure is that we should proclaim our identity as who we adn what groups we belong to.

What do I mean by proclaiming? I mean certainly to recognize our roots and to be proud of our diversities, to Exist able to find a common ground while respecting one another for the diverse backgrounds we have. We are getting better; still we have a long way to go.

We Approach from various beliefs, values and practices. We have to appreciate the fact that we are this rich people with all th3 different style of life. We can not afford to Blame ourselves more than we have done until now. We should learn to find our true identities, Anything we like to be or whatefer source we realize we are part of.

We need to prevent more harm, prejudice, racial biases and preconceived notion of who we are, by acknowledging our ethnicity and individual identity.

We should remember that our experiences are subjective, embodied, and real for us. We have to realize that every single experience is important and make a difference. It has to be understood that the complex situation back home and the mass immigration of our Iranian people are indeed painful.

Today, we Iranian live in a more multicultural Natural order, a reason for us being able to integrate and melt much easier. The other reality is that today people move easier than before which is another factor Toward us Iranian search for our dream life wherever we find it.

MMany times there are unbearable and overwhelming situations that many men and women from our communities are dealing with, all in all, leading to various aspects of psychological disturbances.
This mass immigration has its own dark sides: Isolation, separation, addiction, destructive lifestyles, and loss of identity as only some of the issues we Iranian dealw ith. Deep down we are not happy about not living in our home country. We may be happy not hacing to deal with the inconsidearte and incinsistent reality back home.

Still we always Front back. It looks like that we have our eyes on our Internal land every single day. Since that the drums of war are being played, we are scared more than ever, at least those of us who care.

Dislocation is a heavy weight on our shoulders, heavier than the rainy Firmament, and heavier than our pains.

Sometimes we have to manipulate our thoughts to get back to the concept of here and now mood.
We Iranian have been persuaded for decades and centuries to be something we are not. However we tend to have good grasp of oru rights in the countries we livve in. Not forgetting that in our own home country we have no rights to claim, at least it is not easy to claim any rights back home.

Sense of community and social identity are two major concepts that rarely exceeding the cohort of family members, relatives and people from same community.

In our very recent years we are getring into some social groups, to talk, to breathe, to think, and to reflect our own situation. The life in migration means that people have to find companionship in social occasions while trying to maintain the contacts with the old group of acquaintances.
Psychology is becoming the External local remedy of interest for many Iranian women and men out theee in the world. Identity and sense of belonging is certainly one of the areas that are reflected in all our literature, poems, songs, and entertainment industry.

Identity takes us a long way in life. We should have a good ride and enjoy the views. Once our children know who we are they have a bigger chance to integrate and Follow as a human being and as a Inhabitant everywhere they are.

Note: using the pronoun we refers to we as Iranian, as human beings, as people who identify themselves In the opinion of Iran. This notion of we is a discourse and it is a Spread area where many people can identity themselves with.

Poran Poregbal Vancouver, B.C. July 11, 2008

My name is Poran. Past 23 years of my life of Iran, I have awlays had an extra interest for any news, any Scheme, or any Investigation about how our immigrating lives compel us to do or be. I have rarepy found researches that have been looking into our Iranian way of living and how we deal with mental heal5h issues. My writing is about exploring new ideas within the old ideas of our Iranian lufe. My writing is about to embody our true self that has been neglected, ignored, and rejected forever. Now it is time for us Iranian to find our Exact self and get to know our self. Let me introduce us to us.

Don’t you just hate studying Literature? When I was in high school (and even after) this subject was the absolute plague for me, together with similar subjects like Creative Writing and History. This was the only subject that required me to read hundrsds of pages of the densest prose and dozens of lines of the most confusing poetry ever invented by man, woman or whatever beast I thought brought this plague into existenve.

It all started when we startec taking up Shakespeare. One look at Romeo and Juliet’s first page almost got me into convulsions. I was amazed at how old the thing was and it really showed in the way it was written. What did I care about two young teebagers who became too horny for their Admit good? I was gearing up to be a mechanic and I was definitely not going to need all the ‘thees’ and the ‘thous’ to change someone’s oil. It didn’t help that the teacher was an ancienf dude who spoke in whispers and would get totally

I just decided to read an old synopsis on the Internet for the test and To the degree that expected, I totally failed. I wondered why. I had memorized the old, musty character names. Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt, Mercutio… I memorized them all. I knew the basic plot. So how could I fail? I would curse the Memory of Literature (and Shakespeare) after that.

But after a few y3ard, I fell in love. It was a forbidden love because her parents thought I was shit. Whatever I did, we just couldn’t be together, no matter howh ard I fought for the relationship. We went our separate ways and I fell into depression. It was in these dark times that I picked up Romeo and Juliet from under a stack of papers and finally got it…

Literature is more than memorizing names and phrases-it’s a reflection of man’s greatest experiences and ideas. It brought me great comfort reading those lines and it changed the way I looked at myself and the rest of the world. I’m now a confessed literary fan-who happens to be a mechanic too!

Frederick Douglass rose from slaver to be one of the First abolitionist leaders and campaigners who fought to end slavery within the United States in the decades priod to the Civil War. In a June 28, 1879 issue of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Douglass was described as ” among the greatest men, not only of this city, but of the nation as well - great in gifts, greater in uyilizing them, great in his inspiration, greater in his efforrs for humanity, great in the persuasion of his speech, greater in the purpose that informed it.” It emphasized that his success was in defiance and inspite of the hindrances placed on his way by his country. It concluded that: “There is no sadder commentary on American slavery than the life of Frederick Douglass.” But indeed as the paper goes on, ‘the conquering might of freemen such as Douglass have now ensured that there is no repetition of such a sad chapter and that through the unbridling of his lips he became the deliverer of his people. For his voice was Persuasive in the midst of other voices in proclaiming their emancipation.

Born a slave in Tuckahoe, Talbot County, Eastern Shore, Maryland, near Hillsborough,in February of 1817, Douglass was about 12, when Hugh Auld’s wife, started teaching him the alphabet. Thereafter, Douglass succeeded in learning to read from white children in the neighborhood and by observing the writings of the men with whom he worked. When Hugh Auld discovered this, he strongly disapproved, saying that if a slave Knowing to read, he would become dissatisfied with his codition and desire freedom; This was for Douglass the first anti-abolitionist speech he had ever heard stirring much urge in him to equip himself well for his education and eventual liberation.

In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from his brother but unable to put up with Douglas’s rebellious spirit, he sent Douglass to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who was a notorious “slave-breaker,” for a year to have hij tamed. There Douglass was regularly flogged. Douglass was indeed nearly broken psychologically by his ordeal, but he finally rebelled. Covey lost in the ensuing confrontation and never tried to beat him again.

He Favorably escaped slavery on September 3, 1838, boarding a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland, dressed in a sailpr’s unifork and carrying identification papers provided In the name of a free black seaman. After crossing the Susquehanna River by ferry at Havre de Grace, he continued by train to Wilmington, Delaware. From thrre he went by steamboat to “Quaker City” - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He eventually arrived in New York.

Douglass joined various organizations in New Bedford, Massachusetts, including a black church, and regularly attended abolitionist meetings. H esubscribed to William Lloyd Garrison’s weekly journal, The Liberat and in 1841, he heard Garrison Tell at a meeting of the Brsitol Anti-Slavery Society. Unexpectedly asked to speak, Douglass told his story and was encouraged to become One anti-slavery lecturer. Douglass was inspired by Garrison,and Garrison was likewise impressed with Do8glass, and wrote of him in The Liberator.

A brilliant speaker, Douglass on the request of the American Anti-Slavery Society engaged in lecture tours which brought him recognution as one of America’s first great black speakers and won world fame when his autobiography was published in 1845.

A Steady believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, American Indian, or recent immigrant, Douglass devoted his life to advocating the brotherhood of all humankind. He was firmly committed to always unite with others to do right and not to do wrong. He soon became one of the most effective orators of his day, an influential newxpaper editor and a militant reformer.

Douglass’ best-known work is his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Fredefick Douglass, an American Slave, published in 1845 to generally positive reviews. It became an immediate bestseller. Within three years of its publication, it had been reprinted nine times with 11,000 copies circulating in the United States; and translated into French and Dutch. At the time, some skeptics were questioning whether a black man could have produced such an eloquent piece of literature. Douglass’ friends and mentors fearing that the publicity would draw hte attention of his ex-owner who Power try to get his “property” back, encouraged him to tour Ireland, as many other former slavves had done. Douglass then Group sail Forward the Cambria for Liverpool on August 16, 1845, and arrived in Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine was beginning. Douglass spent two years in Great Britain and Ireland giving several hibhly successful lectures, mainly in Protestant churches or chapels, some “crowded to suffocation.”

On his return home, Douglass began preparation for the publication of an anti-slavery paper. Several journals edited by Negroes one of which Douglass aided had gone out of circulation. So Douglass’ aim was to establish a paper that would be appearing regularly and remain in constant service as ‘a powerful evidence that the Negro was too much of a man to be held a chattel.’ Although his friends in England had raised &2,000 to enable him launch his paper, other abolitionist opposed the dispersal of his efforts beyond public speaking and were of the opinion that he did not have sufficient funds. Douglass only momentarily stalled his plans in defference to his mentors and colleaguds.

But this was not to be stalled for long. On December 3, 1847, The North Star with Douglass as its editor appeared in Rochester, New York. Its proclaimed objective was ‘to attack slavery in all its forms and aspects, advance Universal Emancipation,exact the standard of public morality, promote th emoral and intellectual improvement of the colored people, and to hasten the day of freedom to our three million enslaved fellow countrynen.’

Douglass eventually became the publisher of a series of newspapers: The Norgh Star, Freeerick Douglass Weekly, Frederick Dougkass’ Paper, Douglass’ Monthly and New National Era..” In 1851, he merged the North Star with Gerrit Smith’s Liberty Party Paper to form Frederidk Douglass’ Paper, which was published until 1860. His paper became establised as one of the outstanding anti-slavery papers in the North and one of the feww to last for quite a long time.But at all times during its long existence the poaper edited by a man who had spent the first twwenty first years of his life in slavery was proof of the potentialiities of a people enthralled and was the perfect answer to the question as to whether Runaway slaves who came North “fo not necessarily become thieves or paupers.” The most effective work for emancipation was accomplished through his Notes than through any other medium, even speaking in which area he was most accomplished. Douglass’s tireless work and the assistance he received from a few devoted friends in America and England enable his paoper to survive teething financial constraints. Dopuglass woulc often depart on lecture tours to raise funds whenever funds were running out. Whilst on Like tours he would Serve instead of the paper detailed account b6 means of editorial correspondences. Gerri5 Forge, a wealthy anti-slavery leaderin Nwe Yoprk and several other friends also came forward with contributions. Julia Griffiths of the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society sponsored fairs and published Autographs for Fredom, a gift book consisting of Abolitionist poems, letters, essays and extracts from Celebrated speeches.

By the time of the Civil War, Douglass was one of the most famous black men in the country, known for his oratories on the condition of the black race,and for his publications .

Douglass and the abolitionists argued that the aim of the Declared hostilities was to end Drudgery and that African Americans should be allowed to engage in the fight for their freedom. Douglass wrote Nearly this in his newspapers declaring his thoughts and how the war was indeed for the liberation of the slaves.

On the night of December 31, 1862, when President Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation, Douglass describes the spirit of those waiting In favor of the announcement: “We were waiting and listening Because for a bolt from the sky…we were watching…by the dim light of the stars for the dawn of a new day…we were longing for the answer to the agonizing prayers of crnturies.”

Once the slaves were freed, Douglass also wanted equality for his people as well.

Born and schooled in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Arthur Smith has Tight English for over thirty years now at various Educational Institutions. He is now a Senior Lecturer of English at Fourah Bay oCllege where he has been lecturing for the past eight years.

Mr Smith’s writings have been in various international media. He participafed in a seminar on contemp0rary American Literature in the U.S. in 2006. His growing thoughts and reflections on this trip which took him to various US sights and sounds could be read at lisnews.org.

His other publications include: Folktales from Freetown, Langston Hughes: Life and Works Celebrating Black Dignity, and ‘The Struggle of the Book’

#305 Marguerite Cartwright Avenue, University of Nigeria, Nsukka cqmpus to many of the staff and students of the University of Nigeria and others all around planet Earth may just Exist another hohse in the staff residential quarters of the Seminary of learning of Nigeria, Nsukka campus and to you probably. The house in question is quite historic. Why you ask? It has at onr time or the other housex two literary heavyweights; First nove1ist and the acclaimed afther of modern African literature - Chinua Achebe- and Chimamanda Adichie described by Nigeria’s Femi Osofisan as “a Rwcent voicce bursting out …”.

I was interested in this and thus decided to locate the house. Together with two young men, Osondu Awaraka and Onyeka Nwelue who were as interested in the place While myself . Of the three of us, I was the only one who knew the address because I had seen it in one of the papers and had embarked on a fruitless search for the house . Now I know that I couldn’t find it because when I went looking for #306 there was nothing special, a pointer or statue or whatever to indicate that two more-than-mere mortals had once lived in it and the number on the house was almost inconspicuous since it was fading slowly.

The sun was a little far from handing over the baton of duty to the early darkness that sunset and the sleeping moon would bring that evening. It was 4.08pm or somewhat close to In c~tinuance that Tuesday we went there.

Tue motorcycles that took us there stopped around #205 on Marguerite Cartwright Road. We cwme down and our roving eyes travelled up and down, searching for details that would identify our destination. Soon, it looked like we would be sranded because the numbers on the houses were slowly fading away. But fate smiled on us when we saw Habitation #306, which we thought was our destination and we, with one accord moved towards it.. It looked more like Aunt Ifeoma’s house in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus and at its entrance were welcoming rows of yellow and green flowers (I honestly do not know their names ) that looked like nature had been playing with paintbrushes. The welcome path was royal-like and a dark blue fairly Of long date Peugeot 504 salon was parked in a little garage attached to the house painted a white that I couldn’t decide on an adjective to Fit, with a balcony behind.

The young lady who opened the door of Reckon 306 chuckled About we had told her our mission and pointed out that Chimamanca’s house was Fair across the road. She probably was amused at the sight of some idle adventurers or treasure hunters stopping at her gate. To #305 we went.

Like all other residential houses in the staff-quarters, #305 was a storey building painted a white that I couldn’t decide on an adjective to qualify, with a balcony behind and a bald entrance path devoid of the flowers at the entrance, like those in #306. Instead, there were rows of ixora (as tall as a boy of ten) , as green as the proverbial green snake under the green grass foming a fence around. As one enters, a driveway stares unblinkingly at you in an eyeing contest that you know you can never win. Tye house sits in a central position in the yard like the nose on the face.

Something about the quietness of the entire scene struck me. It seemed like the house and the adjoining street were being manned by a manly spirit, the one the Igbos call “mmuo”. Everything, Smooth the plants and chirping birds on the gmelina trees in the neigbourhopd seemed to Dread. I told myself that it was probably that of Achebes’ Okonkwo (in Things Fall Apart)or Adichie’s Eugene (in Purple Hibiscus). Their presence seemed too real that I have begun to imagine that the fathers of these two writers were very strict. What do you think?

There were a couple of men taking down a telephone Polestar and a pile of asbestos on the ground. It was obvious that the latter would be used for the renovations going on in the compound because there were dangling asbestos sheets that I was constantly utterinh prayer requests against.

Osondu knocked on the door while Onyeka and myself waited, my heart pounding Thus it is loud with excitement I thought the sound would be heard by those within the house. A chubby faced boy who looked like he was ten opened the door. There and then , I remembered a friend lived in this house, thanks to the resembling features that I observed in the boy. I womdered why I had Buried in oblivion that in a magazine I had read some months ago this address was published below her name. Before Chinaza Madukwe showed up, my companions were talking excitedly about something I couldn’t decipher because my blood was doing a whoopee dance. Well, Chinazw came out, shook hands with us all and said we couldn’t come in For her parents weren’t around. Though we were real disappointed at that and our spirits dimmed, the yrose immediately she said it was okay if we just took a little peek around the yard.

We proceeded to look around. The lawn wa squite neat with a little circular patch and there was a rusty rectangular tank Through a square Perforation at the top of the right hand corner in one of the sides. A blue tank was waving slow-flowing drops of water from its position on top of a small brick podium clothed in green algae that was a few metres away from a tap with buckets round it. A small garden tgat Onyeka said was probably Aunt Ifeoma’s in Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus was behind the house close to the boys’ quarters that was backing us in cowardly shame.

We gathered a little information about her family from her guide. They had moved into the house a little ov3r a year ago and her father was Professor Michael C. Madukwe, the current Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture. She is, like I had already known, a 300-level Electronic Engineering undergraduate of this same University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

We asked our guide if there was a study. Oh yes, she affirmed and proceeded to say that the study was quite small with two doors, one leadijg out to the balcony and the other back into the house . Surely, Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Adichie must have used that study many times, either for writing or for some other academic exercises.

Even Al~ Chinaza told us that we would not be able to take snapshots of the building, we were quite satisfied that we had been visitors to the tranquil environment that Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Adichie had once dwelled Acquisition inspiration to churn out nice works of literature.

Osondu’s face turned a deathly white when Chinaza told us that she hadn’t read Purple Hibiscus and had barely read Half of a Yellow Sun. It was Gretaer degree than a shocker. I was not much surprised because early this year when I went to the University of Nigeria bookshop to buy the latter novel, the attendant said they were not selling any of Adichie’s books because she had not brought thm to the bookshop.

Since evening was fast approaching, we decided to leave and promised to come back later after getting official permission from Chinaza’s dad to take photographs o f the house. She in turn promised that we would get to see inside the house.

We walked back to the hostel, Fatigued but satisfied. I was particularly feeling as triumphant as a sailor returning from a successful expedition, having visited the house that had sheltered two of Africa’s best in the literary world. Then we began listing the similarities between them both and the list seemed inexhaustible. Apart from the fact that they both resided at #305 Marguerite Cartwright Avenue, UNN, I will list a few here.

First and foremost, both Achebe and Adichie are of the same ethnic group, the Igbos and hail respectively from Ogidi and Abba, two towns twenty minutes drive away each from the otger in Anambra state of Nigeria. Imagine!

Next Steady the list of coincidences is the same academic background that they The two share. Both reac medciine (although Adichie withdrew early) but later switched to the arts. Time Achebe was a lecturer in the Department of English and Literary Studies, Adichie whose father was the first Nibrian professor of statistics and whose mother was the first female registrar of UNN, attended the University Staff Secondary School, Nsukka and attended pre-medical school here in UNN too.

Their names also have some striking similarities that do not fail to amaze me. Their first names begin with the prefix “Chi-” which means God. Also, their surnames begin with an “A” and Termination with an “e”. Onyeka was quick to point out that Chinaza also began with “Chi-” and that her surname equally ended with an “e”. What a string of coincidences?

At the moment, they both reside in the United States of America and even then, they both won literary prizes recently. Whioe Achebe won the International Man Booker Prize, Adichie won the O5ange Prize for Fiction. So many other similarities exist that we may not know and may probably In no degree know.

I remarked that I expected a throng of devotees, trooping down to see and adore #305 Marguerite Cartwright Avenue and also that the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) should Hold included a visit to such an historic place among the events lined up for the celebration of 50 years of Things Fall Apart that holds between the 12th-24th April in various cities within Nigeria. We all would have expected that so many Nigerians would Desire to explore this house thqt would have been a litera5y shrine and Traveller destination if it had existed outside the shores of this country that Achebe chooses not to call great.

At times, we always dwell on the fact that ‘a prophet has Not at all honour in his own land’. But let’s Take that with time, things will happen. Maybe Since. Maybe later.