Rants and Other Shit

lets talk about tribes.

hi. i am nigerian. i am happy to be one. i love nigeria. we have problems but who doesn't? where doesn't?

but you know my favorite thing about nigeria? it's numerous tribes. i love that we are many kinds of different people. i love that we have different languages. 

but anywhere were different kinds of people live, there will be stereotypes and a form of segregation.

how? 

well, no one can deny that nigerians on the internet are too funny. reading people posts makes me die of laughter.

above is an example of how we get tommy aches from looking at our phones.

some four best jokes come from making fun of tribes and tribal activities. for example, our magical edo people who fly, our akwa ibom people who swim, hausa boys and their perfumes, igbo girls and their money loving attitudes and well...yoruba people.

these are just simple examples of stereotypes. we have more. and more tribes. 

but these probably harmless jokes on twitter and instagram have some kind of impact. on the kids. i feel like the aim of our generation is to eliminate all rules that restrict us from progressing and that includes stereotype and discrimination. so when go to school and see the people who are meant to change the world with me, i lose hope. they are influenced by older generations like our teachers and that means sexism, ableism islamophobia sometimes when brought up(i attend a catholic school), even disrespect to other forms of unorthodox christianity and best of all, the one thing they will never be apologetic for: disrespect to other tribes.

a yoruba boy does something and it is suddenly in his blood because ' yoruba boys are like that, as an igbo girl she is going t finish your money, as a hausa girl( this one i found very rude cus one of my fav friends is hausa) she is rude, and it is okay for her to be stupid cu they barely get educated in the north.

i won't lie these jokes are funny but i believe they have limits. they also can be true but sometimes they lead to fights and sentences that aren't jokes. for example,the biafran war is not a joke as many nigerians suffered from it. so making a joke about how igbo people should leave nigeria isn't even a joke. maybe to you, but some igbo girl somewhere feels that is very rude. i hear stories about that war and i won't wish those accounts on my worst enemy. also

calling hausa girls rude, uneducated and boko haram victims is rude and shows how unempathetic you are. also child marriage is not a funny topic so telling someone that should not be taken lightly. it is rude and sexist actually. you are acting like she has no value. every life has value because every person i peculiar. how is it her fault that some people can't just accept peace or show unhappiness well. also please dont compare her or him to beggars on the road. a beggar is from anywhere with any religion. poverty is no jokes cus your rude self could have been poor if not for God's mercy.

being yoruba doesn't mean i am mad or a street person. it doesn't mean i am crazy or hot tempered or downright selfish. 

also he is ego. doesn't mean he can fly. 

what i am trying to say is, i laugh at these jokes as much a the next person but i really think we need to consider  peoples feelings. i think they have limits. we see these jokes nonsocial media and they get backlash when they are offensive but irl we are scared to tell people ' thats not funny' or 'thats offensive'  when these limits are crossed cause we won't be liked anymore. we would be seen as killjoys and what not. also' i am not from that tribe so its not my business'. if someone can go after one tribe, whats stops him/her from getting to yours?

these also shouldn't lead to fights. my squad sometimes gets torn up cause of such comments and it hurts so much cus i love my friends and don't care where they come from.

bottom line is: we need to think before we speak or react to things. let us spread love and not hate. some  of us say we are feminists but you would never stand up fro that girl cause she is from a different tribe. or background. or class. what is feminism if we women are divided? 

let us all remember that whatever happens in Nigeria affects all nigerians. and best of all when we win, we win as one nigeria. 

plus doing this reduces tension between tribes and prevents inter tribal problems. let us celebrate diversity and not kill each other with our differences. these differences an flaws make us our selves. 

could you let me know if this happens in other countries as well? especially countries with a lot of tribes. and also you could share instances where this happened to you.