I am a Kenyan | Minahil Qureshi | TEDxYouth@BrookhouseSchool

see I'm a Kenyan today I've come and I'm representing my country but the sad thing is I haven't always been represented as a Canales always having files Kenyan why well let me tell you why so you see the woman on the screen was the first Asian lady in Nairobi she came to Kenya in 1898 and her name was mrs. Hoffa say it Carey Emmitt she was also known very famously as mama railway because her offspring had contributed so much to the railway service see her son was a locomotive driver her great-grandson was a very well businessman her grandson sorry I forgot it her grandson was a clerk who started also another business in Kenya and the line keeps going on and on you see the woman in the drawing is my great-great-great grandmother see I've always felt Kenyan pink pink Kenyan is in my DNA it's Who I am something that runs inside of me I love I love our country I love our culture but then one day it hit me we were in our drama lesson and we were celebrating in Kenya at 50 so my teacher asked us to prepare something special something unique so my friend suggested dressing up as a kenyan colours I thought that was a great idea but then suddenly a question crossed my mind why does the black color on the Kenyan flag represent the people I looked at the flag at that moment and I felt I felt terrible I felt angry I felt sad I felt like the country then my people my family has contributed so much to I don't even fit in in the but then someone told me oh wait but there's a blood there's a red don't want you feeling omnec but fine but why does black get their own color sunny made me think but I left a mind I left it I'm like it doesn't matter but I start becoming more vigilant when I go to local markets with my mother to shop people would approach me by saying o-chem Joakim Joe and I'd be like Connie what do you remember him Kenya see I was like why did not convince that we live under the same blue sky share the same +25 four-line didn't understand then I decided you know what I'm going to solve this problem I am going to tell people what being Kenyan really means but I can't do it by myself because I don't really know someone I interview all different Kenyans and find out so I started I conducted interviews interviewing different races different ages different different everything different genres of people and asked them to question what makes you Kenyan and how would you identify Kenya see when I asked them what makes you Kenyan everyone give me generic and psycho was born here oh my dad's Kenyan where ask them how do you identify a Kenyan to give me very unique answers like our mothers all a very strict or we all love Gary I was like that's that's so interesting so using this knowledge I realized something you see some of my friends had British passports but lived in Kenya all their life knew all the roads in Kenya knew everything about Kenya boats didn't consider themselves Kenyan then I thought to myself being Kenyan is much much more than having a national stamp or having black skin it's about the experiences and moments that you have dwelt and grounded with you in with the country so I decided I'm gonna fix this problem I am gonna find a way to represent everyone I'm changing the flag crazy I know so I decided what would I change it to well Brown why Brown Brown is a tertiary color when you mix all the colors together you get run it's the same way you mix all the Kenyans together and you get a way to represent them but wait wait your feets blue blue tall so a really interesting color cause you see you ask any foreign person and I'll tell you Kenyans are known to live another beautiful blue sky also under all our eyes we all have a layer of blue so they're well all United but even if I change the color to brown or blue is this gonna change how people are gonna look at me are people gonna suddenly think oh she's Kenyan no that's that's not the problem so I revisited our own Kenyan flag and then I did a bit of research and I discovered science creams black is not a color it is in fact the absence of all color or the absorption of all color perfect it's the absorption of all Kenyans and absence of discrimination our flag is actually perfect it is in fact the black color is the one that most unites us but people don't understand that because you see growing up or not taught that growing up I've always been taught black is for the people red is for the blood and green is power land so I decided you know what I have to fix this problem Nelson Mandela once said people are taught to hate then they can be taught to love the same way black has been taught to us to differentiate us but it can be taught to us that is actually the colour that most unites us see black is one whether you're Chinese whether you're Asian whether you're African whether you're white whatever we all fit into the black and with that I end my speech I hope I hope that one day just like my great-great-grandmother I'm able to leave a linkage of many people to remember that you know what they stood into the black I hope to leave behind a family of proud Kenyans who know their Kenyan without any doubts thank you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 113,196

Rating: 4.4887891 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Kenya, Social Science, Democracy

Id: vEZlIhmSqUM

Length: 7min 13sec (433 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 15 2017