African _Australians and the Meaning of Community

Speech given by Dr. Berhan Ahmed at Festival Launch at the Immigration Museum, Melbourne on the 28th of February 2009.

(This speech has been lightly edited to make topical references clear and to provide subheadings).

1) Introduction 2) Personal History 3) The meaning of community 4) Need to be balanced in public dialogue 5) Media picture of Africans and of Muslims is unbalanced (with historical examples) 6) Media picture of Africans demoralizes African migrants and their children 7) Current challenges facing Australians 8) Migrants great resource for future prosperity

1)  Introduction

Hello everybody and I thank the Immigration Museum for inviting me here today.
Before starting today, I would like to acknowledge  the traditional owners of the land on which we stand, the Yalukit-willam, one of the five clans of the Bunurong people, the traditional owners of the Port Phillip land.

2) Personal History

I have been asked to say a few words about myself.  Basically I am a very ordinary person and I don’t see why anyone should want to hear about me, but because I have been asked, I will give you an outline.  I was born in Eritrea.  During the Civil War my village was bombed and strafed by Mig fighters, so I had to leave my parents and home at the age of fifteen and flee with friends to a refuge camp in Sudan.   At that time, the refugee numbers were smaller than today and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees was much better funded, so I was fortunate to be moved to a town to attend school.  After school, my elder brother helped me to go to University in Egypt.  I was there for five years, and then came to Australia at the age of 24.  In order to improve my English, first I worked as a tram conductor for about a year.  After that I was able to do further studies here.  While I studied, for four years I worked as a taxi driver.  I was one of the first African taxi drivers in Melbourne – there was one Somalian man who also drove.  I kept on driving taxis even after I graduated and started work at the CSIRO, because there were many people in camps in Sudan who were dependent on me.  Then after a few years more, I was able to complete my doctorate and to get work at Melbourne University.

3) The meaning of community

So I have been asked to say a few words, also, about community, and what community means to me.  The point that I want to make here is that we are all part of many communities, so that gives us different levels of responsibility.  Because I am an Eritrean, I at first represented that community and I am a part of that.  Then I became the chairman of the African Think Tank, so I represent Africans in Victoria and to some extent throughout Australia.  However I am also a Victorian.  During the recent bushfires, people came from all over Victoria to help.  They didn’t ask themselves whether someone was African or Vietnamese or someone whose family had been here for generations.  Everyone worked together for the benefit of all.  And then also, beyond that, I am also a citizen of the world.  During the bushfires, help came from many countries.  People acted not only as Australians, but as citizens of the world.  In the past, other countries had problems and Australia helped.  This time, Australia needed help for something that was too big and too severe for us to manage by ourselves.  So we are all citizens of the world, that’s important.

4) Need to be balanced in public dialogue

So I think what I am trying to say here is this.  I have been given a certain role, or a certain responsibility to represent a particular group within the wider community.  The African communities have asked me or elected me to be their voice, and it is my responsibility to be that voice.  To put their point of view.  To help them get what they need.  But that doesn’t mean that I forget that I am also a part of the community of Victorians and Australians and People who live on this planet.  Just because I am representing a particular group doesn’t mean I am entitled to forget all other groups.  To be a responsible part of the political dialogue within Australia means to put things in a balanced way, in a responsible way.    It is really important at all times for those in public life to have a balanced perspective.  It’s quite easy, in public dialogue, to become more well known or more powerful by being very outspoken.  A person can really get a lot of power and influence quickly by being very unbalanced, very partisan in support of a particular viewpoint or group.  A person like that is irresponsible.  To be unbalanced like that is dangerous for the political process.  Why?   Because things get heated up.  Then people take sides.  And then people get hurt.  Do you see what I mean?  When people start thinking they are on one side, and other people are on the other side, then people get hurt.  That is why those Russian Migs were strafing and bombing my village.  It starts in a small way.  But it can end in a big way.  So watch out for those people who are very partisan and who lose perspective.  In terms of political debate, they can be very dangerous.

I also want to say that the process of dialogue goes two ways.  As the representative of a certain community, I not only have to put their views.  I also have to give them a picture of themselves.  I also have to encourage them to see the wider picture and to see themselves in the context of that picture.

5) Media picture of Africans and of Muslims is unbalanced

The media in Australia does not present a very balanced picture of Africa.  The images presented by the media are dependent upon the political and economic needs of a country at any given time.  Let me give you an example of this. 

Someone recently did a study that found that about seventy percent of villains in movies at the moment are Muslim extremists.  The picture is given of swarthy, sweaty, guttural men who speak as if they are swallowing a cardboard box and shoot innocent villagers in the head.  The sort of thing you have seen in 'Iron Man'.
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But if we look at the picture of Arabs and Muslims that was given in the Victorian era, and right up till the nineteen-sixties, it was quite different.  Arabs were depicted then as being romantic, loyal, brave.  The eagle-eyed sons of the desert.  Rudolf Valentino in ‘The Sheik’.  Omar Sharif in ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.

The interesting thing is that this changed, not as a result of 9/11, but before then.  Actually, it was when the oil-producing nations in the Middle east formed OPEC and began charging more for petrol, that the picture given of Arabs changed from positive to negative.

The picture given of Africa and Africans has not changed so much.  For many centuries, Africans were depicted as subhuman.  Then, during the Victorian Missionary era, they were depicted as children that needed to be taught religion.  Now the predominant images we see on our TV are starving Africans.  Because the images that we see are from aid agencies seeking our money.
That’s far from a rounded picture.  There are 54 countries in Africa.  There are wars, there are terrible human crises in some places.  But there are also nations that are developing very strongly, economically and educationally.  Australia has major investments in Africa.  Australia companies have over twenty billion dollars invested in Africa.  There are over nine thousand African students studying in Australia.  The Rudd government announced recently that our ties with Africa are going to be developed and increased.

6) Media picture of Africans demoralizes African migrants and their children

For African migrants in Australia, and especially for their children, the picture that the media gives of Africa is a problem.  So as well as working with the Australian and government and media to correct this impression, I am also working to help the children, especially, get a more positive picture of themselves.  In order to really participate as an active part of Australia, a person needs to have a positive picture of their identity.  They need to know their roots and be confident that they have something valuable to contribute to the wider Australian society.  It is only when you feel you HAVE something that you can GIVE something.

And migrants, including African migrants, have a great deal to give to Australian society.  Firstly, they are very motivated to succeed.  They are people who have been given a new opportunity, a new chance.  They remind us not to be blasé about things like freedom and equality.  Among the children of migrants we surely have some in whom we can see future stars or leaders – in sport, in the arts, in academia and politics.  Also, if Africa has much to learn from Australia, it also has much to share in return.  A culture where people work together.  And some of these African cultures are among the most ancient in the world.  They have a history of thousands of years of working with the land. 

What we need to do is support people in maintaining their culture, their roots, but at the same time, in integrating with Australia.  In this way, we will produce a generation of Australians who are bilingual and bicultural.  Then those people become a pool of resources we can draw on.  When we are developing trade links, defence links, economic links, cultural links, bicultural Australians, including African-Australians, become our window to the world.  Our way of linking with the world.

7) Current challenges facing Australians

We have some terrible challenges facing us at the moment.  Financially, we need to develop more trading partners and fresh approaches, and Australians of diverse backgrounds can really help us with this.  And behind that, there is the terrible problem of climate change.  It is not the place to talk about that here, but it is shaping up as a deeper and a worse problem than anyone had anticipated or imagined. I really encourage you to read more about that and to encourage government to take more action.   In order to overcome the problems of climate change, we will have to act not only as African Australians, and not only as Australians, but as citizens of the world.

8) Migrants great resource for future prosperity

In dealing with problems and in looking to the future, any nation’s best resource, its real resource, is its people.  In continuing to accept new people, and in helping them become established here, we are building our prosperity for the future. That’s the message I would like you to take away with you today.  Our best resource is our people.  Our best hope for the future is our people.  We must spare no effort in helping to develop and make strong our people.  Thank you.