Why Are We Different?

 

          Discrimination against Chinese-Indonesian has existed for many years. This caused

Chinese- Indonesians to be oppressed and have no freedom since 1740. over the past 80 years, Chinese-

Indonesian have experienced an identity crisis, unacceptable discrimination to both the Chinese and the

native Indonesians. Many Chinese-Indonesian feel that they are not part of the Indonesian state

because of the bad stigma created by society against Chinese-Indonesian. This certainly has

affected my family's personal life from how we get along with Indonesians native people and

how we do business with them.

          Ethnic Chinese are often considered as foreigners in Indonesia. This has affected my

family and me. Mostly we have gotten bad treatment from the environment around us such as verbal

violence and even physical treatment like when we are enjoying the scenery in the village,

many people pay attention to us and sometimes they call us Chinese spit. Therefore, this make

us afraid and has created a negative stigma against the natives Indonesian. Therefore,there is a gap

between Chinese-Indonesian and the native Indonesians. Chinese-Indonesians tend to gather

together with other ethnic Chinese in places like school activities, work, or even social life. My family

usually hang together with fellow ethnic Chinese because they know what it’s like to be in the

minority and they already consider each other as family. My family also has friends from local

Indonesians but not many because of the gap between us.

          Suharto resigned as president of Indonesia on 21 May 1998 following the collapse of support

for his three-decade-long presidency. The resignation followed severe economic and political

crises over the previous six to twelve months. the situation affected my family and they had to

hide so as not to be killed at that time because the conditions were so chaotic. My family had to

return to their hometown and shut down their business for several months due to ethnic

Chinese massacre. After that incident, our family went bankrupt and had to start the business

from scratch. Unstable conditions forced my family to take refuge in my grandmother's house

for some time. As a result of this incident, my parents were severely traumatized by losing all

their hard-earned businesses. Since that incident, the situation is no longer the same and our

family moved to safer city and started a new business from the beginning.

          The effect of the event from the 1740s and the 1998 still lingers today. The

government created the law to prevent these type of reoccurring. However, the

discrimination toward Chinese-Indonesian still existed until now. For example, There are a lot

of Chinese-Indonesians being discriminated indirectly in the various fields from the politics to

workplace. My father graduated from college with a law degree and he does not want to work

as a lawyer because it’s too risky, so he changed his job as a businessman. My father realized

that working for the government as a Chinese-Indonesians is a bad idea because we are still a

hated minority. According to my father, being a businessman is a safer job and far from conflict.

That is why my father chose that job.

          Discrimination against Chinese-Indonesian still exists until now. Discrimination against

Chinese Indonesians will always exist until now, depending on how we react to it. However,

Chinese Indonesians will always be part of the Indonesian state. I strongly believe that all

human have the same right no matter where they come from.

 Yaboh Donaldia Emmanuella Koumassou 

ESL 100 CE 

October 10, 2021 

Essay 2, second draft 

Topic: From Nigeria to Benin because of war 

 

My Ethnic Roots 

I have lived away from my real root country for many years. I still cannot believe I am half-Nigerian and half-Beninese. I have always qualified myself as a complete and real daughter of Benin, but I have realized lately that I am not. My great-grandfather, my father's grandfather was from Oyo, Nigeria. He came with his wife to Benin in 1906 because of the war that was happening in Nigeria, so I am a Nigerian born in Benin. He took the risk of leaving his hometown, leaving the  family house, and losing communication with his family for his safety. Thus, until now, none of my family members in Benin knows anything about our ethnic roots and our family still in Nigeria. My great-grandfather also took another wife in Benin, and that act had created a conflict between his first wife and the second one.That conflict has affected my family for more than a hundred years. My great-grandparents did not make a mistake by running away from the war to survive, but that decision affected the whole family and the generations that followed. 

My great-grandparents had lost every contact with the family members still in Nigeria. I mean, the rest of the family, my great- grandparent siblings, decided to stay in Nigeria no matter what, so the family split in two. In that period, it was not common for anybody to have a landline and my great-grandparents had none. Therefore, it was difficult to maintain relationships and communication between both sides of the family. Even though the war in Nigeria ended many years ago, my great-grandparents could not call the family just to make sure that they were still alive and doing well. Also, they were the only ones that knew the way to go back to their hometown. When my great-grandparents were still alive, they had not told anybody how to access the village, so the generation that followed their death had no idea how to contact the family to announce the news. My family was just living in Benin as their home country.  

In addition, I do not know anything about the cultures, or the home languages of Nigeria. Every part of the country has its own culture and its own language, and in Oyo, people speak English and Yoruba. I am supposed to know those languages since my childhood, but I don’t know them. Right now, I am already learning English, and I wish I could know how to speak Yoruba too. However, no one taught me how to speak it. Unfortunately, even my parents know nothing about the language we were supposed to know, so instead of speaking English and Yoruba with my parents, I speak French and Fon-my dialect from Benin, with them. The culture in Benin is the only one that my family and I have learned and have practiced all those years. If eventually there were a way for my family and me to go for the first time to our village in Nigeria, it might be difficult to familiarize ourselves with the new culture, just because we were not used to it.  

Moreover, there has never been peace, or unity between the children of my great-grandfather. My great-grandfather came to Benin with his first wife, and then he married another wife after spending a few years in Benin. Unfortunately, the first one was not happy about it. My family is Christian, and like some Christians in Benin, my great-grandfather chose to get a second wife according to the tradition. It was at that moment that a conflict has started between the two wives, so the children from both sides took over when they grew up. Until 2021, some of my uncles and aunties do not speak to each other because of that old conflict. Also, some of the grandchildren like me do not know each other or have not met yet. I always pray for a united family, but this situation has really affected the whole family and me. I wish my family could come together as one. 

 The war that happened at that time in Nigeria had made so many people run away from the country, and that was the case with my family. Since my great grandparents left Nigeria for Benin, the connection between the family members has been broken and the Nigeria culture has been lost. I wish I could know better about my ethnic roots. Besides, there is no connection or union between my family members since my great-grandfather took another wife in Benin after his first wife. All I want for my family is more unity and joy, but I am still unsure of how to achieve that.