STEREOTYPES AND SOCIAL PREJUDICES IN MY LIFE

 STEREOTYPES AND SOCIAL PREJUDICES IN MY LIFE 

 I enrolled for a competitive Accounting Course at Strathmore University immediately after my KCSE before the results . I used my mock-exam results to get admission and it was a very good exposure for me. I lived alone in a hostel at Nairobi-West , got a different experience from a full life of Machakos region schooling (baby-class to high school) and made amazing lifelong friendships from people who I had misjudged as being too boogie or too rich-looking to speak to me  . One of excellent programs there was being paired with mentors to guide in day to day life and career paths. When KCSE results were announced, I was elated to had scored an A plain and had my name on the newspapers but what my mentor told me exposed me to a new world of stereotyping . We had only two As in the entire Machakos that year - a boy from Machakos School and myself. She told me ‘oh, you got an A ? But you don’t look so bright.’ I wondered whether it was the hijab , the way I dressed or simply that I truthfully didn’t look ‘smart.’

This was the beginning of many of such encounters . I got a full scholarship to study medicine in a South-East Asia country and I took the chance . I filled in my University of Nairobi JAB admission paper-work just in case the scholarship experience didn’t work out and I could always come back to start school here in Kenya -university placement used to be two years after KCSE during my time, so I had two years to try things out ; one year went to Strathmore University and the 2nd year was my 1st year med school experience ‘abroad.’ I met more stereotyping in my new-country of residence . I was the only black in a class of 300 students. I stood out conspicuously but my initial stay was ridden with many myths/presumptions - there was always the assumption that I must have been a reject in my own country who missed out on university space back home ( this was false , I got the scholarship due to excellent performance) and there was the general vibe that I must have been from an extremely needy background and saved by the scholarship( this was also false if you dear reader know my family background; I’m Zuhura’s daughter goddamnit !!). I remember one time a girl complained that the black African girl must have wrongly disposed off sanitary products in the W.C because of her needy background and possible non-exposure to such toilets ; man, it broke me . So I embraced the stereotypes and ignored others; I worked super hard and got distinctions to their surprise, got comfortable with the poor-girl tag ; this eased the pressure of going out for unnecessarily expensive outings and helped me plan my holiday trips back to Kenya without necessarily burdening my parents with too frequent air tickets . I enjoyed the eased pressure yet I never lacked , I had all my medical text books bought brand new, my fridge was always stocked up, my pocket money arrived by 2nd of every month and I comfortably travelled home every 18 months (instead of every 6 months)which was perfect for me and gave me space to do life-changing electives and medical observer-ships during the holidays that I remained back in the hostels. Did I mention that I never failed in any medical school exam? I had excellent exposures and I was an easy to maintain child. 

Stereotypes followed me back to Kenya when I enrolled for internship . I doubt if anyone wanted to be paired with the Swahili girl . I supposed many feared that I would be a lazy burden and that I may not have been well trained ; because I wasn’t trained locally and therefore the very false presumption that I went abroad for possibly not making the cut for university. My first experience with one of my consultants left me wondering if I would ever be given the chance to prove myself ( surprisingly , the said consultant is now a fellow specialist who respects my abilities very much). Ladies and gentlemen , I outdid myself - I was the best intern of my year in the county , had and amazing time, learned so much and left permanent marks in the hearts of many. 

One time during my runnings at Cottolengo Mission Hospital where I had been seconded as a Medical Officer by the first Meru County Government, I had a nasty experience. I was very passionately involved in the care of a patient and so when the relatives demanded my attention for updates , I quickly decided to skip my lunch and gave them all my time . I went straight to the science of things , risks , possibilities and prognosis as professional as I could be . I was shocked the next day to hear that I had been reported to the office of the then Women-Representative and to the County Director  Medical Services  as that ‘rude Swahili girl who said that ABC could happen to the said patient’.  The DMS happens to be one of my mentors and he demanded to know how rude I was because he knew me as a competent and  compassionate dedicated clinician ; the relatives repeated what I had said word to word  and added that ‘you know these Swahili women are just rude.’ I was acquitted because I had shared scientific facts with appropriate wording and my care was noted to be very optimal. The family must have been in denial and decided to heap blame on the HIJAB which sold me out wrongly as being rude and unprofessional even when I wasn’t . Quite unfair if you ask me . 

I could go on and on . Oh one last encounter that happened recently  ; one day I whipped out my phone to open an app that would help me calculate a pregnant client’s E.D.D quick and she asked me ‘daktari are you going to Google like young Doctors do?’ Oh boy !!! I had to show her the app and why it was necessary for me to know her exact gestation as we carried on with our consultation. She went on to say how I looked too young to be a specialist ( and I figured that I may not have looked the part in her eyes). I felt disrespected and misjudged and so I tactfully directed the client to one of my older colleagues to carry on with the rest of her care ; she missed out on excellent services from me . 

So yes , stereotypes and prejudices are in plenty depending on our social-cultural differences. It’s what we do with them that matters ; they are times you fully ignore or other times use them to our advantage . I have swam through postgraduate training and my entire professional career handling and literally ‘lemonading’ stereotypes ( that’s a new word I just came up with to indicate making lemonade out of lemons). Stereotyping affects us all and can happen at any time , whether it’s in traffic when a man abuses and thinks you can’t drive well because you are lady, or in family gatherings , or in the banks or at the airports where it’s common to quickly remove one’s hijab when passing through customs so as to get an easy pass , or even in our churches/mosques and religious interactions . How many akorinos do you know that have been wrongly labeled as illiterate? how many Somalis have been labeled Al-Shabab because of the texture of their hair e.t.c. 

I have learned that I don’t need to explain myself to beat stereotypes because that can only bring unnecessary heightened awareness and self esteem issues ; be you and let your work or ability or character speak for itself!!

Learn to live , expect and ignore stereotyping because sometimes , it’s not in your hands and there is nothing you can do about it !! Stereotypes will always exist as long as we are of different communities, different races, different religions even different genders! 

Have a lovely weekend!!