My African-Australian story

Often in my work as a sociolinguistic ethnographer, I am the one seeking out people and asking questions to learn about their settlement stories. This is what I did for my PhD research – a sociolinguistic ethnography on, with and for Africans in Australia; or what I’m currently doing for a project about the experiences of parents from non-English speaking backgrounds during pandemic-related home learning. So, it was a real surprise when the tables were turned recently and I was approached by AfrOzcentric for an interview.

The team behind AfrOzentric wanted me to share my migration story and PhD journey to be included in a series they are running for African Australians. The interview with Ms Holla David is now available on YouTube.

In our conversation, I not only tell my own story but also highlight the importance of African migrant histories and stories. These are too often overlooked in Australia and the diaspora at large. Bringing them to the attention of a broader audience will enable us to move away from perpetual problem discourses to highlight the contributions that African Australians make to our multilingual and multicultural society.

For me, this involves three key points, related to life in a new country, African history in Australia, and dealing with negative representations of African identity.

Life in a new country

Thinking back to my early years in Australia, I arrived as a family reunion migrant from Ghana, an English-speaking country, full of hope and aspirations for my future and the future of my yet-to-be born children. Things did not pan out as smoothly as I had expected.

First, I was shocked when language turned out to be an issue. In Ghana, which is a former British colony, English is the official language and medium of instruction from primary school through to university. I arrived with the belief that I was an English speaker and would, at least linguistically, slot right into Australia, another former British colony.

But that’s not how it turned out: oftentimes, I couldn’t understand people and they couldn’t understand me, either. That’s how I learned about linguistic variation and that there are different varieties of English.

Finding a job that was equivalent to the one I had previously done in Ghana was another challenge. Therefore, when I started a family, I put my career aspirations on hold and worked part-time as a checkout operator in a supermarket.

It took me ten years to go back to university. Starting full-time studies while looking after my family and working part-time was incredibly challenging, particularly as I did not have the kind of family support I would have had back home in Ghana. I’m grateful for the kindness of the people who have been willing to support and mentor me throughout the years.

I would particularly like to acknowledge my academic mentors, who helped me navigate the, for me, unchartered waters of academia. The guidance of my sociolinguistics lecturer during my undergraduate years, Dr Verna Rieschild, was crucial during my undergraduate and honours years, and the same is true of Distinguished Professor Ingrid Piller during my PhD and postdoctoral career.

African history in Australia

Black African people are often made to feel like they do not belong in Australia. In reality, Africans have settled in Australia for as long – or as short – a time as whites, and belong as much, or as little.

Therefore, it’s important to share the little-known history of African people in Australia.

You, too, may be surprised to learn that Black Africans arrived in Australia with the First Fleet in 1788 (Pybus, 2006a, 2006b). In her book Black Founders, Cassandra Pybus shares the stories of famous bushranger John Black Caesar, or Billy Blue, who has the Sydney suburb of Blues Point named after him.

Back then “the notion of race was a highly malleable construct, […] and the binary of black or white was not a reliable way of constructing difference” (Pybus, 2006a, p. 181).

Pybus’ account complicates assumptions that race in colonial Australia was an Aboriginal (black) and European (white) binary. However, the African presence in colonial Australia from first fleeters to the steady trickle of black convicts and free people who followed “have been completely whited out of Australian colonial history” (Pybus, 2006b, p. 41).

Negative representations of African identity

The erasure of African people from Australian history goes hand in hand with contemporary racism and the inescapable negative representations of Africans in Australia. The predominant media representations range from pitiful refugees via scheming fraudsters to violent gangsters. Obviously, the vast majority of African-Australians simply do not see themselves represented.

In other words, there is a huge gap between the ways in which African-Australians are seen and the ways in which they see themselves. This gap needs to be bridged.

One way of doing so is through research. My PhD research, a sociolinguistic ethnography on, with and for Africans in Australia, for instance, challenged the homogenised view of African-Australians as a monolithic group by examining the diverse pre- and post-migration experiences of black African immigrants, particularly as they relate to language learning, education and employment.

Focusing on differences in pre-migration educational opportunities and the status of English in their countries of origin, the analysis distinguished four groups: migrants from Anglophone African countries who have completed secondary education or above; migrants from non-Anglophone African countries who have completed secondary education or above; migrants from Anglophone African countries who have had no or low schooling; and migrants from non-Anglophone African countries who have had no or low schooling.

Overall, I found a persistent mismatch between diverse pre-migration linguistic repertories and education trajectories, and post-migration language training and education pathways into settlement in Australia. This mismatch is at the heart of the disadvantage in the Australian labour market experienced by many African-Australians. In short, my research demonstrates the harm that comes from telling a single story.

Indeed, one of my favourite African proverbs goes as follows: “So long as the lions do not have their own historians the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” It is my hope also that we will get to hear more stories and interpretations of African migrant stories through their own voices.

If this has whetted your appetite, head over to YouTube and watch the full interview:

References

Pybus, C. J. (2006a). Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia’s First Black Settlers. Sydney: University of New South Wales.
Pybus, C. J. (2006b). Race relations and early Australian Settlement. The Sydney Papers (Winter/Spring), 39-48.
Williams Tetteh, Vera. (2015). Language, education and settlement: A sociolinguistic ethnography on, with, and for Africans in Australia. (PhD), Macquarie University, Sydney.