Coconuts

Many of you will probably have heard the term Malteaser/Crunchy to describe brunettes who act like dumb blondes. Well, South Africa has it's own rather more sinister version of this - coconut, a black person who acts white.

One of my Year 11's explained to me today, that she and her friends are called snobs, or coconuts, for speaking English amongst themselves. As schools, and more importantly exams, are in English, it's absolutely crucial for the kids to practice since even if you can do the maths, if you can't understand the questions, it's hopeless.

Speaking to our driver, Lewis, later in the day he explained that it's seen as snobbish to speak English to other black Africans, since you are bound to have a traditional language in common and speaking English is seen as giving yourself airs. The trouble is that this includes in-class interaction. The English teacher at my school added that many kids at Namedi are AIDs orphans, living with their grandparents or other relatives and receiving very little emotional support or encouragement to work hard at school work. Obviously, this makes fitting in at school even more crucial.