SAY IT LOUD: Black Power in Every Language by Onjena Yo
/ Onjena YoThese concepts have evolved over many late night conversations... born out of pain and love and laughter. As a Black woman and a Spanish language teacher, it was quite natural that my sister would translate "Say it loud, I'm Black and I'm proud" to Spanish. This and that 30 Rock episode starring Tracy Morgan, prompted me to research how to say "Black" in every language.
Source: UnlikelyWords.com [*hooking edited to "heug-in" or "흑인"]
I came across an abundance of enthusiastic databases of ethnic slurs (for the sake of academic research, of course..). Digging a little deeper, I found that Black people were often called a term that was rooted in racist etymology by the "majority" of that country (e.g., derivative of slave, non-believer). I was on the hunt for what we called ourselves around the globe...a color in some cases... a tribe in others. The time frame deliberately spanned beyond the "transatlantic slave" era. This activity led me inward to a memory of my father, who, during parent's weekend, drove around my small New England college campus blasting James Brown's song, "Say it loud, I'm Black and I'm proud!" I've only begun to scratch the surface on what identifying and celebrating Blackness means to me, as an American, as a woman and as a person raised in a third culture *mix of Black and Korean.
Our translation of "Black" in our "Black in Every Language" design:
Black – English
Negro – Spanish
Noir – French
Nwa – Haitian Creole
Oji – Igbo
Dudu – Yoruba
Preta – Portuguese
Nyeusi – Swahili
Whatever the language, we encourage all to #sayitLOUD! We would love to hear your thoughts! Connect with us on twitter at @MultiPATRIOT or @populistdemand.
Thank you for your time.
~ Onjena Yo
[For the folks in the cheap seats passing notes, you can be proud, too... Black is beautiful, too... Black lives matter, too... Black girls rock, too... but it ain't always about you, too...]
BLACK: SAY IT LOUD Design Series by Onjena Yo
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SAY IT LOUD:
ARABIC: 'AQUL DHLK BISAWT EAL
FRENCH: DIS LE BRUYANT
HAITIAN: DI LI BYEN FȮ
IGBO: EKWU YA OKÉ
PORTUGUESE: DIGA ALTO
SPANISH: DILO ALTO
SWAHILI: SEMA NI KUBWA
TAGALOG: SABIHIN MO MALAKAS
YORUBA: SO Ọ TI NPARIWO
I'M BLACK:
'ANA 'ASWAD
JE SUIS NOIR
MWEN NWA
ADḷ M OJI
EU SOU PRETA
SOY NEGRO
MIṂI NYEUSI
AKO ITIM
DUDU NI MI
AND I'M PROUD:
WA'ANA FAKHUR
ET JE SUIS FIER
AK MWEN FYĖ
NA ABU M MPAKO
E TENHO ORGULHO
Y SOY ORGULLOSO
NA MIṂI MPAKO
AT AKO MAIPAGMAMALAKI
ATI EMI LI AGBERAGA
Do you speak any of the above languages? How did we do on our translations? Want to add a new language?
Let us know via twitter @MultiPATRIOT & @populistdemand!
Designed by Onjena Yo
FEATURED ON THE PATRIOT BLOG