I Want an American Accent
The Crimson | Joshua Ochieng ‘24
In this Op-Ed, Ochieng describes the struggle of straddling his Kenyan identity and living (and communicating) in America. The piece, while focused on accents, speaks to the tension between assimilation and multiculturalism in a pluralistic society.
“Although I struggle to sound American, I fear I will pick up an American accent at the expense of my Kenyan one. It often crosses my mind that perhaps at some point I will not be able to code-switch; I will have a full-on American accent and there will be no traces of my Kenyan accent left. That there will be one less thing that helps me identify with my country, and that perhaps after a few years, I will go back to Kenya and be considered a foreigner in the place I call home.”
In the end, Ochieng hopes to find that place not of “in between” but of “both.”
“I hope that I will learn the American accent. It will make flirting at parties much easier and will give me back my sense of humor. I also hope that I will not lose my Kenyan accent; that I will be able to revert back to it when I need it. I hope once I land at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, I will fit right back in; that the place I call home will not think of me as foreign.”