World Citizen

watch original V-Blog in Persian

On South African TV there is a show, which celebrates African culture. I was invited to join in for a discussion around a new book, which has just been released and captures some of the unique and beautiful traditions that you find in South Africa. When it was my turn to give my impressions I was asked to say what I think about the book from an "outsider's" perspective. I thought about this for a while and then said that I'm not really an "outsider" as such. After all I chose to come to South Africa and make it my home. In many ways I am South African – by choice. My mother is Iranian, my father is Austrian, Italian and Hungarian and I've lived on many continents. So I'm not sure what I am.

The interviewer cleared her throat and asked me to give my impression from a world citizen's point of view then. I said that my view on the subject is that, while we all have different cultures and traditions, we are first and foremost human. Our roots are spiritual, not physical. And that anything, which keeps us apart from each other is detrimental to our progress and anything, which celebrates our diversity without jeopardizing our oneness is worth keeping. I told her that I'm not so attached to any one of my cultures really.

This threw the whole concept of the show off, as we had been there to emphasize the need to rid ourselves of anything that was not from our own culture. So she asked me, "but isn't it important to know your roots, to have an identity? To know who you are?" And I answered, "I'm human, I'm not defined by my culture, I'm defined by my values and principles, my actions. Weather I wear a feather in my head or a around my neck is secondary to who I am. It is a an enrichment of my life, but not essential."

I then suggested that there is no such thing as "roots". Take the Zulu culture for example. What does it mean to return to your Zulu roots, when the Zulu culture was based on many different tribes that were forcefully united through Shaka Zulu? Was he not also a globalizer? Any root you pursue, you find more and more roots that come from it. Our process of coming together started from the beginning of time and is now becoming the center of attention, because our world has become so small.

There has never been a pure, physical "essence" that we sprung from. We are humans, that's our essence and since the beginning of time, culture has been a dynamic process. Wars have been fought, people have progressed, things have always been changing and nothing has ever been stagnant. Every culture has evolved and so has our global culture. So the notion of cultural roots, to me, is an illusion. If I were orphaned and raised by a Spanish family, I'd have a Spanish culture. This proves that culture is not in our blood, it doesn't define us, although people everywhere in the world are looking to find themselves in their culture.

I believe our roots are spiritual, and with that, we share a common humanity. Never mind what color skin, eyes, hair or clothes we wear. Those things are beautiful, but to me, they don't make us who we are.