Kiwi | Algerian
I identify as mixed-race, straight and atheist. My Mother grew up in New Zealand and moved to England at the age of 19. My Father Grew up in Algers, Algeria and has moved between Algeria, England and Spain frequently ever since. My parents met in London, but never stayed together, so my experience of their cultures has been very separate. Most of my extended family are still in New Zealand or Algeria and I have been to both countries multiple times to visit them.
Because I grew up predominantly with my Mother, I never identified as mixed-race until I met my Algerian family at around 7-8 years old. Before that my Mother never really explained where my Father was from properly, although I knew he wasn’t English or Kiwi. I don’t look typically Algerian although some people have guessed before, I often get mistaken for being Albanian or Turkish.
I moved around a lot as a small child, mainly around NW London and briefly Coventry. When I got a bit older (9/10) I went to stay with an Aunt who lived on the edge of the metropolitan line in Amersham and a year later my Mother would move there permanently. It is a rich and very segregated area, and most of the other boys I grew up with are White. My original name was Sami, but because I had some trouble from other kids at school telling me it was weird and a girls name, I sheepishly changed it to Simon when I was 8, copying my Mothers brothers name in an attempt to fit in. I’ve now decided I’m going to change it back to Sami permanently as then my name will reflect both sides of my family again. At this time I had very little contact with my Algerian family and I couldn’t understand why I looked slightly different and had different hair to all of the other kids.
Later in my teens I began to reconnect with my Algerian family and started to realise that I was mixed-race, and I started to gain an interest for my Fathers country and culture. The area I was living in unfortunately is very Islamophobic in certain parts, so I made it my concern to stand up to anyone who I heard insulting the culture or religion in front of me. As I learnt more about it and grew older I began to embrace my mixed heritage as much as possible, this was a really positive change for me as I was very confused about my identity before.
Because my parents we’re never together, they never really combined their cultures at all. I feel that if anything, the only way they combined their cultures is through producing me! I’d say the challenges that have come with my identity have been mainly internal and to do with how I feel and identify, but I have been in many situations where people have been racist in front of me and don’t realise that half of my family are from an Arabic speaking country. I have always been told ‘you don’t look half African’ or asked ‘why is your skin White’ when explaining my heritage to anyone that doesn’t know much about the Maghreb or Algeria, although even compared to my half siblings I am quite pale as my Mother is red-headed.
Food has always been something I have enjoyed, and especially food from my parents country’s, an ideal meal for me is a good tajine, merguez, matlou3 and hokey-pokey ice cream!
Music has always been a huge influence on my life and I have played the violin since I was 6. My Father plays the mandole and loves Algerian Chaabi and Rai and am currently trying to get a mandole to learn myself! I love listening to old Algerian songs and I draw on people like Cheb Khaled for inspiration in my own music.
One of the hardest parts for me has been the fact that I don’t speak Arabic or French so it’s difficult for me to talk to some of my family and connect with other Algerians, I am currently trying to learn some French to help me with this!
I feel like after accepting my identity as mixed-race I have been a lot happier and more confident in myself. It made me realise that all my nationalities can co-exist together and has made me proud of England, New Zealand and Algeria.
If I were to be born again I would return exactly as I am! It has taken me a long time to get to this kind of mind set but I am glad I have finally reached it. The only thing I would change is the fact that I don’t speak French or Arabic, so I would return exactly the same but tri-lingual.