Another Question about Identity
April 8th, 2006 by aditthegratWho am I? Great question…
My father was a javanese, but
with lighter skin than usual javanese people and his family. So does my
mother, she is javanese. All my grandfather have a darker skin than
mine, but all my grandmother have lighter one.
So by
ethnicity I’m javanese. Someday my mother ask me "did he talk
javenese with you? Your face quite typical javanese." I just said "No,
he talk Indonesian, but with deeply javanese dialect and vocab."
Why does that coversation happen? Actually i just told my mother that
the meatball peddler is came from the same city with my mom. So she ask
me that thing because of my truly ability with javanese language.
Huh!
I’m one of today urban kid in Indonesia! I live in Bogor city which is
one of harshest part of sundanese dialect. Provincial education service
give us curriculum with sundanese. My parent never talk javanese with
me. So how can I spoke that language? With nine years studying
sundanese, sure i’m more able to speak sundanese than javanese. but
anyway still my tongue is javanese tongue! I could talk Indonesian with
javanese dialect than sundanese one.
Then at school i begun
thinking about nation state. About our identity as Indonesian.
Indonesian language is Malay based. Javanese almost became ruling class
in goverment. Chinese hokkian descent became the rich. Minangkabau,
Batak, and various other came with their own.
How colourful are my country.
But in there where is my place? I don’t know who am i! Would i became
my own? So then what to build? I don’t have a culture to accept or
reject.
Anyway, DANG-Dut is the music of my Country, My country, My Country…
Look my another blogs, almost all post in english here