A Triple Heritage

I live in Ulricehamn, Sweden since 1995 and so I sometimes get questions about my background and how/why I live here instead of in South Carolina. The people who want to ramble on about "Swedish-fantasy-USA" I just blow-off since I can't be bothered with their nonsense. No, I don't own a cowgirl outfit, don't run-about yelling "Yee haw!" and have somehow misplaced my giant paper bag of $100 dollar bills. There are, of course, other people who are asking meaningful questions about what life was like there.

However, when I say that my cultural heritage comes equally from west African, Native American and European cultures, I sometimes am met with dead silence. In one instance the family I was visiting reacted as though I had said something incredibly vulgar. In all fairness, many more people react with interest and want to hear about all these cultures, but the old colonial fable about "going forth into the wilderness and taming the savages" is still alive and kicking in people's subconscious.