By Rita Okoye

We live in a world that has been force to address people as black or white; and it’s so dominant in our conversation that the narrative of racism has shaped mainstream discussions from time immemorial.

Charlene Egbe, popularly known as Mc Charlene said this during a chat with journalist in Norway that ; Fair enough, seeing people through the shades of their skin is not actually the problem because you can’t deny that this different shades of skin colour exist, where the problem lies is how we give some people privileges and belittle some other people, because of  their skin colour; undermining the effort the latter puts into their everyday life to push themselves towards success.

Mc Charlene further explained  that, “In Trevor Noah’s words, “See colors but be careful how you treat colors”,

The ideology of one race treating the other race as inferior is understandable even though it’s not acceptable, where this childish act becomes unbearable is when a fellow person from a particular race treats another person from the same race as inferior: this is what led to the xenophobia crisis which recently happened in South Africa.

When a fellow African hates and wants to kill another African because he or she feels the African has overstayed his or her welcome in their country is laughable on every level, she said.

Mc Charlene, aired her view about this situation. “I believe Africans are brothers and sisters. Most of the languages we speak that makes us seem different were not our original languages. And if you check properly, we have more similarities than differences.

 There are people in Ghana who speak the same Hausa Language as the Nigerians. There are blacks in Brazil who speak Yoruba and worship ifa”, she said.

“Despite growing up in Norway, I connect easily with Africans, i have friends across Africa as we speak.

 And in the entertainment industry, I work more with Nigerians because they are taking the lead role in the global push of Afrobeat. I attribute most of the things have done today to the relationship I have with them, despite been a Cameroonian. It will do us more good if we start to connect as brothers and sisters rather than compete with each other”.

“We should not experience racism out there and still fight each other. Every African brother out there needs the next African brother or sister near them; maybe if we foster unity, we can start to do things that will move the continent forward”.