Happy Hols from my family to yours - Between Sauerkraut & Fufu!

Confused??

Don’t be! Some people like to suggest that being mixed comes with a certain confusion, but I have long found out, that the confusion lies with the people that are looking at me confused with a one dimensional view.? The way I carry myself in Germany with? a sense of belonging is the same way I carry myself in Cameroon or in London. Now there's even more confusion for you because I widened my sense of belonging to sub Sahara francophone Africa.?

Confused again??

Francophone Africa has nothing in common with Anglophone Africa, to which the British left the heritage of business mind. The French left their footprint with a heritage of civil servant mentality and a common francophone belonging, based on tight networks with the motherland being France. Yes,? if you wonder,? what it is like, to be swimming in both waters: it's not hard, when you are born into it. These are my soft skills. As a mixed person I have learned from an early age to do both, both cultures: The German and the francophone African. When I say they are different, I mean different as in "fire vs. water", "rain vs. sun" or "salt vs. sugar" different.

Where is the LinkedIn relevance?

I have a job that I do since I could walk: Cultural translator. We are on LinkedIn and my article has to be about business. Linkedin should add this skill on to their skills list to choose from. With that said, it means I am "working" during Christmas when the family gathers. Swimming in two different waters, I guess, is a skill I learned at home. I have got uncles for days on my German side and so many uncles on my African side, any insurance broker could open a new insurance branch. Sort of the Mayack insurance. All their wives combined are the entire representation of the united nations. From Muslim to hard core atheist, name it, we have it. The one common thing though is entrepreneurship on both sides. Everyone has a business and that makes it worth speaking on LinkedIn about this bunch of people that made me the international firecracker that I am today. As I get some clean plates out of my grandma's 40 year old, German washing machine in her kitchen, that comes close to the sterility of a surgery room, my aunt Hildegard comes in to grab an item my grandmother forgot. I wonder if we will ever get along? She is from Hamburg and cold as Alaska on their iciest day. She is quite the opposite of my Rheinlandish uncle. We never warmed up to one another but I simply put it down to her dry ways. Which shows in her colourless appearance, in her dull hobbies and just everything. I mean after all she is a german civil servant at a local city council, which gives most Germans an idea just about how dry she is.? Our differences are? probably also due to the fact? that I can get away with murder with my uncle; her husband. To add salt to the injury it probably did not help that my uncle almost divorced her after meeting a Senegalese business analyst I introduced him to for a construction in Casamance. We head back to the living room? and of course the conversation is somewhat a mix of stakkato jazz and cold air. I sometimes wonder how we can just stare at one another and not talk? Of course my uncle and I break the ice. Some things never change! We are at my grandmother Liselotte for a Christmas afternoon. Everyone has had an appointment as my grandmother can’t cope with too many visitors at once…She has always been like this which is another Kraut phenomenon. Too many people at once is a challenge.??

At Oma Kring's house for Christmas

?I was at her front door at 2.45 pm sharp for a 3pm date. She opened before I could even press the doorbell.?Probably half an hour ago she was already standing behind her door perfectly dressed, looking for me through her door spy.? Her house smells of coffee, fresh cake and her traditional? vanilla biscuits (Vanille kipferl), which she still bakes herself at the age of 81. Above all, and this is very important, she makes her own whipped cream. As unimportant as it might sound, this is a very important fact in German senior citizen circles. While I walk across her creaky floor I see the? old-fashioned Schwarzwald clock on the wall as decoration,? which somehow gives her old fashioned house a charming twist.? It is now almost 3 p.m. and do not get it twisted: we are running on a tight schedule, as always.??With us Germans, such an invitation is of course timed through without it being written anywhere. From 3 p.m. we still have exactly 1.5 hours until you realize it's time to leave, because the invitation was for afternoon tea (coffee and cake), but not for dinner, which is usually served at 6 p.m. Oh, at 8 p.m. it's? “Tagesschau” time, which is national news and particularly liked by the aging population. By that time everything must have been done.?

?Meanwhile Christmas in Cameroon

While Grandma Liselotte tells me about the terrible new neighbours, I wander in my thoughts, because such a “Christmas coffee” could not be any different in Cameroon, with my grandma Monique. While Grandma Liselotte can count her guests, and don’t you dare ring her bell or worse unexpectedly burst in here ... It's the opposite with my Grandma Monique.??If I mean the opposite, one could speak of 2 worlds, 2 planets, sugar and salt, hot and cold in comparison.??There is no formal appointment with my grandma Monique. One’s? door is open all day! The people, children, neighbours, family members come and go as they please. There is neither a bell nor any kind of rule to come to look after her.??

She would be deeply offended if I just stopped by for an afternoon coffee. In the background someone is always cooking! When I say always, I mean that there is food there at all times of the day, just like in the land of milk and honey, and from 5 am something sizzles on the stove or on the fire. There is not just one dish but, as in Alice's Wonderland, there are always different dishes. On the other hand there is no such thing as Grandma Liselotte's cake, because cakes, pastries and desserts are very European.?I recall memories about last year's Christmas when I was in Cameroon…

?The music at Christmas in Cameroon (and pretty much the rest of the year) and the chatter is usually so loud, the average German would consider this a? provocation or an offence.? That kind of decibel is worth suing someone in Germany. We Germans are always looking for quiet accommodation, although with everything shut on Sundays, compared to other countries, the quiet in most cities comes close to the? atmosphere of a cemetery.? The breakfast in Cameroon is to be equated with a German feast and the oil used in the meal is at the limit of what a German consumes in the year.?

Neighbours, family and visitors flog my grandmother Monique's house. It looks like the London science museum on a Sunday. The? chatter and laughter can be heard everywhere. Heartfelt laughter, relaxed laughter. That is the laugh that you see and hear everywhere. Although the GDP is much lower here in Cameroon to say the least than in Germany, where it seems that people? go into hiding to laugh, people seem to be able to relax and forget about their problems.

Meats for diner are slaughtered in the backyard by the uncles and my dad. Children are running around and having fun. Last year one of my German aunts; Helga, was there with me. She kept telling the maids about her clearing system and suggested reorganising the kitchen although my grandmother’s? house in Douala? is marvellously chic.? Aunt Helga thinks that as a German she has leased the word "order". Something along the lines of best beer, best cars, best infrastructure; it is hard to deal with us Germans at times as we seem to ooze "our way or no way".? Helga's apartment looks like a military base with even her tableware labelled. She is convinced that it’s subsequently her right to reorganise an African house. On a side note, everything in her own house has its place, but she usually is all alone in her tidy apartment, takes medication against loneliness and her children rarely call her.? When they do, roll their eyes.

Christmas is a celebration of joy in Cameroon, it's warm and the family arrived here a week before Christmas Eve. When this part of my family comes together, not need for electricity as their joy can probably electrify the entire of central Africa.

Grand mother Monique's home in Douala, which is also the family home, is equipped with a European style kitchen with all gadgets to make Martha Stewart approve, yet the cooking happens in the backyard on a wood fire. If? I say cooking, it is cooking in an industrial way. At least this is how I can explain to you the amounts of food being edited. Tons of food are turned into delicious meals. Germans or Europeans collectively will think that it is too much.

Confused about the amount of foods?

Don’t worry Africans like to eat whole heartedly and we have never had any food waste. Sharing and solidarity is another part that is a very important pillar on the continent not only in Cameroon. Meaning that family, extended family, neighbours and just about everyone coming by will be served food.

Middelman Business

Oh, Grandma Liselotte is tapping me out of my reminiscing about Christmas in Cameroon. She wants to know if I have spoken to aunty Madeleine in Douala and how they are doing. I kiss my grandma Liselotte on her forehead gratefully as I look into her blue bright eyes. I can’t say that I love her more or less than grandma Monique, or anyone in this family less or more. I accept everyone around me, I embrace everyone and I have learned a lot from all of the people around me. I judge them or like them based on their characters. I appreciate the way they enterprise, the way they sort or they methodologically create something on both sides and come together from both ponds to meet as one family on this bridge. I am happy to be the middleman without the pay as my experiences are worth the universe and make me a chameleon. No elite university can teach these skills. Bringing these people together was my parents job by their marriage, making sure they understand one another was my job subsequently. Nowhere is perfect but together we are a great bunch. We Krauts are truly living on our own planet, we are difficult to say the least. We Africans are not easy as well because we are busy living life to the fullest and this can be a distraction to business life. Combining both of our skillset , vibrancies, views and best of both worlds though can truly go a long way and is the essential start of real sustainable business.?

What do you think??

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