Chakalaka is a side dish  composed of beans, carrots, onions, tomatoes, peppers, and spices. The word Chakalaka comes from the Zulu tribe, one of South Africa's many tribal groups and means “all together”. Chakalaka is much like me a fusion of many cultures and ethnicities, it has British, African, Indian and other Asian countries’ roots. My family has lived in South Africa for 5 generations, and every single generation, including mine has eaten Chakalaka, so I find it as a cultural heritage passed down from generation to generation. My family has traveled a lot during my lifetime, I’ve lived on three continents already, Africa, Asia and now North America for only three years. Immigration is in my family’s blood, as I can trace most of my roots to Yemen and Persia but much of my family is elsewhere today. Most of my family currently lives in South Africa though I also have family in India as well as several other nations, including places like Ireland and Abu Dhabi. So yeah, I’ve been to many places and traveled a lot and for some that may be the dream but I’ve always wanted to just settle down somewhere and right now America might just be the place to be. I’ve only been in America for a short amount of time so for me what it means to be an American is hard, but in the short time that I’ve been here I’ve learned being an American can mean many different things to many different people. From what I’ve learned so far, being an American is having the opportunity to live freely, the opportunity to do whatever you want and be whatever you want without anyone trying to stop you. 

– MYC

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more