Overheard in London

[baratron]

I overheard the most thought-provoking conversation today. This woman went up to a man who was working behind one of the market stalls in Camden Market and asked him if he was from some specific part of Nigeria.

He said "Yes, I'm from [place]."

She said "I knew as soon as I saw you that you were my brother! I'm from [other place nearby]." (The only reason I know that these places are in Nigeria, or indeed near each other, is because the woman explained it to her friend. I think she said they were ten miles apart.)

He said "That's so amazing!"

She said "Isn't it? I'm going to phone my mum to tell her."

He said "Yeah, I should do the same."

And she pulled out her phone to call her mum right away, and as soon as he'd finished serving customers, he called a family member too.

I just don't know how she recognised him as being from that very specific part of Nigeria though. It wasn't accent, because they both had broad London accents. I've been thinking about it ever since, how bad people are at recognising ethnicities beyond broad definitions like "black", "South Asian", "East Asian", "South American". I recognise the difference between north Africans, west Africans, South Africans, Somalis (they look like Mo Farah!), and people from certain parts of the Caribbean, but that's as far as I could get. And I suspect that's better than a lot of people who aren't themselves black.

The sad thing is, I could have a reasonable stab at identifying the origins of white Europeans - but that's based on things like clothing style as well as just physical appearance. So it is obviously possible even within people who look broadly similar. Is it cultural indoctrination of a sort, recognising people who are "like us"? Probably. It's probably related to whatever it is in childhood development that makes a baby of a certain age know how to recognise an animal as a "dog", even considering how many different and strange shapes of dog there are. (Don't get me started on some of the crazier specifications of pedigree dog breeds. Just don't.)

But how can a person who is interested learn as an adult how to recognise people's ancestry as belonging to a specific ethnic origin? Not because you're prejudiced - I'm inclined to think that a prejudiced person would simply label them all as "foreign" and not bother learning the nuances - but because people are fundamentally fascinating and you live in a huge city with people of every conceivable background. I suppose that's something taught in anthropology, but it's not as if you get to measure the bones and calculate the ratios of the measurements when you pass random people in the street! Hrm.

Comments

[barakta]

When I lived and taught English to students in Romania I was staying mostly in a city 20km from the Hungarian border which was Hungarian territory until recentlyish. There are mini towns which still transact almost entirely in Hungarian. All the families I stayed with her Hungarian-Romanians speaking Hungarian at home and Romanian outside the home.

After about 2-3 months and talking to students about their backgrounds and culture and history I realised I could look around a room of young people and make a fair stab at identifying those with Hungarian background (common) those from central and South Romania (their faces had a different shape entirely longer and narrower) and then people with Serbian ancestry (they had very looong faces, black hair and very dark eyes). The Hungarians tended to have rounder almost East-Asianish heartshaped faces. I was always immediately obviously a foreigner, I could see people trying to work out where I was from. They also thought I was ill all the time cos I'm much paler skinned than most folk who had quite olivey complexions. I had to explain I'm of Scottish origins, palefaced is normal for us.

I guess the Nigerian thing is a bit like picking up tiny social and physical cues. I can tell you which part of Stockport someone is from (or used to be able to) by their accent. I knew kingginger was from where he said he was on the phone before we met IRL (we met on Internet) cos he had a twang in his accent of the area his parents lived on top of the Americanish twang he had from living overseas with international communities so long.

I suspect we can't even articulate many of the things we can detect about others cos it is all social markers.