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Monday, July 22, 2013

Chris Froome and the Question of African Identity

The current winner of the Tour de France is a gentleman by the name of Chris Froome. According to Wikipedia, he was born in Kenya and grew up in South Africa. Since 2008, however, he has been riding as a British citizen "on the basis of his passport and father's and grandparents' country of birth." The tortuous statement in quotes is apparently intended to show that he is somehow British. Now, there are many people in Kenya and South Africa whose parents and grandparents were born in Britain but having been born and raised in Kenya or South Africa, they now identify with these countries. I do not know the country Mr. Froome would claim as his own. However, the BBC and other British media have been doing everything in their power to make him "Britain's second successive winner of the Tour de France in its 100th year," even though people in Kenya are laying claim to him, too. It seems the human tendency to classify is suffering severe strain in our time. Just think of the Briton, Luol Deng, of the Chicago Bulls!

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