A Passport to Travel, A Ticket to Ride

Olorgesailie, Kenya 

A passport to travel

Cindy Crawford was the host of MTV’s House of Style in the 1990s it was the height of the supe-ditty supes,  the real supermodels - Naomi, Cindy, Christy, and Linda.*

House of Style with CNN Style were the only shows I made an effort to watch. For CNN Style it cut into my bothers’ Saturday morning cartoons. But as my dad said ,“Your sister only has this hour, just let her watch it.”

Cindy Crawford was a fun host, although I cannot help but wish Naomi had been the host but This is America and so it was Cindy. I remember only a few moments from the show, one that stands out, a moment I have been reminded of a lot in recent days was an episode when Ms. Crawford talked about her passport. 

Since I did not take my first overseas trip until 1999, I did not yet have a passport - I don’t know if I ever saw one or held one in my hand before I received my first one to go to Paris in April of ‘99.  Oh yes I did April in Paris, and no I didn't see in chestnuts in blossom.  Yes I asked exasperated Parisians, “Ou est les chestnuts,” in my tres mal high school French?

In English, the Parisians told me that the chestnuts don’t actually bloom in April in Paris. But why let the truth get in the way of a great song? 

Well back to Ms. Crawford and her passport.  She mentioned that she always carried it with her, like her drivers license.  I was amazed, I was shocked, I was worried. But why? How? Don’t you just need it some of the time, like traveling outside of the country and now just to ride the A train in New York? (Oh me and my jazz standards.)

Fast forward a few years actually to 2004, I am on my way to graduate school in Kenya.  As I type this I just realize that in 1999 I was living in Chicago working for an e-commerce company and by 2004 I was on my way to grad school in East Africa. Only a few years difference. 

Ah anyway once in Kenya I am told I have to keep ID on me, at all times. That ID is my passport. I use it more than I imagine, because I am asked to prove who I am more than I expect.

“Surely you’re just like one of us.” I am told over and over again in Kenya. I am trying to understand why the “just” is placed in that sentence. That “just” seems like lots of layers of projection, judgement and definitions with little to none in my favor.  More importantly from what I experience over the three years of school, 98% of the time, assume wrong, people get it wrong, get me wrong. 

One time I am yelled at by a man who wants me to get out of his way, as we cross paths down an non-existent sidewalk of a muddy road. He is yelling at me in Kiswahili and I have no idea what he is saying. I say as much in my American accented English which stops him cold.  Catching his breath he changes tactics and attempts to sell my a watch and some oranges he is carrying. “Oh you’re a rich American?”

“No, I am an American student. I have no money. But what I am really interested in what you were saying to me earlier.” 

Reluctantly he tells me he thought I was being a cheeky Kenyan girl and not getting out of the way of man.  So that is why he yelled at me.  

It happens again trying to get into hotel, being served at restaurants, shopping in the market, riding a train - over and over again.  “You must be just like one of us.” Or “You look like a mix of tribes, I cannot tell but you’re here you must be African.” 

On and on, and on.  I am expected to not only know all of mores and behavioral expectations of a Kenyan woman, when I don’t I am accused of faking my accent, lying about not being able to speak Kiswahili.  And more. 

Conversations with Kenyans that I study with, create with or befriend ranges from “Well this is Kenya and you are Black so you just have to adjust” to “Well we’re jealous because you’re American” to “We never had our Civil Rights Movement we still live under British rule in our minds.” 

This of course was 2004-2007.  Sometime has moved on and now when I am back in Nairobi the capital of over 4 million people I feel a different energy. Further away from British Colonial rule that ended in 1963 and an attempt to create a national identity.  And identity forged from the oldest civilizations of humans on earth. The Great Rift Valley, which is where I spend most of my time. Leaving Nairobi quickly to Olorgesailie, about 2 hours south west of the capitol to work with the Olorgesailie Maasai Women Artisans of Kenya, a village of 500. 

My passport, specifically my American passport changed how I was treated. And it still does to some degree. Traveling with an American passport is a privilege in this world. At least for now. 

That initial time in Kenya inspired my to carry my passport everywhere I go. But I fell out of the habit until I lived overseas again, this time in Malaysia. Again, you had to have your passport with you at all times as a foreigner. Within the passport included my work permit and residency card. This allowed me to also travel to India, since during that time I was a resident of Malaysia and you had to apply for a visa to India from your country of residence. From 2011-2013 I taught in Kuala Lumpur and was visiting scholar on global fashion for Yale-National University of Singapore in 2013.  

I had the great fortune of traveling on small but memorial trips to Indonesia, Japan, India, Laos, Cambodia, Borneo and Thailand. I even had to get extra passport pages added, something I understand is no longer an option but you can get a passport with additional pages. 

I did a talk for high school students recently and I took my passport with me so they could see it. Only two of the students looked at it, I wasn’t sure if it was because it didn't seem important, or if it was irrelevant or they were already over my presentation and ready for lunch. I just knew how long it took me to see a passport although International ideas was part of my childhood. In theory. It was not tangible, which is why I wanted to demystify the passport for the students. 

In 2019 I still carry my passport with me every where. I try to joke about it and say it is because when I get that call from Black James Bond or Black Dynamite or whomever I can just rush to the airport and get on that plane.

The truth is now I carry the passport with me everywhere because I just want that security, I want it known I belong here. I...Ah I will just end this here. 

Typing anymore will only make me angry and sad.  Who am I kidding I am already both. 

*Naomi Campbell,  Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista.