Being a celebrity

A couple of friends and I were discussing this issue a couple of days ago and I feel like the topic deserves a post. Back when I lived in America, I could never understand why celebrities would get upset at the paparazzi or lash out at people that were trying to get photographs of them or just following them around. To me, they were celebrities and if they wanted to be a celebrity that’s the price they had to pay, so celebrities should quit their complaining and go back to living their lavish lives.

            It’s been a little over 4 months since I’ve been in Ethiopia and I’m beginning to understand how celebrities feel. Every time I walk out of my house I get stares. I have people of all ages calling me “ferengi,” “money,” “China,” “you.” People follow me and try to talk to me. Kids come up behind me and try to grab my hand or touch my leg. Groups of young girls or boys walking close by me will giggle as they watch me walk past them. I’ve also seen people taking my picture. I know you’re not texting when you’ve got your arm extended straight out in front of you and your phone pointing at me. It’s a little obvious. At the bus station last week, I had a group of guys just standing in a circle around me, staring as if I was some creature that they had never seen before. It’s hard to keep going about your business when everyone is interested in everything that you’re doing. When I walk into one of the small restaurants close to my house to buy bread they all stop eating and watch me exchanging money with the owner. And when I greet them with “seulam nah, dahnah, nah?” they are in absolute shock that I can say a few words in Amharic. They can’t believe that a ferengi is speaking their language and can greet them.

            I see some of the same people every day and they continue doing this so now I am wondering if it will ever stop. If I discussed this problem with Ethiopians they could easily tell me the same thing I used to think about celebrities back home. I am a foreigner from America and if I come and live in Ethiopia, this is the price I have to pay. I don’t feel like a celebrity though. I’m not a celebrity. I want them to see me as a human being and I’m beginning to wonder if they will ever see me as someone like them.

 I now understand how celebrities back home feel. We treat celebrities as if they aren’t human, as if they are completely different from us and we cannot relate to them in any way. When we gawk at them in magazines, obsess about them on TV, and research them on the internet to find out absolutely everything we can about them, we don’t think it is wrong because we do not see them as one of us. For us they have some sort of superhuman characteristics that make it so they are unable to relate to us. But we must remember that they are people too. I feel like Ethiopians see me as superhuman sometimes. When I walk down the street and people shout at me to get my attention I want them to realize that such behavior is hurtful. I want Ethiopians to see me as a person, with feelings and emotions just like them. I may be a foreigner, but I am still human. I hope that eventually they won’t see me as an outsider but I’m beginning to think that at some level I will always be someone unknown, an outcast. I know that it is impossible for all Ethiopians to view me as a person like them, however I think the task may be possible with the Ethiopians that I have become friends with. I see now why celebrities occasionally punch photographers in the face; several times I’ve come close to doing the same thing myself.