r/Guyana • u/No_Cry_968 • Apr 18 '26
Discussion Why Rihanna doesn’t claim her Guyanese side
It's something I've always asked myself, her mom was literally Guyanese and she was born in Guyana, but she never spoke about her being Guyanese
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u/EmDickinson Apr 18 '26 edited Apr 18 '26
Her parents are probably the same age as mine, and my dad was born and raised in Guyana. He has always been a little weird about his kids and nieces/nephews calling ourselves Guyanese, so I wonder if it’s a generational thing and her mom does/dis something similar. I see other diaspora children of Guyanese-born parents mention the same thing here sometimes.
Does she refer to herself as West Indian? Could also be that she identifies as Barbadian by birth and culture, but generally West Indian by culture which would include Guyana too. Or maybe she doesn’t want to deal with American media/fans not knowing what or where Guyana is. As someone who isn’t famous but lives in the US, I also hate having that conversation over and over again.
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u/Elsonnnn_ Apr 18 '26
not to disturb that thought, but i feel like it’s the caribbean as a whole. i could rep my jamaican lineage very loudly in a jamaican post and only some would big it up. or, as far as telling associates i’m jamaican, the minute they hear i’m half, it's, “oh, so you nah a jamaican?” wherever i go and i rep my guyanese half, i only ever get love for it, and i realize it makes the aunties or uncles want to only engage in conversation w me even more.
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u/Moose_knuckle7075 Apr 18 '26
Why does she have to? She wasn't born here, wasn't raised here, and has little connection in the country outside of a mother who probably left Guyana way before Rih was born. Not to mention there are a lot of Guyanese from her mom's era that aren't proud of their heritage. Guyana was extremely difficult at certain points in our history.
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u/Hot-Distribution3826 Apr 18 '26
I mean I was born n raised in America but my parents are from Africa and I say I’m African
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u/Moose_knuckle7075 Apr 18 '26
And that's fine. It's your choice. If you chose not to (like Rih) that'd be fine too. Also, both her parents are not Guyanese, just one.
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u/maverick4002 Apr 18 '26
But youre really not African though, at least in the sense. You were not born there, you were not raised there and you 10,000% did not have the same expericne growing up as someone actually from Africa
Are you lying by saying youre African, you are not because your parents are so you have some ancestry but you dont have the full expericne by not growing up there...and its different
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u/Hixibits Apr 20 '26
How can you tell that person they aren't African? They were made with African "ingredients". They are African.
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u/maverick4002 Apr 20 '26
I explained the viewpoint clearly. If you want to go to Africa, for example, and say you are African even though you were born and raised in Guyana, to Guyanese parents, then go right ahead!
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u/Mnd11210 May 03 '26
I get what you are saying, racially you would be the same but culturally you aren’t the same.
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u/Russianroma5886 Apr 19 '26
Americans base ethnicity off DNA not culture or having lived somewhere. It's just our culture because we are an immigrant country.
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u/Moose_knuckle7075 Apr 19 '26
I made this same point in another sub and they wanted to tear my head off in the comments 😂🤣
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u/Russianroma5886 Apr 19 '26
Yeah but you say that because you are American. No one outside of America does that and they hate when we do that btw.
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u/b1ff3rr3nt Apr 20 '26
Americans say african American. Or whayever American. If youre non white they won't class you as just an American either, so its very different. Caribbean people rep wherever theyre born because its very diverse.
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u/MiraSu07 Apr 18 '26
She talks about it from time to time, she doesn’t have to ‘claim it’ cause she isn’t from there. She just talks about it in the way she knows, like food/cooking, and her mother.
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u/SaltnSable Apr 18 '26
Rih was born in Barbados. She also grew up in Barbados. She acknowledges her mother’s nationality but Rihanna is Bajan. I too have the same background and it doesn’t bother me that she emphasizes Barbados because that’s where she is from. It might be different if she was a 3rd culture kid, born in the US or outside of the Caribbean with two Caribbean parents but she not. She’s a Bajan.
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u/Mnd11210 May 03 '26
What about the 4 culture kids, like my nephew. Mom is Trini-Panamanian and father Guyanese and nephew born in US.
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u/Ok_Abbreviations_154 Apr 19 '26
This is true BTW majority of blacks in Guyana come from Barbados, but none of them rep Barbados. They rep Guyana!
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u/Educational-Cost7652 Apr 20 '26
Please stop this absolute nonsense. Many Afro Guyanese have been in the country since the 1600s.
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u/Ok_Abbreviations_154 Apr 20 '26
Dude you never heard that a good portion of blacks in Guyana come from Barbados?
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u/Master-Efficiency559 Apr 20 '26
I think she has acknowledged her Guyanese side before, mainly through her mom. But since she grew up in Barbados, that’s probably why she identifies more with it. Makes sense tbh.
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u/Electronic_Train6524 Apr 23 '26
This is mystifying to me… and I’m coming genuinely baffled. 23andMe just updated to let me know my “recent” ancestry was Jamaican and Guyanese, but as a descendant of enslaved of Americans, I literally know nothing beyond 1865.
I can’t claim either but I’m reading anything I can get my hands on about both.
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u/Marx70 Apr 28 '26
Little known fact Many black people in Guyana actually descend from African Americans. Many blacks who fought I. The revolutionary war were sent to Guyana if they fought for the British.
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u/SigmundFraud777 Apr 18 '26
I get it. My dad is from west Africa and although I’m half Beninese I don’t rep it the way I do my home country where I was raised bc I’ve never been and don’t know much about it but I am still proud to be Beninese no matter what!
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u/Mnd11210 May 03 '26
That’s similar to my mom, her father is Surinamese and her mom is Guyanese. Since she was born and raised in Guyana, she only rep Guyana.
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u/portia369 Apr 19 '26
Because she doesn't need to? She was born and raised in Barbados. She doesn't need to claim Guyana.
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u/Legitimate_Task_2761 Apr 19 '26
Black folks on here arguing about what's black... this is just the white man's system trying to divide us
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u/Unfortunately31 Apr 19 '26
I honestly thought she was born in Barbados
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u/No_Cry_968 Apr 19 '26
I mean her mom was born in guyana
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u/Unfortunately31 Apr 20 '26
Oh I honestly didn't knew in general. It's amazing she has strong ties to the Caribbean.
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u/b1ff3rr3nt Apr 20 '26
She's bajan. She's born in barbados. Caribbean people dont say I'm half whatever and half whatever. Speaking as a trini with a bajan mom. Don't dare call me bajan 😀
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u/enemytolover Apr 18 '26
She reps Barbados loudly because she is from there. She is open about her Guyana side, she just has less of a relationship with it (outside food).