Taslim Jaffer had never heard her Canadian accent so loud as she did during a return to her motherland of Kenya.

Surrounded by citizens whose words naturally flow 鈥渟o sing-song, melodic,鈥� the 46-year-old said the dramatic difference in her own utterances caught her off-guard.

鈥淚鈥檓 not used to being the one that has the accent,鈥� Jaffer said.

The South 性视界传媒 author was in Mombasa with her father at the time, during a 2019 trip that she arranged after realizing just how much of her life had passed by without her seeing her own birthplace; the place where she had spent the first nine months of her life, and that her parents chose to leave in order to ensure their children had the best life possible.

It had become "a really precarious place to be living," Jaffer explained, describing changes in the African country that led to Asians being treated as second-class citizens; not allowed to have certain businesses or own certain properties and such.

"They didn't want to be raising kids there, they wanted us to have more opportunities."

Her mother, who passed away in 2009, never went back, but "she was always homesick," Jaffer 鈥� former Peace Arch News 'Building Bridges' columnist 鈥� recalled.

"It's because of her that I grew up nostalgic for a place that I had never even laid eyes on," she continued. "I always felt a connection to it, 鈥� but I always wondered, do I belong in Mombasa? Who am I outside of being Canadian? I always knew there was another place inside of me, but what happens when I go to that place? Who am I then?"

The father-daughter duo set off on the journey on the 10-year anniversary of her mother's death.

While her father had initially been reluctant to return, Jaffer said he later told her it made him realize that he was lucky to have grown up in Mombasa at the time that he did, and thankful to be living his sunset years in Canada. Knowing both his kids are also in a good place 鈥� well-educated and with families of their own 鈥� "going back made him feel that (leaving) was worth it."

For Jaffer, being in Mombasa felt both familiar and foreign. The flavours, aromas and lilting language were just like home, but "everyone could just tell that I am a foreigner." 

"I was confronted by my hyphenated existence," she said. "That I'm from here, but also from there, and kind of living in a space between it."

It got her wondering what happens for others who embark on similar journeys.

It's a question that more than 100 people from across North America responded to, when the call was put out to "the writing universe" inviting those with a story to tell to join a conversation examining the reasons people return to their motherland, and why they left in the first place.

The answers included stories of war, of seeking a better life, of mistaken identities and more.

Twenty-six of the narratives, including Jaffer's own experience during that two weeks in Mombasa, are shared in the recently released anthology Back Where I Came From: On Culture, Identity, and Home, co-edited by Jaffer with Edmonton-based writer and journalist Omar Mouallem.

She describes the book as "relatable and eye-opening at the same time," particularly as "so many" people today live a hyphenated existence.  

That existence, Jaffer emphasized, is both "complicated and beautiful," multi-layered and different for everyone.

Jaffer said she found what she was looking for during her 2019 trip: a connection to the people that live in Mombasa, and for something inside of her to feel like she belonged there.

During a return visit with her husband and three children this past summer, "it was even more special," she said. The "East Africa family history tour" 鈥� so dubbed as it included visits to Zanzibar, where Jaffer's grandparents are from, and Kumpala, Uganda, where her husband's family were until former president Idi Amin's expulsion of all Asians in 1972 鈥� was also an opportunity to show her kids that while they are born and raised in Canada, and have both Canadian values and pride, they're also from somewhere else.

"For me, that's a very important thing for me to pass down," she said.

Back Where I Came From: On Culture, Identity, and Home is available at Black Bond Books in Semiahmoo Shopping Centre (1701 152 St. and online at www.blackbondbooks.com), as well as online, including via Amazon.