You’d expect an Aussie of Hellenic heritage boasting with pride over Greece’s win of the Euro 2004. But what about an Australian of non-Greek background?

L.K. Kalumba fits in that – rather uncommon – profile, and makes it public knowledge.

Titled ‘Greekish: My obsession with a culture that wasn’t mine‘, his deeply personal piece published by SBS The Feed, opens with memories of flares erupting in Oakleigh and South Melbourne.

“July 4th, 2004, was far from an ordinary winter day,” the opening line reads.

The tournament’s underdog was crowned winner for the first time, and Greeks all over the world joined the celebrations.

Amongst them, a ‘Greekish’ boy in Melbourne’s South East.

“I felt so proud […]I ran around our small unit early that morning chanting: “Hellas Ole Ole!!,” Mr Kalumba writes.

His parents though couldn’t help but wonder: “Why was their 10-year-old son in tears over Greece winning the championship?”

He was after all, an Australian of Congolese ethnicity and “no Greek heritage whatsoever.”

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A number of circumstances, he goes on to explain later, had played their role in facilitating his fascination with Greek culture, including the 2004 Athens Olympics.

“In the early noughties, there was something pervasive about Greek culture.”

Mind you, he was growing up in the densely populated by Greeks southeastern suburbs. Importantly, he was a member of the local ethnic Greek soccer club.

“Perhaps if I was in Western Sydney, I may have been more attracted to a specific Lebanese Culture. Or in Abbotsford, the Vietnamese,” Mr Kalumba admits.

But ultimately, his “allure to Greek culture was dictated” by a boy a year older than him.

“Steve was a great footballer[…]He was cool. He greeted with a head nod […]He had style. So if he was Greek, I too was Greek,” he muses looking back at his 10-year-old self.

Ironically enough, it was Steve who would uncover a stint that wouldn’t last long, telling people he was a quarter Greek.

“When we arrived home, I listened quietly as my parents lectured me on the importance of being proud of my roots. My father laughed. He could not understand why I wanted to be Greek. Maybe American but he struggled with Greek.”

That was it. The Australian Congolese “never discussed being Greek again.”

And it was only in his late high school teen years that Mr Kalumba decided to investigate his Congolese roots.

He educated himself on the country’s history, made a few trips to the sub-Saharan country and engaged in writings from thinkers of the likes of Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X, through which he “wedged a space” to cultivate his identity.

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Mr Kalumba states he “always resided in a liminal space”, despite his “Australian passport and Congolese ethnicity.”

“In a sense, I feel as though identity does and should allow for a synthesis of immeasurable flows along a concatenate of disjunctive groups.”

His “obsession” with Greek culture is arguably a quintessential example.

“For me, being Greek was something real and tangible. In the end, it is merely just an idea, a concept that has been rendered capitulating and innate. I may be overstepping, but perhaps to some degree, we are all Greekish,” Mr Kalumba concludes.

*The above excerpts are based on the piece authored by L.K Kalumba, and published by SBS The Feed.
You can read it here https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/greekish-my-obsession-with-a-culture-that-wasn-t-mine