how my foreign neighbour influences my life
Emgland. Two women across adjoining streets. Strangers to each other. One, a Briton. Another, A Nigerian emigrant. Yet, they are somehow interconnected.
of racism and our red milk of human kindness.
“How is your knee today?” The elderly man [whom I will name baba] asked him “Better, it’s less painful.” Young replied cheerily “Oh, you remembered. Thank you for asking” I said to baba as the minus-1-degree icy cold shook my body mercilessly. “Yes, he was limping the other day and could barely walk” baba responded…
echoes from my past -2
“Oh don’t bother moving, I can sit at the edge” “No worries. We will shift for you” The first woman said with a huge smile It was Carol Night at School. Although this boy in my home has insisted I not bother coming out, I went. “Stop behaving like an orphan. I am still here…
echoes from your past
“Hello Sis, good evening” “Good evening sis” I responded with furrowed brows trying to unscramble her face We were about stepping into the African Shop at the City Centre when she approached me. It was my son’s Carol evening and he wanted to buy malt. She drew closer as if to hug me but uncertain…
enslaved. abused. deported. a tale of the vulnerable migrant.
“One more footstep and all these will be over” Hajara looked at the sea entreatingly “You are too young and still have your life ahead of you” her heart remarked “What life does she have? Is this a life?” her head jeered “This life. She is here. Things can turn around, you know” “Ever the…
the dilemma of human longing and the emigrant
My soul is out there wandering the streets of Jibowu, Yaba in Lagos, Nigeria. But my body sits on this bed typing and listening to songs. I peer at the time. 03:02Hrs. A time when normal men sleep. However, sleep is far from me. I sit here watching myself go back again to Jibowu as…
he lost his marriage to this relocation
“A family broke up as a husband and wife were sleeping with each other when their spouses were at work” the black man who sat across from me proffered in halting English “You mean the student who left her husband for another man and he had been sent back to Nigeria? Ola turned towards him…
Immigrant Parenthood: a man’s world
“You saw how clueless I was when my baby began crying. The women here had to step in and take over. If I was back in Nigeria I would never take a baby out of the house on my own. said a frazzled ‘deji as he started contributing to the discussion” The Nigerian in me…
of travels and worldviews
I shuffled wearily into the hall and sat on the first sofa by the door. Camp was taking its toll on me. The seat closest to the door was vacant and I made a beeline for it. A middle-aged female sat there. I plopped myself beside her. And as it happens, we eventually got talking….
the fallacy of absolutes
“The way coffee is consumed here is the same way we take soft drinks back home” I pointed to a Coffee Shop as we walked through the Promenade. “Except of course that Nigerians consume more than the other countries” “Not true. The other countries consume more alcohol than us”. Ruqqy replied. We were walking from…