This little blurb from -Michelle Byamugisha absolutely describes my identity...
“‘We are going home,’ I often hear my parents announce
before our family of five departs for Nigeria. Yet in this home, the cadence of
my “hello” declares me foreign. The grins as I attempt to speak the local
language mark me an amateur. My self-scrutiny in conversation distracts from
the reality of my selfhood. Fortunately, the otherness drifting on the surface
of my presence in Nigeria has never been internalized. I am ultimately a Nigerian-American.
I am a niece embracing my uncle’s reminder to visit my motherland without my
parents. I am a student that detests the savior mentality printed in the books
before me. I am a consumer craving the truth of a beautiful, innovative Africa
radiating from my television screen. I am an individual pursuing and resisting diasporic detachment. I am a citizen of America and
child of Nigeria.”
