PROGRESS OBERIKO BLOG

All my life, I never really celebrated/acknowledged anything such as “Black history month”. Didn’t know about it until recently. And please don’t blame me, it’s not because I have been ignorant it’s just because I was never Black until I arrived in the UK.  🤷🏾‍♀️ This is the same reason a fellow Nigerian who just arrived in the Uk for studies has refused to identify with the term “Black”.  During our conversation, I noticed he deliberately tried to avoid using the word Black to describe himself while sharing his experience. And when I called him Black he bluntly retorted “ Please don’t call me Black, I’m not Black”.  He continued: “ You know back in Nigeria I can’t be described as Black, I’m light-skinned ” .  😅 And I remember laughing out loud and saying to him: “you don’t really have a choice here, you know; whether you like it or not you’ll be addressed as Black”.  I said to him: “ The moment you landed in the UK your identity changed, and with or without ...