Relationship Series Part 2: How to get your African parents to hear you
I took a break from the Relationship Series last week and created this Racism healing tool kit so please use it and share it! I just want to add that even though the nation is finally openly acknowledging racism and prejudice as an issue, let this indignation not just be a trend. Let’s truly do […]
Relationship Series Part 1: African parenting, what is missing?
Being a parent is difficult. Nobody really teaches you how to be one, you learn on the job. As adults, we understand this (hopefully), but you know who doesn’t understand? Your young children! When they are young, they think you are the most wonderful thing that happened to them, then they start to grow up […]
Running out of conversation topics while quarantining? Try Storytelling
Do you remember the stories your parents told you when you were a child? I remember the times in Cameroon when the lights went out and we had to entertain ourselves. Sometimes we told African folk tales. I’m sad that I can’t remember the details of many of them, they are vague memories. African storytelling […]
How my mother taught me to say “thank you”
It was sometime in the afternoon on a sunny day in Yaoundé, Cameroon. I was about 10 years old (maybe younger). My mom was driving, it was just both of us in the car. I don’t think I was supposed to be holding her work papers while sitting close to a half-opened window. All I […]
African comics and superheroes – It’s about time!
After the 5-week series on what colonization to our psyche, we need some fun. There’s this expression we used to say as kids in Cameroon, “All work no play makes Jack a dull boy!” The cool thing about the video below is that it is African inspired and created. The producer who is the founder […]
Part 3: Healing from what colonization did to the African’s psyche
For Black history month, we’ve been talking about the effects of colonization on Black people. You can read all four posts here. Although it’s the last day of February, we don’t have to stop here, let’s continue the conversation with friends and family. Since we’ve talked about the problem, it makes sense to discuss what […]
Part 2: What colonization did to the African and marginalized group’s psyche – Internalized Oppression
Between the years of 1997 to 2002, I went to an all-girls boarding school in Cameroon made up of 98% black girls, I mean brown-skinned-Wakanda-looking African girls. We had a few girls of mixed raced (a white and a black parent) similar complexion to Trevor Noah, hence the 98% instead of a 100%. Every year, […]
What colonization did to the African psyche – Remember the bobo doll experiment?
Have you heard of the Bobo doll experiment? When kids of various races and ethnicities were asked which doll was the nice or pretty doll versus the bad or ugly doll, most chose the good qualities for the white doll and the bad qualities for the black doll. This was the case even if they […]
Introducing a new series on what colonization did to the African psyche
February is black history month in the U.S. Sounds like a good month to examine African history and its effects on us today. When I say “us” I mean black people, not just Africans, but all descendants of Africa. In addition to our genetics, we are products of our history and our environment in more […]
Why it’s cool to be African in the U.S. in 2020
It’s a strange time to be African in the U.S. or should I say, it’s a great time to be African in America. I was sitting in Starbucks in Philadelphia and heard them playing “On the low” by Burna Boy and I looked around like, “Where am I?” Oh yeah! Africa is IN now… African […]
