As the American born daughter of Nigerian immigrants who realized in recent years just how much of the Yoruba culture they celebrated/practiced is actually white supremacy culture adopted because of colonialism, this resonated so very deeply. After a lifetime of being told by them that I wasn't Nigerian, and feeling like I belonged to neither and both cultures, I made the decision to reconnect with and research my Yoruba heritage, from a pre-colonial and in spite of colonialism lens. Connecting with it, and with my unnamed and unknown but somehow also known ancestors has been incredibly nourishing.
I hope that your continued exploration of all pieces of your heritage is nourishing in ways both needed and unexpected. 🙏🏾
Thank you for sharing these painful and beautiful parts of you, Ifedi. I am so glad that you found nourishment on that journey. And thank you, I hope so too 💗
As a very white lady who loves a whole heartfull of biracial/third culture people this is something I think about so much! I love the exploration and writing you are doing. I would say one thing I am trying to do is to also listen to my body about rituals/traditions. I think there is both the long tail history of a tradition as well as the tradition you have lived and both are important. While we don't celebrate el dia de los muertos as it is not our cultural tradition, we do use the days around Halloween as an extra time to honor our ancestors. I also love reading about traditions that seem to have foot holds in many cultures are a shared past to lean into. While unpacking what dominate culture does/tells us I try and look underneath at what our bodies have always known and what my body/heart is telling me.
Your writing reminded me that I need to share more explicitly what I recently did to honor my dad after the first death anniversary.
Thank you for this, AJ.
As the American born daughter of Nigerian immigrants who realized in recent years just how much of the Yoruba culture they celebrated/practiced is actually white supremacy culture adopted because of colonialism, this resonated so very deeply. After a lifetime of being told by them that I wasn't Nigerian, and feeling like I belonged to neither and both cultures, I made the decision to reconnect with and research my Yoruba heritage, from a pre-colonial and in spite of colonialism lens. Connecting with it, and with my unnamed and unknown but somehow also known ancestors has been incredibly nourishing.
I hope that your continued exploration of all pieces of your heritage is nourishing in ways both needed and unexpected. 🙏🏾
Thank you for sharing these painful and beautiful parts of you, Ifedi. I am so glad that you found nourishment on that journey. And thank you, I hope so too 💗
As a very white lady who loves a whole heartfull of biracial/third culture people this is something I think about so much! I love the exploration and writing you are doing. I would say one thing I am trying to do is to also listen to my body about rituals/traditions. I think there is both the long tail history of a tradition as well as the tradition you have lived and both are important. While we don't celebrate el dia de los muertos as it is not our cultural tradition, we do use the days around Halloween as an extra time to honor our ancestors. I also love reading about traditions that seem to have foot holds in many cultures are a shared past to lean into. While unpacking what dominate culture does/tells us I try and look underneath at what our bodies have always known and what my body/heart is telling me.
Your writing reminded me that I need to share more explicitly what I recently did to honor my dad after the first death anniversary.
Holding you sooo close from far away!
Thanks so much for sharing this, Claire. Holding you tight too, so much love to you 💜
I loved every word of this.
Thank you 💜
Great post, thanks!
You're welcome.