UNAPOLOGETICALLY BLACK!
WHAT BLACK HISTORY MEANS TO ME
Well, I didn’t know I am ‘Black’ until I came to the West. But long before that, I have always known who I am: the daughter of Badagry by my father’s lineage and Abeokuta by my mother’s; a fusion of history’s weight that forms my very essence. My connection to Black History is not theoretical; it is experiential. It is the air I breathe, the blood in my veins, the voices that refuse silence, and the weight my heart carries.
Badagry is not just a town; it is a scar, a memory, a witness. I have lived on the soil where our ancestors took their last steps on African land before being shipped away, stripped of their names but never their dignity. I have seen the relics of chains that once bound wrists and ankles, and I have felt the unsettling silence of the Point of No Return. But in that silence, I have also heard the voices of those who refused to be erased.
Abeokuta is not just a city; it is a testament to resilience. The rocks of Olumo stand as both shelter and symbol, a reminder that my people do not just endure; they rise, they fight, they overcome. I have walked its streets and traced the footsteps of warriors and visionaries—people who did not wait for history to be written about them but took the pen and inscribed their names with fire and steel.
I have lived this history, not as a spectator, but as an heir. And that inheritance has shaped me. It has given me an unshakable sense of identity; a knowing that my existence is tethered to something ancient, powerful, and unbreakable. It has also given me a burden; the responsibility to honour the struggles that came before me, not just in memory, but in movements.
For me, Black History is not just a record of what was done to us but also what we have done to ourselves. It is the unspoken rivalry, the internal oppression, the ways we have turned against one another. It is the weight of knowing our ancestors fought for a freedom that some of us now squander in competition instead of collaboration.
For me, Black History is legacy. It is the knowledge that I do not walk alone. That I am the living dream of those who fought, bled, and built. A call to refuse mediocrity. A call to reject the smallness that society sometimes imposes on me. A call to build, to lead, to become a continuation of the greatness that came before me.
I, Feyisayomi, am not just a child of history. I am its keeper, steward, and evidence.
Wonderful reflection here, Jijoho!
May this words you've inscribed be so ingrained in your being and continually inspire you to greater becoming. God be with you as you are becoming, my friend.
". . . the weight of knowing our ancestors fought for a freedom that some of us now squander in competition instead of collaboration." This!