Ashley

Ashley, 25

Nigerian ethnicity: Igbo

City/County grew up in: Lagos, London

City/County of residence: Kent

*audio below

Describe your heritage

I would describe myself as Nigerian, but I live in the UK so I’m classed as British. One of my parents was born in Nigeria and one of my parents was born here in the UK.

What to you, makes you Black British Nigerian? How do you define it?

How would I define it? The fact that I’m able to jump between two cultures; so I can be British when I’m at work or dealing with people in every day life, and then when I come home, when I’m with my friends and family, I can be Nigerian. So I can put on my Nigerian accent, refer to Nigerian food, different stuff. So [it’s] the ability to be fluid between the two different cultures, I feel that’s what makes me Black British Nigerian.

What challenges do you/have you faced that relate to your identity as a Black British Nigerian?

I think as a Black British Nigerian, I think the most challenges I’ve had is probably in the workplace. Actually no, I have a good story. I remember I had just come back from boarding school in Nigeria and I’d just started schooling in Essex, and I remember one of the questions they asked me when I came back was “Oh so I heard you went to school in Nigeria, did you speak English?” and sometimes I just feel people have no clue or idea at all of what’s going on in Africa, or Nigeria, whether we’re educated, and that we’re normal, just like them. In regards to the workplace, as a Black British Nigerian, funnily enough I’ll probably say I’ve faced the most opposition from my kind. Usually if I’m going around and talking to people and they look at my surname and find out that I’m Nigerian, “Oh you’re Nigerian” and they just change the way they act, and sometimes it can be negative, like maybe they don’t have to listen to me anymore because I’m the same as them. So yeah, it’s been interesting.

What do you love about being Black British Nigerian?

That I can eat jollof rice and chips together *cackles*. If I had to be really honest with you, I don’t think there’s anything amazing; I would just say my passport – British – which just lets me go to different places without too many issues, if I had to be really really honest with you.

Do you think this country values your identity?

I feel like it values my identity now more than ever. I’ll probably say that over the past 2-3 years, there’s been so much coverage of Nigeria, not only from the entertainment aspect in regards to movies, and music and stuff like that, and sports as well, but even from an economic aspect. Obviously Nigeria is in the top 20 fastest growing economies in the world and we’re so tiny [yet] we are recognised. I don’t work in the financial world, but when you talk about Nigeria it is like a force to be recognised in Africa, so I think it’s a really big deal right now.

What does the future look like for Black British Nigerians - what are your hopes for us?

I feel like the future looks very very very bright. That’s a really hard question. I feel like we’re doing so well already [and] it can only get better. I think the only thing that I can hope is that more people come to Nigeria, and when they think of Nigeria they don’t see it as like - I know this is really cliché – poor children starving, but it becomes the new tourist destination place people go to like South Africa, or they go to Kenya – I would like people to come to Nigeria.