Bola
Bola, 29
Nigerian ethnicity: Yoruba
City/County grew up in: London
City/County of residence: London
*audio below
Describe your heritage
I am a Black British Yoruba male born to Yoruba parents in London, England.
What to you, makes you Black British Nigerian? How do you define it?
Very practically, my parents are Nigerian, I was born and brought up here so although I have a lot of the sensibilities that my parents gave me, I’ve had no choice but to merge it with figuring out how I live, survive, thrive in the UK, and part of that is adopting, taking in some of the customs here. For example, if you’re Nigerian, by fire by force you have to listen to, obey your parents every word and commandment, but, you have to show a bit of spunk if you’re British, especially in the workplace. But figuring out how to balance the two (because code-switching isn’t always the easiest thing to do), merge the two, when to apply one or the other, it can be difficult. So that sort of conflict if you will, is actually where the Black Britishness lies.
What challenges do you/have you faced that relate to your identity as a Black British Nigerian?
The challenges that I’ve faced in figuring out my identity as a Black British Yoruba individual….for example recently we watched the Lionheart film, and hearing Igbo people speak, I knew that they were Nigerian but I couldn’t relate to it (partially because I couldn’t understand it), but it’s just a completely different sensibility. How they talk, their diction and all of that stuff, it didn’t quite resonate as I thought it would or should, which is why I’ve gone even further than calling myself Black British Nigerian, and I’m sticking with Black British Yoruba, for the time being. It might change next week, I don’t know.
What do you love about being Black British Nigerian?
Di swagga. Das it, finish.
What I love most about being Black British Nigerian, is the swagger, the inherent just badness of being a Black British Yoruba individual that takes up space in the United Kingdom that our Queen lives in, can you even imagine??
Do you think this country values your identity?
I do not think that the UK values my identity as a Black British Nigerian or Yoruba individual. I think there is still a lot of just grouping Black people and People of Colour together, let alone getting into nationalities, let alone getting into different ethnic groups. Maybe to the degree that this country is now beginning to appreciate and like Afrobeats might be the extent to which they like anything pertaining to my culture. Outside of that, I don’t really think so. To them that’s our greatest export and contribution to the British culture if you will.
What does the future look like for Black British Nigerians - what are your hopes for us?
My hopes for the Black British…are we talking Nigerian or Yoruba? *pauses* *laughs* My hopes for the Black British Nigerian community is that we continue to figure out and explore who we actually are without the constraints of neither what British culture expects of us, but also what our parents expect of us. There is, I feel, a lot of expectation from our parents that we don’t let the Nigerian culture die. But the reality is that the Nigerian culture can only thrive best in Nigeria. The Nigerians that are based here have to figure themselves out and have to figure out what they look like best in this context and I don’t think that can be done by standing pat by the whole Nigerian culture. So really figuring out what our identity means for us whether we live in London, whether we live in Birmingham, whether we live in Skegness, you know, it looks different wherever we are, so really just taking the time to figure out what our identity looks like in each individual context.
