Anyika

Anyika, 34

Nigerian ethnicity: Igbo

City/County grew up in: Liverpool

City/County of residence: Loughborough

*audio below

Describe your heritage

I am Black British-born, of Nigerian heritage, born and bred in Liverpool, England to Nigerian parents, and then basically became one of the best athletes in the world! I travel the world as my job.

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

I try and integrate both cultures. So the British culture which can be like fish and chips (no I’m joking). British culture is just how we are as Brits, but also I’m more of the Nigerian heritage. I just love the fact that I can intertwine the two, and also being Scouse (born and bred in Liverpool), it’s like we have our own identity that a lot of people can’t identify with. I’ve noticed that when I go back home for example, I tend to go more high-pitched and sound more Scouse, because I’m around my family and friends. It’s crazy because my mum still struggles to understand me to this day, and she doesn’t like the Scouse accent at all because she struggles to understand, but she loves Scousers, which is why she still lives there. So yeah a mixture of all three, if you can count that as all three.

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

There’s been a few. I think from a young age especially growing up in Liverpool where it’s predominantly White people, I grew up in a very multi-cultural area. It was very different where I grew up, and even though there’s a very huge Nigerian community where I grew up, when you step outside of that, it’s like another world. So when you go to a predominantly White area, they don’t just see you as Black, they see you as African, but not very specific to where you are, and then they start potentially calling you names, some very unkind racist comments. There [were] little things growing up.

I remember when I was in school (and I went to a predominantly White school), it was a great school but there were a lot of White girls, and when we were in Geography class for example, the teacher was talking to us about different countries that we go to, that we’d like to visit (this, that, and the other). Someone said America because everyone was obsessed with Disneyland at the time, some people said Australia because they had friends and family there, when the teacher asked me in front of the whole class, I said “Africa, specifically Nigeria”, and there was one girl in particular who was like “Omg, why would anyone want to go there. That’s where all the poor people are!”. And I was so disgusted, and I was so upset because it was so hard for me to try to justify why she would even think that. But then you realise society paints this picture that everyone in Africa is Black and poor, and you’ve got nothing going for you in your life.

First of all Africa is a whole continent. Nigeria is a big country but it’s within Africa; there’s so many amazing things that are happening that have been going on in Nigeria for such a long time, it’s just how society paints us. Nigeria’s got such a booming economy and so many areas, and I think now especially with technology and social media, people are now starting to see all the things – people who aren’t from Nigeria are starting to see there’s so many things that are kicking off there which is amazing. But back then, which is in the 90s when I grew up in Liverpool, a lot of people were just like “Why would you want to go to Africa? Why would you want to go to Nigeria?”.

I remember a couple of years later seeing that girl, and I brought up with her what she said, and she doesn’t remember when she said it (I mean we were like 12/13 at the time), but I remember specifically – not just because of what she said, but because everyone stood up and starting laughing. Most of the class did. She apologised because she didn’t want me to feel that way, but I also off the back of that was able to explain to her that Nigeria’s like this, Nigeria’s within Africa but it’s such a rich culture, rich heritage and it’s an amazing country. So if I can get to the masses one by one, then it’s half my job done.

What do you love about being Black British Nigerian?

One of the things that I don’t enjoy is that when I go back to Nigeria, my family don’t understand me because I have a very thick Scouse accent. But then I understand Igbo (I’m from Igbo heritage), but I don’t speak it, but I love the fact that I’ve got the opportunity to learn a different language. Like imagine being British and just speaking English. Imagine that only being your source of language? Whereas when you’re in Nigeria you’ve got Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba – and they’re just the main ones, so imagine when you go to different parts of Nigeria and people speak different languages – that in itself is amazing. That you can actually have a conversation with someone and talk about your culture, your heritage, there’s so many different things.

Being a senior member of the British team [Team GB], because there’s so many Black British Nigerians on the team, you can also exchange stories, and we always end up laughing and having belly laughs and joking, because a lot of the people who are from the same heritage can identify with it. British people on the team can’t and they’re like “Wait, what was that?”, and they don’t always look at us as that [being] something they can’t identify with and start sniggering, they’re like “Okay tell us more”, so you feel like you’re also telling them there’s life outside being part of GB and Northern Ireland. There’s so many of us who are Black and British and compete for Great Britain, and this is actually part of our identity.

Do you think this country values your identity?

I definitely don’t think that being Black British Nigerians we are valued in this country. There’s so many of us, not just down South, but so many of us in the UK, there’s so many Nigerians in Liverpool, there’s so many Nigerians in Manchester, I was recently in Scotland and you should see the number of Nigerians there, we’re literally all over the place, but we’re not given the same opportunities to even tell our story. People just want to be dismissive towards it because they’re like “No you’re British. Stick to being British. We don’t care about your problems. Well they’re not our issues so why should we want to hear your stories”. But when you see White people from Italy come over, or France, or other parts of Europe, or South America, it’s like “Oh okay. We can identify with them slightly”.

Unfortunately in society, people just see colour, so they assume that you’re less than already, so they don’t want to hear whatever stories that you’ve been told. And no it’s not everyone, but I believe that every Black British person can identify with being told no in some form in their life. Like having a story to be told and it just being no, because at the end of the day people don’t want to hear it. But there’s so many of us who do have a voice and so many people who do have a story and I think opportunities like this give us a reason to be able to tell our stories so the next generation can identify with my story or a next girl’s story, and just be able to be like “No I can be proud. I can be British and I can be [of] Nigerian descent as well. There’s nothing wrong coming from a mixed culture”. It should be embraced.

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

My hopes for us [are] that we can continue to have a voice because our heritage is important, our culture’s important. There’s no reason why it can’t be ingrained more into British society because there are so many of us who do live here and who do have a story. We’re like Millennials, so to speak, so the generation before us and before that didn’t have a voice because I’m sure you’ve heard experiences.

I remember when my dad came to the UK and he ended up in Liverpool and he wanted to buy a house for him and his family and he couldn’t buy one from anyone just because he was Black and Nigerian. He ended up buying a house cash, from a Jewish man. Can you imagine that? Being told you can buy a house yeah, but you have to pay cash. So he got all the money that he could to be able to provide for his family. Now imagine that happening in society today. But that was my dad telling me that experience. He never really told society because society’s not trying to hear about that. All we’ve been told in this culture is to come here and work for a better life, but now we’ve been able to create so many opportunities for us. All we know is working in science, working in engineering, working in business, like I couldn’t even do track and field and become a professional athlete until I got my economics degree, which I’m yet to use, but it’s a fact that I still have it. That’s all we know.

We are bright, we are smart, and we are having to work twice as hard, not just necessarily work hard for a better life because that’s all our parents taught us, but also now we have so many opportunities like being a content creator, like being influencers and being on x amount of money, but also giving back to the community. Also being able to tell our stories so the next generation can have a voice and be able to speak up for themselves and be like okay she’s told her story as a Black British Nigerian, that’s something that I can identify with, but most importantly be proud of where I’ve come from.