Leona

Leona, 23

Nigerian ethnicity: Yoruba

City/County grew up in: Peterborough

City/County of residence: London

*audio below

Describe your heritage

My heritage is Black British. My mum was born here. My grandparents, her parents, were born in Nigeria and then she moved back to Nigeria when she was 6 and met my dad who was born in Nigeria. They came back here, and then had me and my brother.

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

How I would define being Black British Nigerian is just a mix of two worlds and two cultures I guess. I don’t think it’s hard to define in the sense that your culture and heritage is essentially Black Nigerian, but you’ve just being brought up in Britain. That’s essentially it. So it’s like a combination of two worlds really.

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

So the challenges that I have faced with my identity have been a lot really. There have been times where I’ve really struggled with my identity and the idea that I’m not Black enough, or if I’m not too British or it’s trying to find that right balance and mix between…I don’t know – knowing I’m Black and embracing my blackness, but also I am British too. I wasn’t brought up in London or around many Black people; I was brought up outside of London, Peterborough, so it was predominantly White, so most of my friends are White and that’s just how I’ve been brought up. So if I was to hang with Black people, it’s always like “You’re not Black enough”, “You talk White”, classic stuff you don’t even think would be a thing now, but still is. And that’s just something I’ve really struggled with for a while. But I think it’s just trying to surround yourself with people who appreciate you for you, that’s literally it. I am Black British Nigerian and that’s how I identify, and it’s just down to that person how they define what their identity means for them at the end of the day.

What do you love about being Black British Nigerian?

I love the fact that…again it’s just a mix…I just can’t describe how sick it is being Black first off. It’s great. And then also, just to have that British side, it’s something that I’ve always grown up with and literally all I know, so I don’t know anything other than being British. So it’s sick that I am still Black, but then being in Britain there are opportunities that are here that perhaps other people might not necessarily have. It’s just nice that I can still rock my blackness, and have all my Black friends and my Black family around me, but then also I’ve got the British side of things. You know it doesn’t necessarily have to be two separate things, but the fact that I can have the chance to have both within my life is quite nice.

Being Nigerian as well, again my family are sick, we’ve got sick food, and I just love the togetherness, the community is just something that’s next to nothing. Do you know what I mean? It’s incredible and coming together and having people that have lived that same sort of experience as you. Some of my friends who are Black British Nigerian, have had that same experience as me, so again it’s just nice that I have others I can relate to and we can talk about things, and talk about the challenges that we have faced being Black British Nigerian, which again might not necessarily be the same case for people who are just British or perhaps don’t identify as being British but are Black as well.

Do you think this country values your identity?

I do not think our country does, but I think we’re getting there. I think we’ve had, I don’t want to say movements, but a “thing” that’s happening now where we’ve got Black British Nigerians who are making movements and doing things. Like this project for example, it’s sick it’s great, so we’re getting there. It’s baby steps, we’re not there yet, at all. But we are getting there.

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

My hope for Black British Nigerians is just to see more of us in higher and more influential spaces. It’ll be sick to see more people who look like me on TV, or doing things that they love, that I can look and be like “Damn that’s sick. I want to be like that one day”, do you know what I mean? We’re getting there, there’s people I aspire to now, and I hope that in a few years time we’ll have more people that even generations to come can look and be like “That person did that. He looks like me and identifies as me and it’s sick, it’s great”.