For the longest time, I had long flowing hair. For the better part of my adulthood this hair was relaxed, long and straight. Then over time it got thin and weak. And I didn’t like it at all. So about 2 years ago I cut my hair. All of it. We will not talk about how I looked like a boy for 2 months. No. We will instead focus on how over the next few months I got my good hair back. It was thick and dark and oh so beautiful. So I swore I would never again relax my hair. I did not understand what had caused my once strong hair to become weak and thin. I knew it had something to do with using relaxers but I couldn’t quite explain what the relaxers had done to my hair. Until 2 weeks ago. [Read more…]
Year of Yes: On being a woman and learning to take up space
My brother is one of the most confident people I know. In fact, I often tell him that he straddles the line between confidence and arrogance. From time to time he steps fully into either side because he is human and balance is a hard thing to achieve. Throughout our lives my mother has told him to be more like me; to be more responsible, more organized, more focused in school. What can I say, I was a good child. I was that child that other parents told their kids to emulate because I was good at being good. Recently, however, my mother told me something that shocked both my brother and I because we never thought it would happen: she told me to be more like him. How tables turn. [Read more…]
Stay With Me: The View of African Society Towards Child Loss
One of the greatest things that literature does for us is to show us who we are. Literature, like television and social media, acts as a mirror in which we can see ourselves, come face to face with our hopes, our fears, our victories, our regrets. This is why we read.
Many topics that have previously been taboo have slowly come to light through the efforts of people who seek to expose our vulnerabilities as a society. Child loss is one of these topics and I am yet read a book that captures the grief of a parent in a society that does not talk about the death of children as well as Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo. [Read more…]
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