French | Nigerian
I would identify myself as mixed-race British with French and Nigerian heritage. My Mum is French and was born in Nantes and my Dad is Nigerian, was born in Enugu and is Igbo. They both emigrated to London after university and met in north London when they were neighbours in an apartment block. They got married soon after they met and had me in the same year. I think at the time it might have been a shock to my Mum’s parents and I’m not sure they approved of the marriage initially. We still live in north London and they have been happily married ever since!
I don't think it has been easy for my parents to combine their cultures. Despite potential apprehension of the marriage from my Mum’s parents’ side, they have continued to live their lives and show me and my sister both their cultures as they know it. I guess one way to combine their cultures was giving my name which is a French first name and Nigerian middle and surname. If I ever have children, I would love to give them names that originate from France or Nigeria as a homage to my heritage. Both my parents have done a lot more to combine their cultures and despite the challenges, I think they have done such a good job raising my sister and I in a rich cultural upbringing.
Overall, I feel so proud being mixed-race. I get a lot of comments when I meet people who say that I have such a cool or exciting background which I don’t always think about as it’s just who I am and is normal to me. It makes me step back and think that being mixed-race is a celebration of culture and I am happy to be part of that. I remember reading an article which illustrated the predicted skin colour in thousands of years’ time which was essentially a light, Brown tan tone. We are becoming more tolerable as a society due to the Internet and the ease of connecting with like-minded people. Hopefully with this, things like casual racism will become less frequent and tolerable and hopefully by that point in a thousand years when everyone is the same skin colour, everyone will be at peace with one another.
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