Sierra Leonean | Unknown

I'm a Krio which is a very specific culture directly descended from ex-slaves who had settled in Nova Scotia, London, Jamaica etc and made their way to Sierra Leone in 1787 (the Black poor) 1792 (Nova Scotians) and 1807/08 (Maroons). I grew up in Sierra Leone in the 70s so most of my community and everyone apart from me in my family was Black. I have never sought to balance out the other culture(s). I have only recently started to identify as mixed-race/bi-racial. I always stood out as I am fair skinned, visibly mixed, and my siblings are visibly Black.

Despite the teasing, I was often treated as something of a pet, girls would want to play with me and braid my hair and I was more favourably treated than my darker-skinned siblings, which of course created certain other issues as it was obvious that fairer skin afforded me greater privilege.

I was put in an all-girls Church of England Grammar school in the early '80s. Some of the staff were horrid. I was living in a foster situation and as part of asserting my identity I loxxed up my hair. I was asked to get rid of the lox and I had an offer from the school vicar to go and live with him. I declined both requests so was, without warning, asked to leave the school. I wish I knew then that I had rights because what the school did was wrong on so many levels and negatively affected my life for many years afterwards.

I have many role models. I have a mixed-race friend who has Sierra Leonean linkages. We refer to each other as cousins. She currently teaches Africology at Temple in the USA.

I also greatly admire Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, a krio and currently mayor of Freetown. She is very principled and very brave. My all-time hero is Thomas Peters, who escaped slavery and then organised fleets of ships to take ex-slaves from Nova Scotia to start a colony of Freed slaves in Freetown in 1792. He was very badly treated and died too young of a broken heart, broken because of the ill treatment he was subjected to by so-called philanthropists.