English | Ghanaian
I am English and Ghanaian. My Mum is Ghanaian, her Dad is Fante (from Sekondi) and her Mum is Ga (from Accra). My Dad is English and grew up in Somerset. We lived in South London for a while and eventually we moved back to Ghana when I was 18. I lived in Ghana for 4 years before getting married and moving back to London.
My Mum and Dad lived in England, then when they married they moved to Ghana. I am sure that my Mum and Dad combined their cultures with food, music and fashion. My Mum loves to cook so she would have cooked a lot of different meals for him from various countries and with my Mum being quite notorious, she would have worn anything she wanted to wear and listened to music that maybe a lot of people hadn’t heard.
Interracial relations are fine with me, I have grown up with friends, Uncles and Aunties who are mixed-race so it’s always been normal to me. I also spent a lot of my life in South London which has always been diverse like most of London now. In England I am seen as a Black person and in Ghana I am seen as a White person. I have to admit that when some Ghanaians call me Obroni (White person in Twi), I get angry. I know they will get angry if someone called them a Black person (Obibini). In Ghana when I was a child I use to be called half cast and when I told my Grandmother, she said if anyone calls me half cast, I should call them full cast.
I have been speaking Ga since I could talk and my Grandmother taught me a lot before we left Ghana when I was 8. I always surprise people especially in Ghana when I am buying something and they call a very high price or here in England when someone will ask me if I know what I am buying if I am in a Ghanaian grocery shop.
Culture should not affect the way anyone chooses a partner, if you meet someone and you fall in love, then where the person comes from shouldn’t matter. I was lucky to find my husband in Ghana. My husband’s Dad is Ghanaian (Ga) and his Mum is Gambian, he grew up in Ghana. I saw it as the best of a lot of worlds. I learned a lot about Gambia especially about what they wear and eat. I have clothes from both Gambia and Ghana. I can say a few words and cook a few Gambian meals.
My positive experiences would have to be about talking to a wide range of people and learning about their cultures. I have been proudly wearing clothes made with African print fabric for many many years before it became fashionable and now a days I make and wear African print clothes and most of the time, I will be seen wearing and African print tops with jeans and lots of beads.
The negative side would be that some people like to ask me where my parents are from and if the person asking is Ghanaian, they think my Mum lived in Ghana and went after my Dad because he is a White man on holiday and has money but if a Ghanaian man got together with a White lady then he has ‘done well’. Most of the time I have to explain to the person that my Mum was sent to England at 16 to continue her education and met my Dad in England.
If anyone knows me, they know I like music and l like cooking. I am always trying to find recipes from other people. My husband has a broad knowledge of music and few years ago we listened to music by Fela Kuti who I had never heard of and not long after a documentary about him was shown on television. Learning about different cultures through music, food, dance, fashion and language is wonderful and allows me to learn more and more all the time.
I am Ghanaian and English. I love who I am as a mixed-race person and I don’t want to be born again as anyone else. It’s made me who I am and I like who I am.