Talk Naija

People experience loss daily. The grief felt as a result of loss is hard to deal with – let alone discuss and process. And, as a Nigerian-American, my experience has been that we often don’t talk about our emotions and many times veer away from topics that lend themselves to discussions about mental health. Unfortunately, […]

A number of aspects of Nigerian culture have maintained themselves as taboo throughout generations. Any iteration of mental crisis, like the suggestion that a loved one may be battling an unhealthy psychological state is often unacknowledged or stigmatized, and therefore not talked about in the ways that point towards healing. In engaging this topic we […]

1,096 days. 26,304 hours. 1,578,240 minutes. It’s been one thousand and ninety-six days since 276 girls were kidnapped from Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria by the terrorist group Boko Haram. One thousand and ninety-six days since hundreds of parents have last seen their daughters and since over 190 girls have known […]

Never let them win. The first piece of advice I can remember my father ever giving me was “never let them win.” He never defined “them”, so my “them” was left up to interpretation. Them was any intangible and tangible adversary that could ever get in the way of my greatness. This desire to never […]