A Call To Be Seen

When you look in the mirror, you see yourself and your features. I see my brown skin and my brown eyes and thin eyes from my dad. When I go home, I’m reminded of my culture when my mum makes jollof rice or eba and okro soup. When I went to school I saw other Nigerian girls, with my accent and with my slang. And when I look at the TV I’m reminded that it’s harder for me to show myself to the world and be acknowledged as the young Nigerian girl I am. 

When people “scream” representation, they don’t just want to be given equal opportunities, they want to be able to inspire and convince their younger generations that they have a place in the world and that they are worthy to be acknowledged by the international community. Not that validation is what we need but the validation does give us confidence.

The big screen doesn’t just entertain people, it sets standards. It constructs what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable, it dictates the popular culture. I have a Nigerian accent and growing up I had never heard this accent outside my country’s national news and Nollywood shows and the people around me. In all the popular movies and shows I watched growing up, I never heard someone that sounded like me on TV. When I was this young, I never realized that I thought that not having a British, Australian or American accent was “uncivilized” and difficult to understand. At a point I did have a British accent then lost it, I was devastated. Now that I’m older I’m trying to keep my Nigerian accent because I know better. I am speaking English and whoever is listening to me should put in the same effort I put in in trying to understand them in trying to understand me.

But I’m lucky. I’m lucky I came to understand that I should be acknowledged and be understood no matter where I am from or what I sound like. Many girls growing up don’t. When they don’t see or hear people like them on the big screens, they believe they don’t fit into the world’s standard. As a Nigerian girl growing up now, I feel like I have a place in the world. The women in my culture have proved that they are worthy of acknowledgement, because of women like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Ngozi Okonjo-Iwaela (who both have my mum’s name), the world knows that we can contribute to the world what they thought we couldn’t. These women are the role models for generations and more and more women are seeking to be represented not just to fight for their rights to opportunities but create a path for those behind them. 

I strive to be seen not just in my mirror but in the people that I aspire to be. This is not just my dream, this is the dream of every girl and non-binary person of colour. And they don’t want to be seen in the ways the world thinks they should be seen. They want to see themselves in their true authentic forms, speaking their languages and showing their culture. We deserve to be seen and if the world won’t fight for us, we’ll fight for ourselves.