E Ware Mumene
“E Ware Mumene” (I’m Going Home) is the account of my experience as a young, first generation Nigerian American and my desire to reconcile my diverse identity, while rejecting my home culture. The book starts off with me cast to country I had visited only once. As a foreigner in my parents’ home country, I experienced humiliation, found redemption and a new-found appreciation for my heritage.
The events preceding my departure contrast with my life in Nigeria to highlight the growth of a self-centered young man, accustomed and aspiring to inner-city American life, struggling to cope with the intricacies of urban life in Africa. The complexities and angst that comprise adolescence further weave through the story to illustrate the strain one experiences while attempting to balance competing social identities. The reader goes on a journey that leaves me ostracized from my peers and family, in which I seek answers through violence, drugs, and theft, yet find myself only after going home.
Anthology of the Brothers
The tapestry of the black male is woven with an intricate pattern of strength, misery, courage, death, ambition, and self-hate. It seems that our plight has been as arduous as that of our forefathers that were shackled and stripped of their identity. In the present day these shackles exist only in our mind; all too often we are responsible for placing the limitations upon ourselves. However, even in our dimmest moments it is impossible to overlook the raw beauty and tenacity we have to survive through it all.
These stories cover a fraction of who we are as African American males. They are a binding force that we can all identify with at some point in our lives. The extraordinary battle we have been subconsciously fighting has become a normal existence to us. This leaves a question that has yet to be answered: when will merely surviving no longer be enough?
