Some leave, knowing they will return to this place called home.
Others leave the land of their birth knowing they won’t.
They bring with them Kanga & Kanzu, Calalou, Somali
and dowry collecting traditions to this foreign land they’ll make home.
Maybe not home for them but home for their children.
They come to these new homes with two choices
to win or to win. They know it’ll require sweat and blood.
Garri and Iyan from their tribe taste funny but Jollof is bae for all.
Their occasionally worn Aso Oke and Kente
will win them “best cultural dressed” in the cultural category
at school functions. Afrobeat reaches across the oceans and
welcomes them back to the land of their ancestors.
Hip hop will jolt them back to back to the land of their birth.
They will speak Yoruba to their children and it’ll be foreign.
Their children will laugh at their enunciation of the letter “T”
Sons will bond over their heavy names, daughter will call to verify folklore
she wants to include in her thesis. Some will become doctors,
giving their parents bragging rights.
Motunrayo Adeola
Sense & Rants 