Africans Flocking To The United Kingdom & Here’s Why! | One54 Africa Podcast

[00:00:00]British were like, "WE ARE YOUR MOTHERLAND."

[00:00:03]You know, that my mother, you know, was educated by British missionaries.

[00:00:08]So, it was instilled in her instilled in her as a child >> That's right.

[00:00:12]>> that Britain was the motherland. It was the you know, and you know, her education was from them. So, that was something to aspire to >> Yeah.

[00:00:21]>> to go to England.

[00:00:22]>> Yeah.

[00:00:23]>> To go to England that where where everything began, you know? Cuz that's what they were taught.

[00:00:29]You know? And and that that was where they could continue their education. And they were taught that the British roads were paved with gold. And that's what they thought.

[00:00:37]>> Yeah.

[00:00:37]>> And so, [clears throat] you know, because the British came to Nigeria, destroyed, you know, the agricultural the cultural education, and was like, "Yo, forget all this growing stuff and knowing the earth and the land. Forget that. We're going to teach you how to do accounting and and and and work for the empire." And that's what they did. So, they destroyed that aspect of Nigerian life and taught them how to do work for the empire. And because of that, they couldn't farm as well anymore. They couldn't do those things anymore. And so, they were qualified to do stuff in England. And that's where all the educated Nigerians aspired to go to. And that's what happened.

[00:01:13]>> They tricked that That's good trick. I mean, if you think about [clears throat] it, that that's kind of stuff that is I think is so paramount, especially now.

[00:01:19]Like, we we are I mean, if you think about even the way the American culture is, we are so like everything we do is for the empire. You know, or the government. Yeah, right. Like, a lot of us don't know how to farm. Right? A lot of us don't know how to grow our own things. I'm I'm raising my hands cuz I know my wife like she her family comes from a farming background. So, she like to put green thumb. I had to fight her cuz she wants to put tomatoes and this in the back. I'm like, >> Yeah, you need to start doing that.

[00:01:42]>> No, we're on some real >> Yeah, that's what.

[00:01:44]>> Yeah.

[00:01:44]>> You going to need to start growing your things.

[00:01:46]>> Or in a lot of these cities have like they have like farming communities. You can go get some a plot of and go and plant they'll plant stuff for you. And that's what I'm about to do. I'm like, yo, you can go and find places where people are growing their own man. In any city.

[00:02:01]>> Yep.

[00:02:02]>> Yep.

[00:02:03]>> Did your father ever talk about like the British stuff is the best? My father would always say that.

[00:02:08]>> British is way better. It always British. Union Jack and all that stuff.

[00:02:12]>> there was this colonization mindset. You know, they >> Yeah.

[00:02:16]>> The one good thing that the British have been good at and and just the whole colonial the way that they brainwashed the entire planet.

[00:02:26]>> Yeah, it's it's amazing.

[00:02:28]>> Pretty ingenious. Drastically, but ingenious.

[00:02:32]>> [laughter] >> Yeah.

[00:02:33]>> They've colonized us. Our brains to believe and generations it's traveled down generations.

[00:02:39]>> Till today.

[00:02:40]>> Yeah, where we we think our skin is worse because it's darker. You know, this has been passed down.

[00:02:47]>> Yeah, no doubt.

[00:02:47]>> For hundreds of years.

[00:02:49]>> Yeah.

[00:02:50]>> I mean, it's pretty genius.

[00:02:51]>> Do you think they'll overcome to a point where it will stop? Where that that colonization mindset is when it comes to skin color, at some point it's going to end and stop?

[00:03:00]>> No.

[00:03:01]>> No.

[00:03:01]>> Not unless the earth does a hard reset, wipes us all out and we start again from scratch. No, cuz it's going to keep getting passed down and passed down and passed down.

[00:03:10]>> yeah, yeah, no matter what.

[00:03:11]>> And you don't even know what it is. You don't because it's so intrinsic It's so embedded in your DNA that you don't even know. You know, you'll have guys that oh, I've got a preference for light skin women, BUT THEY DON'T KNOW WHY.

[00:03:24]>> YEAH.

[00:03:24]>> And that's basically it's it's embedded in our DNA at this point.

[00:03:27]>> I'm I'm going to tell you this. Love my wife, wife is light skinned, she's, you know, biracial.

[00:03:33]And I know I've heard this from, you know, some family members, I've heard this from friends. People are like, well, how come you didn't, you know, you you didn't date, you know, dark skin woman? And it wasn't until I got older that I used to say what you said, which was oh, this is my preference, this is my preference. But you didn't realize It's like people who are and I don't need to use this, you know, this analogy, but I think it makes sense.

[00:03:54]It's like people who are groomed to do certain things, right? You're just getting groomed, and you think, "Oh, wow." Because everything you watch on television, everything that is, you know, like it's glorified, right? It's that. And you don't realize until you get older, like, "Oh, shoot. Like, I was kind of cornered into this into this subliminal messaging." That's what That's the subconscious No doubt.

[00:04:17]No doubt.

[00:04:26]That's insane. Molecular law, yeah.

[00:04:31]It's in the law. Yeah. And there's a lot of corporations who actually like on my brother was a part of a lawsuit against Abercrombie & Fitch, and he used to work at Abercrombie & Fitch, and he couldn't even wear his hair in cornrows, and he wore it in cornrows, and they ended up firing him, and he went out after Abercrombie and Fitch, and this is where I'm like, "Well, why can't you wear, you know, Mhm.

[00:05:02]Yeah. Of of what And then it's a lot of it being not not being able to do what we do. They have to stop that. We can't twist our hair.

[00:05:11]We can't But then they start doing it.

[00:05:13]Then white women putting big lips on and as in black dudes be like, "Ooh." I go, "But you're a black woman that have that."

[00:05:20]It's It's a sick It's like you said, it's genius brainwashing. And it's subconscious. It's almost like That's why it's very That's why when they say go to therapy and stuff like that, because you literally will do You don't even realize it's subconscious. I heard I heard a my therapist tell me this one time. He said that your subconscious is driven from unresolved issues from the past, and it can be so so far down there that you don't even It's moving you around, and you can't even access it. So, you know, not being able to capture that from the childhood determines your quote-unquote upbringing.

[00:05:56]>> careful what you say all the time because it it just it just re-enforces it.

[00:06:01]>> Yeah, absolutely.

[00:06:01]>> Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to talk to that that move to to the UK cuz your mother and father traveled to the UK.

[00:06:09]>> Yes.

[00:06:09]>> And then your father >> in the UK.

[00:06:11]>> They met Oh, they Oh, they met in the UK.

[00:06:12]>> both traveled to the UK.

[00:06:14]My father was studying for his PhD. My mother was a qualified school principal in Nigeria by the time she was 25. She was a school principal. Very highly educated. She traveled to the UK.

[00:06:26]She was introduced to my father. So, they met in the UK and married and then had us.

[00:06:33]And but once my father was qualified and he was like, well, I want a job in my industry and in England they were like, no, we know you're educated and everything and we did invite you, of course. Yeah, but well, you can sort letters or you can drive a bus. What would you like to do? And my father was like, no, I'm going to be a lawyer. My And my wife is a school principal. But they couldn't get work in their field.

[00:06:52]So, my my father said and at the time I was probably three and my younger brother Dele was 18 months old. So, basically my dad was like and Edwin, my youngest brother, hadn't even been born yet. And so, my dad said, well, let's take the kids and go back to Nigeria.

[00:07:10]But my mom was like, no. My mom was like, no, I we're these kids are British. You know, she had that full British mindset. They're British.

[00:07:18]England is better. My children need to be brought up in England because they will have more opportunities. They'll have that British accent. Their lives will not be limited by being in Nigeria.

[00:07:28]And so, she refused to go. And so, my dad literally went, Okay, then.

[00:07:33]And basically I my I don't think my dad's family liked my mom cuz she already had a child, my older sister, before she met my dad. I don't think they and he'd uh converted from Islam to Christianity to marry my mom.

[00:07:47]>> Oh, wow.

[00:07:48]>> So, I don't think his family liked her.

[00:07:50]And so, his mom was like, "I'm not well.

[00:07:53]Your mother is dying. Come home and care for me." So, my dad was like, "I'm going to go back to Nigeria and look after my mom." And he went back. And his mom never died for another 10 years. But my dad never came back. [laughter] >> Oh, wow.

[00:08:05]>> came back.

[00:08:05]>> Never came back.

[00:08:06]>> Wow.

[00:08:06]>> I He left when I was three. I met him again for the first time when I was 38.

[00:08:10]>> Wow.

[00:08:11]>> So, I never saw him again.

[00:08:12]>> 35 years ago.

[00:08:13]>> Yeah, he left. He left. And um had a whole other family in Nigeria. I've got brothers and sisters that I don't know.

[00:08:19]>> Yeah.

[00:08:19]>> That I met once when I went to Nigeria.

[00:08:21]So, yeah. And so, my mom basically raised us alone. And my mother had to go into hospital alone to have my younger brother.

[00:08:29]So, she never forgave my dad for that.

[00:08:31]Imagine, she went to hospital in the '70s giving birth.

[00:08:35]And all these husbands are coming in with flowers for their wives. And she's in a hospital by herself. Me and Dele had [clears throat] to go into foster care.

[00:08:42]>> What? Temporary?

[00:08:43]>> During that time?

[00:08:44]>> Because she was alone in England. She had nobody.

[00:08:46]>> Wow.

[00:08:47]>> So, when she went into hospital to have my brother, we went into You know, there was um What do they call it? The Uh there was a movie made about it. What about the kids that were put with white foster parents? And some of them never ended up back with their parents. I mean, my mom came back.

[00:09:01]>> No, that's wrong.

[00:09:01]>> No, no. But there was a there was a documentary though, too. We had to watch it.

[00:09:05]>> The documentary.

[00:09:05]>> Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, about the about a Nigerian cuz Nigerians would come to England and they'd find white nannies. Farming, they call it the farming. Yeah, yeah, it was called farming. Remember the movie Farming?

[00:09:16]Yes. The term Damson Idris was in it.

[00:09:18]And it was based on my guy's life uh who was in Us and My Name.

[00:09:23]A A A. Awol Amemba's his initials are A A A. He was in Us, the Nigerian guy who played uh Adebisi in Us.

[00:09:29]>> Oh, that was Oh, that's Awol Amemba.

[00:09:31]>> Yes. So, it was based on his life, Farming. And Damson Idris was in it.

[00:09:35]>> Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw him in an interview talking about that.

[00:09:38]>> Yeah. When Nigerians went to England in the '60s and '70s, educated Nigerians went to England, they often found white nannies to look after the kids. One, because while they were studying and working, they wanted to concentrate on that. And two, it was very much seen as a cachet as a Nigerian to have a white nanny. But they did They weren't proper nannies.

[00:09:59]They would just find white people in newspapers who just said, "Yeah, we'll look after your kids for £4 a month or whatever." And they would just put the >> The randos.

[00:10:08]>> They weren't vetted in any way. They'd just find advert in the newspaper and put their kids with these white families. So, there was a lot of abuse that happened. A lot of terrible things.

[00:10:20]There's a whole documentary about it, and some of these kids were messed up by it. Luckily, the white people that we went to were they loved us as their own kids. In fact, they wanted to adopt us.

[00:10:29]And my mom was like, "No, no, give me Give me back my children."

[00:10:31]>> Yo, yo, yo, it's finally here. We are dropping our lifestyle merch. 154 is here. It's hot.

[00:10:40]Come get it. Bam.

[00:10:44]>> Ain't no place like home.

[00:10:47]Ain't no [music] place like Ain't no place like Ain't no place like home.

[00:10:53]Ain't no place like Ain't no place like Ain't no place like home.