The title of this post should have been a year in review, but there’s hardly any passion that was explored. It was an unprecedented year of reflection for me in every areas of my life and a total shift from my comfort zone.
In 2020, I learnt the true meaning of freedom and how it Influences our choices. As someone that really enjoys spending time alone, you would imagine that I would be totally fine with the lock down but that wasn’t the case, I felt my choices were limited. All of a sudden, I hated being alone. Deep down in my heart that I knew I didn’t hate it, what I despised was the restriction it posed on how I lived my life.
As much as 2020 seem to be a year of uncertainties, It was truly a blessing in disguise, I spent most of the year soaking up knowledge and studying, I was able to complete some of the major professional courses in my career that I have put on hold for the longest time. I took risks that I wouldn’t take normally and damned the consequences, only then I realised how much I would have become if i did that more often.
It’s was an overwhelming year, everyone was forced to develop a continuity plan to survive. 2020 goes down in history as the year we black people came together all over the world to combat racism, we shared our racism experience and spoke loudly about it. Racism isn’t new but the George Floyd incident reiterated the extent at which racism impacts the world we live in and how if affect black people. For days, I lost sleep thinking about how wicked the heart of a man could be, I tried to think of what goes on in the minds of white supremacist, till date I have no answers.
I was angry, disgusted and furious. With every racism story I read, I became angrier, these stories are not new, In fact, it’s what I experience on a daily basis by just exiting as a black woman. In a nutshell, being a black woman means your achievement is questioned, you would have to work twice as hard to be recognised, you are at the receiving end of ignorance and stupidity et cetera because I wouldn’t want to lose more of my brain cells thinking about it. I have developed a tough skin that I don’t even recognise it anymore and whenever I sense it, I point it out immediately or just be extra kind if it’s a situation that may have an impact on my life.
All I need to say is if you think you are superior to another human just because of the colour of your skin, then you have a lot of learning to do because it’s pure ignorance and it’s embarrassing considering the amount of free resources available for education.
We haven’t even had a break from the #blacklivesmatter movement before #Endsars began in Nigeria where the leaders started killing citizens because they were protesting to live freely. A lot things are actually wrong with the country but this time the youth were just pleading with the government to disband the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) because they were abusing, stealing and killing citizens based on mere profiling, the government responded with more brutality. It was sickening, disgusting and shameful. We all came together to amplify our voices and voluntarily donated to the cause. Unfortunately, It was not completely resolved as we needed to put safety first.
As you would have imagined, by now I must be tired from fighting racism, patriarchy and injustice and would need some getaway. Here are some pictures of the trip I managed to take (while keeping safe) not for pleasure this time but for my sanity.








