Ina, fairly typical. I don't know that she ever thought she would stay. There were many of her generation that just thought they were there for a while. They didn't really think they were going to stay for very long and go back at some point. She learned once she met my dad, and he was not what she expected,. But she also learned accidentally, because west indians and west africans in general didn't spend a whole lot of time with each other due to prejudice. So that's the magic behind how they came together when they landed in west africa.
Born in the short-lived West African country of Biafra, Louis Chude-Sokei and his mom fled the country during the war that would take the life of his father, a figure of such great reverence in the country that it would create a set of expectations about who Louis was and should be that would follow him well into his adult life. Landing first in Jamaica, where his mother was from, then eventually making their way through DC, to LA, he spent his life, as the line from the Bowie song, Space Oddity, goes, “floating in a most peculiar way.”
That song, in fact, has been a bit of a lifelong obsession for Louis, along with Bowie and his music and, in fact, it’s the name of his moving new memoir, Floating in a Most Peculiar Way (https://amzn.to/36NqRZh), his evolving exploration of everything from identity and race to science fiction and music. Louis is now Professor of English at Boston University where he directs the African American Studies Program. He is also the author of influential and award-winning scholarly work and his writing appears in national and international venues, and he is the Editor in Chief of The Black Scholar, the premier journal of Black Studies in America.
You can find Louis Chude-Sokei at:
Website : https://www.bu.edu/afam/profile/louis-chude-sokei/
-------------
Have you discovered your Sparketype yet? Take the Sparketype Assessment™ now. IT’S FREE (https://sparketype.com/) and takes about 7-minutes to complete. At a minimum, it’ll open your eyes in a big way. It also just might change your life.
If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend. Thank you to our super cool brand partners. If you like the show, please support them - they help make the podcast possible.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.