Meloseri was born in the U.S. and moved back to Nigeria when she was five. She was “always online growing up,” so she knew about opportunities in America. As a U.S. citizen, she believed she should “also be privy to the opportunities that are to be had here.” Five years ago, she returned to the U.S. to study.

Growing up with Nigerian parents, Melo ate Nigerian food and embraced Nigerian culture, but was not aware that her background was different from her peers. Race was not something she had to face; she just knew she was Black. Because she was young when she moved to Nigeria, “there was not much identity that could be bestowed,” so she “just embraced everything.” In Nigeria, she was sometimes treated differently because she was born in America, though she attended school with others who were also born elsewhere.

Returning to America was harder. The transition was “jarring,” as some Nigerians viewed her as “the village girl from Nigeria,” which “was never my reality.” She first lived in Texas, then Indiana and NJ, before settling in NYC, where she was born. Indiana was “not the best experience, in terms of race,” while she enjoys NY because it is “just a chill place.” Melo wants to someday return to Nigeria, citing what she does is for "the children of Africa."

Despite not cultivating Nigerian culture every day, Melo does not feel distant from her Nigerian identity. She “goes by blood”: because her parents are Nigerian, that is what she is. Her Ankara fan from Ghana reminds her of “diasporic unity” and “my continent…not only my country,” symbolizing “existing in multitudes.”

– Simone Oduola

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