Marina Addams is the daughter of two Nigerian immigrants. Her parents immigrated in the 1980s and raised her in a home shaped by Nigerian culture, while Marina was “the one bringing what it means to be American back home.” She remembers asking what they were doing for Thanksgiving after hearing about it at school. Her parents responded, “I guess you could tell us,” since they didn’t know what it was. Marina cites Nigerian food as one of her closest ties to her culture. However, she was never taught to speak Yoruba. She believes this reflected her parents’ desire to protect their children from biases they had experienced over their accents in America.

Marina visited Nigeria only twice. As a child, she was excited to recognize the food she knew from home, but she also remembers recognizing there were things she said or did that showed she was an American.

Marina was 11 when she moved from Chicago to Upstate New York. There were little to no Nigerians around her, limiting her relationships with other Nigerians and creating a distance from her Nigerian heritage that she recognizes today.

Now living in New York City since 2014, Marina appreciates its diversity and wants to connect more with her heritage by learning Yoruba, cooking more Nigerian food, and bringing Nigerian traditions into her wedding. She does not often seek out NYC’s Nigerian community, an instinct she believes was formed by her isolation growing up, but wants to make a more active effort to do so.

The object Marina chose is a gele she wore to her cousin’s wedding, a celebration of her Nigerian and Yoruba heritage. 

– Simone Oduola

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant