My dad’s worst fear is for us to forget where we come from and get lost in someone else's culture. my dad always says "if you want to brainwash someone, just remove their native language. " Our language (Wolof) is one of the richest things in Senegalese culture. It's easy for me and my sister to speak English to each other because we speak it at school and pretty much everywhere we go. But this can have a big impact on our future, every time we choose to speak English, we lose a piece of our identity. It was difficult for my dad to convince us because I always believed that I can control what to speak but I was wrong. I realized that I started to slowly forget little words like “pots” and “armpit”. My dad gave me the perfect example to change my mind - my cousins can speak their native language no more and they don't know how to conversate with our relatives in Africa anymore. I do not wish for me and my sister to be in that position. From now on we only speak English outside, once we in the house we embrace our loving Wolof language.

– SM

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant