In the vast sea of human experience, those who straddle multiple cultures often find themselves as both actor and translator, continually interpreting the script of their heritage for a diverse audience. For us, children of Nigerian immigrants in America, this intricate dance between heritage and contemporary life has been both a challenge and a source of profound creativity. Our story is one of cultural alchemy, where ancient wisdom meets modern art, and where the hyphen in our identity becomes not a divider, but a bridge.
As first-generation Americans with Nigerian roots, our lives have been a constant navigation between seemingly disparate worlds. Our parents, born in Nigeria but educated in international schools alongside students from varied nationalities, arrived in the United States carrying a kaleidoscope of cultural influences. With our father's Edo roots from Northern Nigeria and our mother's Yoruba heritage from Lagos, they found themselves raising children in culturally homogeneous, predominantly white neighborhoods. This juxtaposition manifested in our daily lives: family dinners were a fusion of jollof rice and club sandwiches, while our conversations seamlessly blended Nigerian aphorisms with American slang
This rich tapestry of identity, however, came with its own distinct set of challenges. In the bustling hallways of our primary and secondary schools, where faces rarely reflected our own heritage, we often felt caught between spheres – not quite fitting the mold of our classmates' backgrounds, yet distant from our Nigerian roots. Among our African American peers, we felt the weight of a different historical narrative. At family gatherings, our unfamiliarity with certain customs placed us in a sort of limbo—neither fully considered "outsiders" nor entirely "insiders." We existed in the spaces between cultures, a living embodiment of the hyphen in Nigerian-American.
Nevertheless, it is in this liminal space that the seed of Proverbial Forms was planted. Proverbial Forms began as a whisper of an idea: What if we could bridge the gap between our ancestral wisdom and our contemporary lives? What if we could take the proverbs that echoed in our memories—brief, poignant capsules of generational knowledge—and reimagine them through the lens of contemporary art?
Our journey with Proverbial Forms has been more than an artistic endeavor; it's been a profound exploration of identity and belonging. Each proverb we select, each piece of art we create, is a thread connecting us to a heritage that often felt just out of reach. We've delved into the wisdom of our heritage, unearthing nuggets of insight that resonate across cultures and generations.
As we immerse ourselves in this project, we find the impact reverberating through our personal lives, reshaping our understanding of our cultural roots. With each proverb explored and each piece of art created, a collective journey unfolds. Nevertheless, Proverbial Forms is bigger than us.
As the project grows, set to include works from both first-generation artists and those living in the homeland, we are reminded of the universality of our experience. Hence, Proverbial Forms seeks to become a testament to the power of cultural expression, a bridge not just between our past and present, but between all those who have ever felt caught between worlds.
In a society that often demands we choose a single identity, Proverbial Forms stands as a celebration of multiplicity. It's a reminder that our strength lies not in fitting neatly into one category, but in our ability to synthesize diverse influences into something uniquely beautiful.
As we reflect on the first chapter, we are grateful for how far we've come from those childhood days of feeling not quite here, not quite there. Through art, we've found a way to be fully present in all aspects of our identity. Our aim is to transform the hyphen in terms like "Nigerian-American" from a divider into a bridge, spanning continents, generations, and cultures – not just for ourselves, but for all who engage with this ongoing project.
This transformative journey reminds us of another Yoruba proverb: "Irin ajo ni yio so itan" — "It is the journey that will tell the story." Indeed, our adventure with Proverbial Forms is far from over, but already it has revealed so much about who we are, where we come from, and where we might go. As we continue to explore, create, and connect, we invite others to join us on this path of discovery, adding their own marks to our collective canvas, one proverb at a time.