never ic3
A personal meditation on Black identity, skin colour and the language we use to describe race, moving between Manchester, Ashanti and family memory.
“Shechorah שְׁחוֹרָה (dark, sun-blackened) am I, yet lovely…” — Song of Solomon
never ic3 —
proud and black,
in fact,
it seems to me
definitively brown:
the colour of cocoa beans
grown in Ashanti.
yesterday my niece
called a Nigerian “blick” —
that’s when you
get real bun by the sun.
in Manchester’s
glorious summers
i get bun up,
but never so blick;
more like
dark bournville
chocolate.
Back to Identity, Self & Fragmentation
More from the archive:
Homecoming, Identity and Belonging
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wish you best and best