African beauty

Chapter 1: Innocence

My name is Erica Olufemi, although I'm sure you know that already. I'm 17, 5'2, dark-skinned and about 150 pounds (just so you have a clear picture on how I look) and I just transferred to sixth form from Lagos, Nigeria, all the way to east London, England. I am in my last year, year 13. I must admit, I do miss my friends. It's hard making friends here, and the hostility and hatred in these uncultured teenagers can be smelt from more than a mile away. My dad had to move here to further his work, and I believe he called it "cross posting", but I'm not too sure. Anyway, moving away from my dad, because that is literally all I know about him and all he talks about; his work. He doesn't really talk to me that often, and when he does, he's either asking me to make him eba and egusi, bickering on how of a failure I am because I got 60% on a university level exam, or talking about his work, like I said earlier. He's not a people person either, and tries to force me to be just like him. I talk to my mother a lot more, she's really a blessing, to say the least, but she can be extremely irritating, especially for irrational and unnecessary issues, like for instance, she screamed at me for listening to an R&B song, and said I am derailing from the lord. I didn't talk to her for a week because of that. But overall I love her, and we are a lot closer than me and my father.

Either way, I now have to fit in and try to make friends in a school where parents give their children presents for finally losing their virginity, and actually talk to them about sex and condoms. I can't even imagine my mother telling me to use a condom. Because God forbid you ever want to have sex for pleasure and not just to bear children that will " serve the lord". My mother even hypothetically suggested I have my clitoris cut off, as this will magically bring me closer to the lord, because I have nothing to pleasure myself. I've never even seen a full view of my vagina, because when I look at it I just feel dirty and ungodly. Oh my, I digress way too much. I went to the school just for a tour, and for them to tell me how extraordinary and loving their students are, while breaking up a fight between two girls fighting over a boy with tattoos all over his body, looking like this was his 5th year repeating year 13. In Nigeria, girls can definitely be bitter, but over there we fight over men with ambition and expertise, and definitely not a boy who looked like he would live to be 50 with no money or job. Regardless, I enjoyed the tour, and the school itself was very attractive, from the outside, that is. On the inside, the students polluted its beauty with their negative aura. I had to love the school either way, as it was supposedly the best school in east London, with the school, Hailshaw college, going up a place every year in the London college league tables, even though to me I feel like that was all they had, and there was no love or bond between the students like my old school in Lekki.

Tomorrow is going to be my first official day, and hopefully I won't have to fight anybody or eat alone in the bathroom stall (which was sparkling clean) like I see in the movies. Fingers crossed there will be another Nigerian girl or atleast an African girl with love for her kind.