For 19 years, writer Ifeanyi Awachie had a difficult time answering a simple question: “Where are you from?”
Born in Nigeria, and raised in California and Georgia, Ifeanyi still felt none of those locations seemed like an appropriate response. It wasn’t until her first trip back to Nigeria for a Yale summer fellowship in 2013 that Awachie was able to start piecing one together.
Published earlier this summer, Awachie’s photodocumentary ebook “Summer in Igboland” is filled with similarly revealing moments and steeped in nuanced recollections and vivid images of family, food, hair and music. Dance also plays a big role in the author’s self-identification process. Certain snapshots buoy to the surface, like that of the author’s newfound love of fufu, while others plunge to bittersweet depths.
Selfie La Nueva Hotel Enugu, Enugu State, July 25th, 2013 (Photo Ifeanyi Awachie)
View from the Back of an Okada, Onitsha Main Market, Onitsha, Anambra State, July 27th, 2013 (Photo Ifeanyi Awachie)
This Is Your House, inside my late grandfather’s compound, Umunnachi, Anambra State, July 28th, 2013 (Photo Ifeanyi Awachie)
In a chapter titled “Rhythm Is Genetic,” she writes:
“We head to the club, Orange Room on Bisala Road, for a night of dancing. On the drive over, I get nervous. I can dance—in the States, I’m always in the center of the dancefloor, usually surrounded by non-black friends who copy my moves—but I’m in Africa right now, the birthplace of rhythm. I dance hesitantly, expecting everyone at the club to bust effortlessly superior moves, but the DJ plays hip hop, and the other clubbers are decent dancers, but I’m the expert. When it gets late and the set shifts to afrobeat, I feel confident enough to summon up the dance moves I know from Nigerian community parties in Atlanta and invent more. “Where did you learn to dance?” one of Nkem’s friends asks me, bending close to be heard above an azonto track. He means that I couldn’t have learned to dance like a Nigerian in America, but I haven’t lived in Nigeria long enough to learn here, either. I could yell what I suspect, which is that rhythm is genetic, but instead I shrug, happy that my moves speak for themselves.”
Bush Bar Bush House, Nza Street Enugu, Enugu State, July 12th, 2013 (Photo Ifeanyi Awachie)
Nigerian Mansion II Private home, Lekki Lagos, Lagos State, July 18th, 2013 (Photo Ifeanyi Awachie)
Evening Commute Taxi in traffic, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, August 4th, 2013 (Photo Ifeanyi Awachie)
First-generation children with immediate roots in Africa, the Caribbean or Latin America will definitely relate to certain aspects of the story throughout this diary-travel blog hybrid. At the same time, Awachie wants both Nigerian locals and non-Nigerian audiences to read Summer in Igboland and gain a new appreciation for the West African nation through the eyes of an adventurous, passionate traveler.
“Before the trip, Nigeria was a dim set of associations in my mind: my parent’s stories of their childhood, highlife cassette tapes, dated images from Google searches, negative news headlines, the taste of rice and stew,” Awachie writes in the book. “Going back gave me vivid experiences to call part of my life, to draw from when I talk about the country, my identity, what kinds of people I come from, and the roots of why I do what I do.”
Head over to Ifeanyi Awachie’s website for access to “Summer in Igboland”, now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Google Play and Kobo.