So I decided to move to Ghana from London in 2008. Born and raised on the East side of London/South side of Essex to Ghanaian parents, I decided to see what it was like living on this side of the world. You see, as a child of Ghanaian parents if you don’t take the time to understand your culture, you could easily become confused. For 30 years I have had to listen to my mum tell me that I can’t go out clubbing and I should read my books because “that’s the Ghanaian way”, I had to wake up early and clean the house, and make sure I could cook all the Ghanaian dishes because “that’s how to be a good Ghanaian wife”, i couldn’t wear short skirts because that’s not how a Ghanaian girl should dress, however we were not taught the language, why……because she didn’t want us to have an African accent, because in terms of  language, schools, housing and jobs, and pound sterling….West is Best.

So I lived most of my life not knowing when to be a “Ghanaian” or when to be “British”, so at the age of 31, when all my peers had done the whole gap year thing and had settled down in a good job, married, had a couple of kids….I decided to go and ‘find myself’ so to speak.

Better late than never.

It was an easy jump to do, I was in a job that I wasn’t really to keen on and had come out of a 6 year relationship which I wasn’t about to wait until the 7th to realize that it wasn’t going nowhere, so I thought, hell, why not. I bought a ticket and have been ‘searching’ for myself ever since.

It’s been an interesting journey, I am learning a lot about myself, good and the bad, but the most important thing is that I am now in a place where I embrace both my Ghanaian and British cultures. You see, when I was younger I was trying to run away from the Ghanaian side, all my friends were English, I was the only black in the crowd but I wasn’t happy. Then I became Ghanaian, hang out at the Ghanaian restaurants, most of my friends were Ghanaian or of African descent, only dated Ghanaian men, and still I wasn’t happy. But now I am here in the motherland I am able to work both cultures in my favour. It’s not always easy and me who was always the quiet person in the crowd is seen as the plain talking rebel, but I am being me….and for the first time in my life I am happy within myself.

But you know there are still some things that frustrate me….and boy have I got a lot of frustrations. So if you end up following my blog….brace yourself….hope you life and cry as much as I have….but I also hope that you enjoy….

So until the next time….