Nearly every West African UAA competitor who is part of the series found their West African identity strengthened by their college experience, though it happened in a myriad of ways. This was consistent whether the person was in their first year at the UAA institution or had already graduated, while a lack of support organizations in the past polarized some away from celebrating their culture in college.
The Exceptions: Years Ago
Although it is common to see West Africans at UAA institutions now, that was not the case in the late 2000s when Uche Ndubizu and Jon Onyiriuka were teammates on the University of Rochester men’s basketball team. They shared a lot in common, both being Nigerian in the same class, and being teammates. Neither believed that college impacted their identity, but that is where the similarity ended as they had very different reasons.
“College did not impact my West African identity. The cultural identity I have has been enforced and reinforced from the time I was born. The major thing that stands out to me is that in times of duress, I can think back to where I come from and all that has been sacrificed by my parents that allows me to be where I am today,” described Ndubizu, whose family came to the U.S. from the Igbo tribe in Nigeria in the 1970s. “I think back to the difficulties they endured both as people of color and as immigrants. Knowing what they have gone through has made some difficult times in my life less difficult.”
Onyiriuka grew up in Corning, New York, which is over 90 percent white with its Black population no greater than 2.6 percent in any census during his lifetime. He was one of two Black students in his grade in a high school of nearly 1,000 students. Onyiriuka’s father moved from Nigeria to the middle of Colorado in the 1970s, while his mother, who is a Black American, grew up in South Carolina.
He admits he spent most of his time with other athletes during his time at Rochester, so he was seen more as fitting in with the predominantly white student-athletes than getting involved in campus groups with people who looked like him. “As I matured, I certainly moved from not fully appreciating my Nigerian heritage to embracing it,” he recognized.
The UAA All-Academic duo (Onyiriuka is also a member of the UAA Men’s Basketball 30th Anniversary Team as one of the Association’s top players ever) graduated in May 2008. That fall marked Ladi Iya’s first season as head coach of the Yellowjackets’ volleyball program. She first came to the U.S. to attend college and by then, had already established a strong Nigerian identity and would eventually play for the Nigerian National Volleyball Team that came within one set of advancing to the Olympics.
“Going to a PWI (predominantly white institution) for college (University of Evansville) was interesting because there were so many questions, mostly harmless, about my heritage,” Iya recollected. “It was fun to teach people about being Nigerian and how white Americans in Nigeria were very different from the white Americans I encountered at school. It was also the first time I had interacted with Black Americans and learned more about their history in the U.S. as I had only learned about that history and African history through a white-lensed American history at school. All my life experiences thus far have made me proud of who I am both as a Nigerian and a human. I still identify as Nigerian even though I have my U.S. citizenship.”
Diversity Before College
Adedamola “Damola” Orimolade was accustomed to being around Nigerians before college, so arriving on the Carnegie Mellon campus in the fall of 2015 to study international relations and politics, and to play football, was a major change for him. “I grew up in communities that generally had a lot more West Africans and more specifically, Nigerians, and I went to a predominantly Nigerian church. Prior to college, I never thought too hard about my Nigerian identity. I always knew it was a part of me, but I never really considered its importance,” he admitted. “I think getting to college and being around people from other cultures provided me my first opportunity to really reflect on what it means to be from Nigeria. Maybe there was also a little bit of ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ where being away from my family and friends who shared my culture made me appreciate it more.”
Temilade Adekoya had a similar culture shock to Orimolade when she arrived on the UChicago campus in 2018. “College definitely solidified my Nigerian identity, as going from a pretty diverse high school to a predominantly white institution made me hold on tight to my identity,” she recalled. “Especially being on a predominantly white (volleyball) team, it was hard for me to find spaces with students who looked like me. When I did eventually find those places and those people, I was able to form a home away from home (which she admitted wasn’t that far anyway since she grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago). Ultimately, I found how important it was to be able to find a community in which my experiences as a Nigerian American were not extremely unheard of.”
Brandeis University freshman Nana Kudom hopes to find that same sense of community that Adekoya did. “Coming to college has brought me closer to my African roots. There isn’t much to connect me back to those roots, so I stay close,” he acknowledged.
Emory University freshman track & field student-athlete Kofi Igyan has already found college to further enhance opportunities to be around people with similar backgrounds. “My college experience has led me to meet others of West African identity. I have been in school communities with a wide diversity of people because of its boarding nature, but I think Emory has done a great job in bringing together people from different origins within Africa like Nigeria, Ghana, and Ivory Coast. This has only strengthened my identity as a Ghanian, being able to relate to, and share my experiences of, being of West African origin,” he described.
2023 Carnegie Mellon graduate Ola Owudunni credited an extracurricular activity for bringing her closer to her Nigerian identity. “As you get older, you learn to love your identities more and more, or at least that is the case for me. I think when we are little, there are a lot of negative stigmas about certain cultures, including African cultures. I started to get more in tune with my identity by joining the West African dance group in high school,” she remembered. “Then in college, it was fun bonding with other Nigerians about how we grew up, our families, etc. I think you learn that your identity not only gives you access to various aspects of life, but it also adds another interesting layer to you.”
University Organizations Strengthening West African Identity
Soccer student-athlete Jaden Emoghene of Emory and track & field student-athlete Gabe Eribo of UChicago have already benefited in their first year at their UAA institution. “I grew up going to PWI schools, so I was not able to truly express my culture the way I wanted to,” Emoghene described. “Coming to Emory, I have been opened to more opportunities to express my culture with people around me.”
Eribo grew up in Ohio without many Nigerians or West Africans nearby. “Joining the Nigerian Students Association and the Black Organization of Students has made me comfortable in my West African identity. Attending events hosted by these two organizations is always a great time.”
Eribo’s junior teammate Jason Asare has had the same experience with other groups. “I have joined a number of Black student organizations, including the Black Letterwinning Athletes Coalition (BLAC) and BLK Capital Management. Through these clubs, I am able to collaborate with other Black students who can relate to me on a very personal level, as we all share similar experiences as minority students on our campuses,” he commented. “Moreover, the ability to interact with other Black students has contributed to my appreciation for my West African identity as we are able to bond over our African backgrounds and unique cultural traditions.”
Former Washington University track & field teammates Eka Jose and Abayomi Awoyomi were both encouraged when they found other students of African descent on campus. “Experiencing greater diversity at WashU than I’d grown up around certainly made me more inclined to share my culture. I have always been proud of being Nigerian, but having organizations like the African Student Association was exciting because I could share what I’ve always known and experienced with others,” Jose recalled.
“Being at WashU made me prouder of my identity. At an institution where most people do not look like me, I was happy to find that among the Black community, there were a lot of West Africans and a big percentage of them were Nigerian. Sharing my culture with my fellow people as well as others outside of the community constantly reinforced my love for who I am,” Awoyomi expressed.
Brandeis graduate Doyin Ogundiran also found a campus group that enhanced her college experience. “I was part of the Black African Student Organization. That allowed me to meet other students not only from West Africa, but from countries across the continent,” she recollected. “I enjoyed attending meetings and developed a solidarity with the other students there. Despite our different cultural upbringings, we all shared a common thread in being African. It also made me come to realize that many of our experiences were not unique to just us.”
CWRU sophomore Elizabeth Onyekwere has appreciated the combination of her sport (volleyball) and campus organizations. “It was challenging to adjust to college life in a new state, yet this transition has ultimately strengthened my sense of identity. I found a sense of belonging among my teammates, both Nigerian and non-Nigerian alike, thanks to the inclusive environment that encourages the expression of diverse cultures,” she described. “Additionally, being on the executive board of the Black Letterwinning Athlete Coalition (BLAC) and the presence of other organizations such as the Nigerian Student Association further reinforce this sense of community and identity.”
Reinforcing West African Pride in Meeting Others
WashU senior Chidera Nwokolo, whose plans include attending medical school, has relished the opportunities provided by being around others with similar conventions as well as those with different ones. “College has helped me bond with others of the same, or at least similar, backgrounds. It is also a place where many people don’t know a lot about my culture and I can educate them about my background,” he stated.
For 2021 Brandeis graduate Akim Sanni, attending college allowed him to be true to his identity, while simultaneously allowing him to gain an understanding of how his experiences made him different from those in both countries he has lived. He was born in Benin and came to the U.S. in 2013 as a freshman in high school. “My college experience made me more of a hybrid,” he defined himself. “It made it more apparent in what areas I can benefit my African community, while learning how being able to decipher certain things sometimes distances me from both Americans and Africans.”
CWRU sophomore Amanda Ngo came to realize how people with much different backgrounds than hers shared many of her same values. “The people I surround myself with are people who share similar values, while also having passions and goals outside of academics. That itself shows what values I look for in myself and others,” she remarked. “I often find myself looking for a sort of community on campus that reminds me of my African foundations. I think I’ve found/built this in my friendships, which are a melting pot community of similar values and passions that we share without losing our individuality.”
Junior Spartan Kwabena Agyemang’s experiences in and out of academic settings have consistently led him back to his core value, family. “The personal struggles I have experienced in my life have made the importance of family more evident than ever before. I remember he said something along the lines of ‘Friends come and go, but family is forever,’” he pointed out.
UChicago freshman Titobililuwa Akenroye has already learned early in his college career to broaden his horizons. “I’ve often been told, ‘Everything that’s worth doing is worth doing well’ from an academic and educational perspective, but in college I’m starting to expand this value to other aspects of my life,” he expounded. “I now have access to such a large network and resources, and I have even higher expectations for myself and in my pursuits. The drive to put 100 percent into everything I do has grown larger than educational prowess and now encapsulates the academic, athletic, professional, and social components of my life.”
Senior Kenya Sei is fortunate where he lives to know others with the same ethnic origin but has found a wider array of Africans at Emory. “College was nice because there is a larger African community in Atlanta than my hometown of Portland, Oregon. There are a lot of Sierra Leonians in Portland, but few Africans outside of that community,” he described. “I have been able to gain access to a lot more parts of Africa in the past couple of years.”
Nigerian-born Pekky Nzegbuna of CWRU and Emmanuel Onuama of NYU have each found that their college experience has only increased their love and pride of their heritage. “Being in rooms where I am the only one from the other side of the world, or the only one with experiences that may seem peculiar compared to the mundane American life, has only solidified my West African identity,” Nzegbuna communicated. “Interactions with people from other countries also made my identity stronger. Just being able to ‘brag’ about the things we’ve accomplished in and out of the country is an amazing feeling.”
Having the opportunity to meet others of West African descent already in his first year in college has been beneficial to Rochester men’s basketball student-athlete Bernard Dushie, Jr. “It has helped me connect with amazing people with similar backgrounds,” he noted.
“My college experiences have allowed me to learn so much about the rest of the world, which has only reinforced the love and gratitude I have for my Nigerian identity. I’ve seen how awesome other places are, but in my mind, nothing compares to Nigeria and there is nowhere else I would rather call home,” Onuama asserted.