Black is King Discussion: Beyonce is a Witch?

Heyy guys! I hope you’re doing well and excited to chat with me on this hot topic. I watched Black is King last month and thoroughly enjoyed it. As descibed on Disneyplus.com, ‘The visual album for Beyonce reimagines the lessons of Lion King for today’s young kings and queens in search of their own crowns.’ It is the visual for Lion King: The Gift Album released in 2019.

It is an amazing work of art and watching it was the first time I have seen an American artist portray ancient and modern African religions and cultures on a global scale. The visuals, cinematography, outfits, hairstyles, African locations, choreography, featured artists were all ON POINT. What didn’t Beyonce give us in this? Songs like Bigger and Brown Skin Girl made me shed tears as they are empowering to marginalised people around the world. Especially young brown skin girls, who have grown up without love for the colour of their skin.

So you can imagine my surprise when the morning after I watched it, the narrative around this beautiful visual had been lost. Instead, it had shifted to discussions around Spirituality amongst Christians (mostly Nigerians) on my timeline. I started seeing posts like ‘Beyonce is a witch’, ‘Black is King is demonic’… and I was confused. This is the same film I watched and acknowledged that Beyonce did showcase elements of ancient Yoruba religion (like in the visual for Bigger), but no harm was done.

An Encouraging Letter to the Graduating Class of 2020

Congratulations Class of 2020!! You are so worthy of being celebrated, you made IT! A special shoutout to my girlfriends (Ekemini, Evi, and Joy), I love you ❤️. I know this is not how you imagined your graduation would be all those years ago. Your family and friends were meant to have flown into your city from across the globe, flowers in hand, camera ready smiles on their faces, excited to celebrate YOU.

Nonetheless, you are graduating during a unique time and you have a STORY for the ages. The next generation will be in awe of your strength as you graduate virtually, during a global pandemic. Those sleepless nights of you worrying if this day would ever come, late nights at the library, the unpaid internships, and stressful group projects have finally paid off. And although you might not know exactly what your next steps are, I want you to take the next week off to relax and bask in your accomplishment.

10 Christian Declarations During Uncertain Times

Humans are roller coasters of emotions on a regular and the current crisis is not helping our anxious and fearful hearts. That’s why I have chosen not to let my emotions rule my life. I’m choosing instead to put my trust and hope in God who never changes and whose words are eternal. I’m choosing to pray and declare His truth over my life and the world. Since I know many of us may be struggling with praying in this season, I have compiled some Declarations for a time like this. These prayers are personal and global, as they speak to individual hearts and cooperate needs. So, speak these words over and over until you feel the atmosphere change. Until your spirit aches so much that you can’t help but pray. Some of these are bible verses, while others are things that I feel in the depth of my heart to believe for.

Here’s My Life Update before the World Ends

Hi Friend,

You didn’t think I was done blogging, did you? I hope not because I could never. However, I took a major (way too long) break and haven’t written a blog post since December 2018. This was while I was studying abroad and a lot has happened since then, like your girl graduated from University! So, before I continue, let me tell you that you can now refer to me as ‘BIG FISH’ 😂.

Since the world is ending and COVID19 (corona virus) is taking over, I thought now was the perfect time to end my one year blogging hiatus and say hi to my virtual friends. It’s been on my mind to write a post for a long time now and I wish I could tell you why I stopped writing, but I have no good excuse.

Eeerrr.. actually, that is a lie. I know exactly why I stopped writing and it’s because I let anxiety and fear rule my life in 2019. You know when something tragic happens to your favorite celebrity and they go off they the grid for sometime, that was kind of the case. Not saying I’m a celebrity or even close, but I can relate to why it’s difficult for people to be creative when they’re in a funk. They can’t do anything motivating since they’re feeling anything but inspired, and that’s how I was.

Birthday Post: 20 things I’m ‘Grapeful’ For

I saw this shirt this past summer and I got it because I like the play on the word ‘grateful’. It’s December now and when I look back on how much of a ride it has been since summer, I can’t help but express gratitude. I started writing this post months ago, reminding myself of things I’m grateful for on separate occasions, and taking notes. Although, there are more than twenty things to be grateful for, I share the twenty reasons that came to mind. Life is not always rosy, but gratitude helps you believe as I have learnt. I hope you are encouraged by this and remember to be ‘Grapeful’ today.

Study Abroad in Italy: I can’t believe it’s been 3 Months

I’m currently typing this while in class. I know, I’m a horrible student but if I don’t type this up now, I don’t know when I’ll have the time to. School is almost over as we have only three weeks left, so work is piling up as final projects and exams are due. Amidst all these, I remember that I have been here for three months and a week now. My study abroad experience will be over in less than a month and I’m crying. It is crazy to me how quickly time flies by, like how did 3 months fly past?

Study Abroad in Italy: School trip to Lisbon, Portugal

Hello beautiful,

Thank you so much for keeping up with me. I hope you are enjoying these almost weekly updates of my study abroad experience. Let me know by leaving a comment below after reading. Love you and let’s get into it.

Milan, Italy

Slight Backtrack: After my weekend trip to Barcelona, I had Midterm break and did a tour of Northern Italy that week. I was in a different city every day including, Verona, Milan, Venice, Lake Garda, and Florence. I was going to write a blog post on this week but it is too much to write about. If you are interested in what I was up to, check out my story highlights on Instagram. You’ll see posts of each city I visited. The most important thing you need to know about the week was that I had an awesome time exploring Northern Italy. Each city is unique and it felt like I was in a different country everyday.

Study Abroad in Italy: Weekend Trip to Barcelona, Spain

Hey there,

I’m sorry this post is coming three weeks late, I can be such a lazy hot mess but we thank God, it is now here hahaa. The events in this post occurred during the weekend of October 13th, 2018. Thou shall not judge me for uploading it now.

Mid term exam week was even more stressful than I imagined, but we are not even going to talk about that. This post is all things Cheetah Girls 2 without the cheetah prints and singing, aka Girls Trip to Barcelona, Spain!!!

Study Abroad in Italy- Staring and Racism (My Personal Experiences)

Hi beautiful,

I hope the title of this post doesn’t scare you, I’m just trying to be honest in sharing everything I’m experiencing during my time in Italy. Remember when I said I hadn’t experienced anything ugly in this post, well, that has changed now, hence the reason for this post.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

Study Abroad in Rome, Italy (Weeks 5 and 6)

Hey there!

My previous post ended with me telling you about my fun weekend in Salerno/Almafi Coast. As promised, this post is a continuation of my weekly posts. After the weekend, it was back to school for me, which meant nothing that exciting happened, except the Wine tasting class organized by my school on Wednesday night. The class taught us basic etiquette for tasting and identifying different types of wine. Can you guess what the best part of the class was? Drinking the wine of course.