Abi begins by talking about her mixed heritage – half white British on her mother’s side and half Nigerian on her father’s, being born in London and growing up for the first nine years of her life in the capital city.
She talks about her first school, its incredible headmistress, that it was a really mixed school with good resources to enable every child to have a fair chance and her positive memories of it.
Then at nine her mother, after consulting the family, makes the move to Ilfracombe. Gradually over time Abi loses touch with her family in London, aside from her father.
She becomes aware of a very different environment in Devon. She moves from having been ‘one of many in London and one of the only in Devon’.
Being one of only has helped her develop a thick skin.
She became aware of looking different and the colour of her skin for the first time.
At one point she was bullied at school.
‘Obviously those incidents are isolated incidents that don’t reflect on the vast, vast majority of people. You always remember the bad stuff more than the good’.
She says being a teenager in Devon and Ilfracombe ‘was actually a really nice experience.’ There was a sense of it being a relatively safe area which allowed a freedom she probably would not have experienced in London.
Abi talks about leaving Ilfracombe to move to Bristol to do her Bachelors Degree in History and then moving back again during Covid to be closer to her mother and completing her Masters Degree.
She discusses culture and identity and the impact on her of Black Lives Matter and George Floyd.
She talks of her love of storytelling and organising tabletop Role-Playing Games (RPGs)
Listen to highlights from Abi’s interview below:
Early life in London || Not really noticing ethnicity [00:00:00 – 00:04:37]
Moving to Ilfracombe at 9 || Feeling isolated || Describing a few negative experiences [00:04:38 – 00:13:03]
Loving Devon || Positive experiences [00:13:04 – 00:14:18]
Identity || Defensiveness || BLM and vulnerability [00:14:19 – 00:22:04]