Photography: Carolina Lima

JOURNEY

I came to London on holiday, I was probably in my very late teens, sort of 19-20-ish. I had been living in Denmark for 7 years, and came to London and just fell in love with London, partly because people spoke English and also because it was so mixed culturally.

I finished my bachelor’s degree, and decided I was going to come here for six months but I decided to stay on thinking I’d stay on for another year. And that is now 25 years ago.

I’m half Danish, half Nigerian, I was born in Denmark, moved to Nigeria, when I was three – obviously that was my parents so that wasn’t my choice. And then as a teenager at age 16, I moved back to Denmark, which I wanted to do, but it still was something that my dad had to help me to do, so it wasn’t quite my choice, I guess. But moving to the UK was, and in the 25 years that I’ve lived here, I moved to Hong Kong at some point and live there for a year. And then I moved to China and lived for a year and a half before coming back to the UK. And this was in the period of 2011 to 2013.

BELONGING

Being half Danish, half Nigerian, and having lived in both countries, I do feel that I’m both of those, I belong to both places. Because I was immersed in the culture, I spoke the language, ate the foods, danced to the music, had family and so on. I don’t feel like I belong to one or the other.

With the UK, the UK is now the place I have lived longest in my life. I’ve almost lived twice as long in the UK as anywhere else. But I don’t feel British, I still don’t feel British. I used to go to Denmark quite often, when I first came and after I’d been in Denmark for a few days, I would actually miss the UK or miss London and so it was my home in that way, in that sense that when I was away, I’d come back and feel like I’d come home. But when I’m here, I don’t really feel like it’s my home in a funny way.

Not necessarily because I feel like I belong but because I see so many other people 

I mean, I live here and I have my home here, but I guess because I’m not English or British, I don’t feel like I belong in that way. Although, having lived so long here as an adult, I struggle with some things when I go back especially to Denmark, but also to Nigeria. Because London has its pros and its cons. It being multicultural, it can cater to both of my cultures, so I can find a sort of European culture here and I can find the African one, which is quite special in a way.

IDENTITY

Whereas before, I saw myself as Danish, I really see myself as European as an identity. And I would say, I was Danish, which was part of Europe, and I used to get really irritated at British people who called Europe ‘Europe’, because I was like, well, Britain is Europe, you know, there’s no difference.

Even being here, I felt I was still in Europe, but Brexit just meant that really big split. So now it does feel separate with Britain and Europe. So I sort of feel I’m European, and even more so because it feels like we’ve been rejected. So I’m holding on to that and wanting to retain that identity and not lose it and sort of feeling rejected by Britain in that way. But also more European in terms of more of a united Europe.

So back to the UK, where, post-Brexit even though my life as it is, hasn't really changed as such, having to go through and apply for the permanent residence, which I did before getting the settled status. That was really difficult for me and that was such a difficult process, in terms of trying to track down all the paperwork and things like that. And because I've lived in Hong Kong and China, there was a question mark about if I even would have my residence, but I did.