Maria talks about her childhood:
“Growing up, I often felt torn between two different identities, unsure of how to navigate my place in the world. I struggled with feelings of alienation and a sense of not belonging, as I felt the pressure to conform to the expectations and norms of one cultural group or the other. But I have been able to navigate through that coming from a family who valued love as a significant value. Switching between attending school in England and Nigeria when I was very young because I was raised in both countries. It was difficult moving to Nigeria to study. “Life was incredibly difficult, I won’t lie, and there were many things I didn’t fully understand, not just in terms of culture but also in terms of attitude or how people regarded me.”
From Law School To Performing Arts:
“Being a lawyer is something to be proud of, I plainly walked out of law school after my second year since I felt it wasn’t my route and I had little interest in it. Because I was the only black kid in my class, my lecturer made comments ” In my opinion, that exhibits a little racism”; after all, I’m a female with brown skin, and I’ve always had trouble blending in in both nations. There were many other people of all colors in my law school class back in the UK, but I remember one teacher who kept repeating, “You can’t truly see a black lawyer or a black judge in England.” This affected me because he makes these comments regularly, it felt like as attack and as a young lady I decided to quit being but I still went to law school to because of my dad but eventually i summoned the courage to tell him and when I told him I was only studying law to please him and didn’t want to, he asked, “Well, why didn’t you say so? We wouldn’t have bothered. We don’t pressurise each other in my family”. so, I gave it up and pursued performing arts.”
TEAM
Writer: @carterpraise
Photographer: @thedejioluokun
Hair: @hairtalksbyray
Makeup: @oyes_strokesnshades_ @sleeknigeria
Click Maria Chike – On A Journey Of Self-Discovery And Pursuit Of Passion to read full interview
English