Osonye Tess Onwueme

“Through her work in the classroom, as a researcher, and as a writer, Dr. Onwueme focuses on African cultural traditions and contemporary socio-political issues pertaining to rural and urban women in Africa.”

“The triumph of stumbling, falling, surviving, living, and rising through it all, not only prods me on, but also assures that I stand, tall; even taller than I am––striding high with my life’s calabash-full of water balanced on my head (and no shaking!); knowing that with the healing grace of the Almighty, I have been through so many thorny hills and valleys before.”

“I was born the first child of struggling teenage-parent-squatters in tumbledown Isale Eko, Old Lagos, Nigeria. From the time I was four years old, my young father ‘deposited’ Mama with my two siblings and me at his parents in the delta village, before he escaped by boat to England to study law.”

“My children, I raised them in America, five of them and now 12 grandchildren, the youngest was four years when we left, the oldest was 11 years. They could speak our language, their children they teach them, so it is something that depends on you, it depends on us.”

“I have been a citizen of that country (US) for more than 30 years. But I am, first and foremost, a Nigerian. My umbilical cord, my placenta was buried in Nigeria and Nigeria is a place that can never be, for me, recreated. Nigeria is my home, my homeland and I claim this as my home forever and forever.”

“The longing to come back home has been there. Nigerian story can be different, it’s been a very dismal, dark, atmosphere, arena for a long time in Nigeria especially in the last seven, eight, ten years. We are the creators, we should be the ones creating our stories, Nigerian story has to change.”

“We should be the ones creating our stories, Nigerian story has to change, we are the creators.”

“People create social conditions and people can change them.”