Omg, what is this? Consistency? No way! Hello my wonderful readers, I hope you are all well. How are you feeling? Are you feeling the feelings? All the emotions you’ve been suppressing? Holding off? Convincing yourself that you are okay when you are not? There are days when I cannot explain or even understand my emotions. If I do not understand what I am feeling at the moment, I put it off. Reminding myself to come back to it, but never do. All the feelings begin to pile up, and… Read more feeling the feelings cause I wanna be in my feels. →
Author’s Note: Hi my wonderful readers and welcome back to the Life of an African Girl in America! I hope you are all doing well. We are back babyyyyyy. Wow. It has been a minute. I haven’t been active because your girl is now in school. Yes, I am a graduate student now studying Counseling Psychology. My concentration is in school counseling. Honestly, if you asked 18 year old Diakha if she would ever pursue school counseling, she would’ve laughed. But, here we are. A few years ago, I wrote… Read more talking about mental health in an african home pt. 2 →
Wow it has been a long time since I wrote on the blog. I had to take a break and finish my second poetry book, The Sweetest Nectar. How are you? Are you taking care of yourself? I hope you are well 🙂 Yes, you did read the title right. I was told once before by someone, “I would’ve married you, but your parents are complicated.” One thing I will say, men have the audacity. I knew this person as a friend and I remember him looking for someone to… Read more Who told you I wanted you? →
Authors note: I had this idea of doing Ramadan journals, but I wanted to keep some thoughts to myself. However, I still wanted share a bit. Here’s the first of my “public” journal entries. There’s this garden of mine (I constantly talk about in my work), and this garden has taught me a lot about myself. I have planted so many seeds in this garden that I sometimes forget what each seed represents. I had to pause before watering each seed. I had to know why I planted each of… Read more Patience →
When I was younger, I had this vision- of being a successful, educated African woman. I had my entire life figured out. Finish school, get the job, and the husband. I talk about marriage a lot on here because my life is no longer the sunshine and rainbows after each rain storm. It is now centered around marriage. It is impossible for me to run away from. At the age of 19, I had the option of not making marriage the center of my life, because I was in school.… Read more “We’re not forcing you, but he’s the one for you.”-a supporter of arranged marriage. →
Dear grandmother, A part of me knows that if you were still alive, you would teach me how to be an African woman. Not one who followed all traditions and cultural rules, but one who can defy all of it without hesitation. I talk about being an African woman in America. Mama Diakha, I want to know what it’s like being an African woman in Africa. It’s easy to travel back to Senegal, live like an African woman, but it’s not the same. It’s easy to read all the books… Read more A Letter to Mama Diakha →
Hello! I hope you are doing well! In this blog post, I am sharing some of the things I learned this year. Everything I learned is from my own experience. Enjoy 🙂 The unknown is uncomfortable, unsettling, but it is okay. I don’t know how many times I am going to be learning this, but I need to stop rushing my life. Stop thinking that I need to have everything figured out by this age. I am only 23. I only have a few things figured out. It took me… Read more “Girl, why you keep learning the same lessons?” →
Taking the bus to my mother’s hair braiding salon every Saturday and Sunday was a wonderful experience. Or on some weekends, when he was not working, my father would drop my mom and I off. Helping my mother at home and in the salon was satisfying. Always near her side at the age of twelve. As the first born and only daughter, my parents gave me all their attention. Positive and negative. However, I would say mainly negative. In the home, you would think I was the only child. My… Read more First born African Daughters are my Heroes. →
The Life of an African Girl in America 