This is our world, although the people who drew this map decided to put their own land on top of ours. There is no top or bottom, you see.

I had consumed a lot of American culture, but I was not quite prepared for the reality of American poverty.

This is our world, although the people who drew this map decided to put their own land on top of ours. There is no top or bottom, you see.

We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls 'You can have ambition, but not too much'.

They themselves mocked Africa, trading stories of absurdity, of stupidity, and they felt safe to mock, because it was a mockery born of longing, and of the heartbroken desire to see a place made whole again.

Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.

I have my father's lopsided mouth. When I smile, my lips slope to one side. My doctor sister calls it my cerebral palsy mouth. I am very much a daddy's girl, and even though I would rather my smile wasn't crooked, there is something moving for me about having a mouth exactly like my father's.