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This week in COMM 300, my understanding of reparations completely shifted. Before this class, I mostly heard “reparations” talked about in terms of financial payments to individuals. But studying the CARICOM Reparations Commission opened my eyes to a much bigger, more intentional framework, one that focuses on repairing systems, not just writing checks. CARICOM defines reparations as a call for international reconciliation and justice for the descendants of slavery, coloniali

This week, I spent time working through the Checkology media-literacy exercises, and honestly, it changed the way I approach news about the African Diaspora. I’ve always known that international media doesn’t always get African stories right, but I didn’t realize how many tools I could use to check what’s reliable and what’s just noise. The two skills I leaned on the most were lateral reading and critical observation, and they shaped the way I analyzed stories from BBC News A

When I started exploring the two very different portrayals of Haiti, Vox’s “Divided Island: How Haiti and the DR Became Two Worlds” and Passport Heavy’s “Haiti: A Side the Media Won’t Show You”, I didn’t just see two documentaries. I saw two worlds trying to tell the same story through completely different lenses. The Passport Heavy video stood out to me because of the table talk scene. It reminded me of some conversations I had with friends last summer, especially when the g

Whenever I think about stories that shape how people see Africa, I’m reminded of Chimamanda Adichie’s talk “The Danger of a Single Story.” She warns us about the risk of seeing people, or entire nations, through just one lens. Too often, Africa is portrayed as a continent defined by struggle, not by strength. Komla Dumor’s “Telling the African Story” takes that same message further. He believed that Africans must be the ones to tell their own stories, through our own voices,

How a Kenyan-Tanzanian movie captures African communication and gender dynamics. Film Review by Abdul Quayyum Yussuf. When I pressed play on “Married to Work”, directed by Philippe Bresson, I expected the usual romantic comedy. What I didn’t expect was a story that would make me think deeply about how culture, gender, and communication collide in modern African life. The 2022 film, set across Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, and Zanzibar, follows two young professionals forced to fake

When I first watched Married to Work, directed by Philippe Bresson, I thought I was in for a simple romantic comedy, a “fake marriage turns real” kind of story. But as I watched Malaika and Mark argue, laugh, and learn to navigate both love and work, I realized the film was saying much more about how African people communicate, connect, and define success in community settings. The movie follows two ambitious professionals in Nairobi and Zanzibar who pretend to be married to

When I watched Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s documentary Black in Latin America: Brazil, A Racial Paradise, one scene really stuck with me. Around 17:48 to 19:56, Gates travels to the colonial town of Diamantina in Minas Gerais. He talks about how slavery’s economy shifted in the 18th century, from sugar to gold and diamond mining, and how that changed life for Africans and their descendants. What stood out was how he described Black people, whites, and mixed-race freed people livi

Reading Colin Palmer’s “Defining and Studying the Modern African Diaspora” brought back vivid memories of my high school visit to the Badagry slave trading center on Nigeria’s coast. Walking through those historical sites, the “Point of No Return,” the chains, and the preserved artifacts, was already a heavy experience. But Palmer’s writing helped me place that memory within a much larger historical and academic context. His explanation of the five major diasporic streams tha

Lately, I’ve been thinking about home. Not just a place, but a feeling. For me, that feeling is Africa. Specifically, Lagos, Nigeria, the city that raised me, shaped me, and gave rhythm to my life. No matter where I go, that connection never fades. It’s in the food I crave, the way I speak, and even the way I think. Living in America has been a journey filled with growth and, at times, culture shock. I’ve had to adjust to things that felt unfamiliar, different customs, social