My Portfolio
Welcome to my portfolio. Here you’ll find a selection of my work. Explore my projects to learn more about what I do.
Period 1 [8/27 – 9/27]
This portfolio highlights some of my best blog posts from August 27 to September 27. I chose these posts because they show my growth as a writer and how I connected personal experiences to our course topics.
Selected Blog Posts:
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“What Brazil Taught Me About the Illusion of Racial Harmony”:
I selected this post because it made me think critically about race and history beyond Africa and the U.S. Reflecting on Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s documentary Black in Latin America: Brazil, A Racial Paradise, I explored how Brazil’s history of racial “mixing” created the appearance of equality while maintaining deep social hierarchies. This post challenged my assumptions about inclusion and helped me see how systems of color and class continue to shape racial experiences worldwide.
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“Remembering Badagry: Tracing the Roots of the African Diaspora”: This post is meaningful to me because it connects my visit to the Badagry slave trading center in Nigeria with Colin Palmer’s essay “Defining and Studying the Modern African Diaspora.” Writing it helped me see how Africa’s story extends far beyond enslavement and how Yoruba traditions continue to shape cultures across the world. It also deepened my understanding of resilience and identity within the African diaspora.
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“What Is Africa to Me?”: I chose this post because it reflects my appreciation for African pride, tradition, and resilience. I connected Countee Cullen’s poem “Heritage” to my own experiences growing up in a Ghanaian cultural setting and explored how African traditions, like the Azonto dance, express identity and unity. This piece allowed me to celebrate Africa’s beauty, strength, and sacred traditions.
Peer Engagement Screenshot
Period 2 [9/28 – 10/18]
This portfolio highlights two of my strongest blog posts from September 28 to October 18. I selected these pieces because they show how I’ve grown as a communicator and writer in COMM 300, and how I’ve learned to connect African and diasporic perspectives on culture, communication, and storytelling.
Selected Blog Posts:
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“Married to Work: Love, Culture, and Communication in Modern Africa”: I chose this film review because it pushed me to think critically about how African cinema reflects real social and cultural dynamics. Reviewing Philippe Bresson’s Married to Work allowed me to analyze communication, gender roles, and professionalism through the lens of African storytelling. In the review, I discussed how the film’s dialogue, setting, and direction illustrate both humor and complexity, showing how love and work intersect in a modern African context. Connecting the film to our COMM 300 themes, I recognized how the traditional African worldview and gendered communication patterns play out in the story. This post is meaningful because it reflects my ability to blend critical analysis with personal insight. It also shows my growing understanding of how African media, like Married to Work, can both entertain and challenge audiences to think about communication, culture, and equality in new ways.
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"Love, Lies, and Call-and-Response: What "Married to Work" Taught Me About African Communication and Culture”: I selected this post because it captures how I connected George Daniels and Geneva Smitherman’s “How I Got Over: Communication Dynamics in the Black Community” to the East African film Married to Work. Writing this blog helped me explore how African communication styles, especially the call-and-response pattern, appear not only in music and religion but also in modern storytelling and relationships. I also related this to my own Nigerian background, recognizing how cultural rhythm, humor, and expression connect African communities across borders. This post made me appreciate how communication carries cultural memory and identity, reminding me that the rhythm of African speech, music, and connection continues to shape the diaspora today.
Peer Engagement Screenshot
Period 3 [10/19 – 11/15]
This portfolio highlights two of my strongest blog posts from October 19 to November 15. I selected these pieces because they demonstrate how I’ve deepened my understanding of identity, media representation, and diasporic storytelling in COMM 300. These blogs reflect how I’ve learned to critically analyze the stories told about Africa and its diaspora, while also finding my own voice as a communicator and storyteller.
Selected Blog Posts:
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“Beyond the Single Story: Finding My Mission Through Identity and Representation”: I chose this post because it captures my personal connection to African identity and media representation. Writing it helped me reflect on Chimamanda Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story,” Komla Dumor’s “Telling the African Story,” and Frantz Fanon’s ideas about identity and purpose. Together, their messages made me think deeply about how storytelling shapes not only how the world sees Africa, but how Africans see themselves. In this post, I opened up about my Nigerian identity and how living between Africa and the West has challenged me to define who I am beyond labels like “immigrant” or “Black man.” I realized that representation isn’t just about visibility, it’s about ownership of the narrative. This reflection helped me articulate my mission: to use communication and technology to tell fuller, more authentic stories about Africa’s creativity, resilience, and evolution.
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"Two Sides of the Same Island: Seeing Haiti Beyond the Headlines”: I selected this blog because it shows how my critical thinking and media literacy skills have grown. By comparing Vox’s “Divided Island: How Haiti and the DR Became Two Worlds” with Passport Heavy’s “Haiti: A Side the Media Won’t Show You,” I analyzed how different forms of media shape global perceptions of the African diaspora. Writing this piece taught me how storytelling choices, like tone, visuals, and framing, can either reveal or distort the truth about a country’s history and culture. Drawing parallels between Haiti’s representation and my own experiences as a Nigerian helped me see how colonialism and media bias still influence how African and Caribbean nations are portrayed. This post reflects my growing ability to connect COMM 300 themes, like cross-cultural communication, identity, and representation, to real-world examples. It also challenged me to think about balance in storytelling: should we focus on a country’s struggles to raise awareness, or highlight its beauty to inspire pride?
Peer Engagement Screenshot
Period 4 [11/16 – 12/10]
This portfolio highlights two of my strongest blog posts from November 16 to December 10. I selected these pieces because they show how much I’ve grown in media literacy, critical thinking, and my ability to connect global narratives about Africa to identity, representation, and communication. Both posts pushed me to think deeper about how African stories are told, and who gets to tell them.
Selected Blog Posts:
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"Seeing Beyond the Headlines: How Checkology Changed the Way I Read News About Africa": This blog shows my growth as a critical reader of media. Using Checkology’s lateral reading and critical observation tools, I analyzed how BBC News Africa, NPR Africa, and Al Jazeera report on African events, from political conflict to humanitarian crises. Writing this piece helped me understand that news is not just information; it’s perspective. Each outlet frames African stories differently depending on tone, audience, and purpose. This post demonstrates my ability to question sources, verify claims, and recognize bias, skills that are essential for understanding how narratives surrounding Africa are constructed. It also shows how I’m learning to distinguish stories told for Africans from stories told about us for outside audiences.
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"Rethinking Reparations: What CARICOM Taught Me About Repairing the Past to Shape the Future": I selected this post because it pushed me to think deeply about reparations in a global context, beyond just the African American experience. After learning about CARICOM’s Ten-Point Plan, historical precedents like Belinda Royall’s petition, and examples of reparations in Namibia, Israel, Colombia, and South Africa, I realized how broad and interconnected the movement for reparatory justice truly is. Writing this blog challenged me to understand reparations not as “individual payouts,” but as structural repair, fixing the long-lasting damages caused by slavery, colonialism, and systemic oppression. This post represents my strongest analytical work this period because it shows how I connected historical evidence, international policy, and diaspora identity into one cohesive reflection.
Brief Reflection
This period helped me develop a more confident and critical voice as a communicator. I learned that storytelling, whether in film, news, or personal reflection, is one of the most powerful tools we have for shaping identity and understanding culture. Through both posts, I explored how African stories are told globally and how I can play an active role in challenging misconceptions and promoting deeper, more accurate narratives. This period strengthened my media literacy and reminded me that as a member of the African diaspora, I have a responsibility to question, analyze, and contribute to the stories told about my people.
