A white woman known as Jessie Joe Jacobs, has revealed that she traced her ancestry to Nigeria years ago and she’s very proud to identify with the West African country.
According to her, a minister during the first Nigerian democracy, Dr. Moses Majekodunmi is her grandfather.
She shared a throwback photo of Majekodunmi and the then prime minister of Nigeria, Alhaji Tafewa Balewa, meeting with JF Kennedy in 1961.
In a post she shared on her Instgram page, Jessie described her grandpa as a very respected politician who survived many military coups that killed a lot of people.
Jessie went further by stating that she is using the black history month to celebrate her granddad, adding that she never got to know about her black history until she was in her teenage years.
She added that when she got to know of her black heritage, she became prouder of herself as she drew inspiration from it.
See her full post below;
This is my Grandpa with JF Kennedy. He was a senior minister in the first Nigerian Democracy after independence and was hosted with Nigeria’s new president at Blair House by JF Kennedy in 1961.
My Grandpa was an incredible man and well respected in Nigeria and across Africa in his role as health minister and leading figure in obstetrics, founding a hospital and even surviving a political coup.
As part of Black History Month, I would like to celebrate and share about my own black history I didn’t grow up knowing very much about my Nigerian history until I got into my teens. I was born and grew up in Teesside in a family who had lived in the area for a a number of generations, originally economic migrants from Ireland, Scotland and as far as Poland. My granddad William Jacobs and his family before him, ran market stalls on Stockton High street.
I always knew I was different, skin slightly darker, hair slightly curlier but I tried hard just to fit in. Learning about my African heritage made a big impact, learning about part of my history that I knew so little about gave me pride and inspiration, enabling me to own more of who I was and am.
This is why Black History Month is important to me, it gives us all a chance to learn more about the parts of black history in Britain that have been hidden; uncover the great achievements, the brilliant people that make up our diverse communities and enabling those communities to find the same pride and inspiration in their history as I found in mine.
(Grandpa is the cheeky looking guy on the right)
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