Melody Adewale is the name. I'm a six-foot-one, pleasantly voluptuous, friendly and keen-minded young Black woman of Nigerian descent living in the City of Boston, Massachusetts. I'm openly bisexual, and quite Butch. I was born in the City of Montreal, Province of Quebec. Way down in Canada. I've always wanted to live in the United States of America. And I finally got my chance. The University of Montreal in Quebec has a student exchange program with some American schools. Each year, twenty to thirty students from select American schools get to study at University of Montreal while some Canadian students from U of M get to study in America.
I am currently attending Boston College as part of the International Collegiate Student Exchange Program or I.C.S.E.P. I like Boston College. There are lots of African-American, Asian and Hispanic students around. They make up close to thirty percent of the vast student body in fact. I like the City of Boston. It's so big and diverse. I met the Mayor, a nice old Italian dude, and he's a really cool guy. I have met many affluent Black folks in the City of Boston, including many State Legislators. The Governor of Massachusetts is a Black man and I am so proud to live in such a progressive and open-minded State.
I am starting to really like the United States of America. Birthplace of my personal heroes Michael Jordan, Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, Kobe Bryant, President Barack Obama, Spike Lee and Martin Luther King. The first big country in the deeply imperialistic Western World to elect a Black man as its President. A diverse nation full of Irish folks, Italians, Africans, Asians, Indians, Arabs and Native folks who collectively call themselves Americans. Three hundred and ten million people call this place home. Wow. A country with so many cultures and subcultures. A place where cowboys and rappers can be best friends. A nation of contradictions, inhabited by a unique people. I can understand why so many people come here from all over. America has cast its spell on me. I am falling in love with it.
While at Boston College, I met a young man who has come to mean so much to me. His name is Pierre Des Champs. He's a big and tall ( six-foot-three by 250 pounds ) young Black man of Haitian descent. A cornerback on the famous Boston College varsity football team. Pierre is actually the younger brother of my best friend Nadine Des Champs, a young Haitian woman I met at the University of Montreal a little over two years ago. Nadine was studying bio-chemistry and we bumped into each other in the Science Department. She was born in the U.S. but has fallen in love with the City of Montreal, which has a large Haitian and Afro-Caribbean population. We instantly clicked. And now I am in love with her younger brother, whom I ran into in America. Wow. Small world indeed. Isn't it?
Pierre is such a cool guy. There are lots of handsome, stalwart young Black men at Boston College, partly due to the school's push for diversity in academia. However, most of the Black male students at BC seem only interested in White women. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not a racist person. I have a couple of girlfriends who are White. I truly believe that love is love and people should date whoever they want. However, there is a small part of me that feels slightly annoyed or bothered when I see a good-looking Black man with a White woman. At the University of Montreal, I saw a lot of that. Ever y Black man in Montreal seems to have a White girlfriend. Wow. In America, it seems even worse. Sometimes, I wonder what my sisters and I are going to do. Our brothers don't seem to want us anymore.
I came to America to study, but also because I wanted to experience the unique Black culture that's alive and well in America. The rap and hip hop music. The spectacular athletes. The fiery preachers. The stellar politicians. The daring businessmen. The indefatigable activists. Blacks in America have done so much for their country and the world. Even while living in the Republic of Nigeria, my father Thomas Adewale is fascinated by Black Americans. He later studied medicine at the historically Black school, Howard University in the 1970s. His time at Howard University changed him and he found Black Americans uniquely strong and resilient. Defiant to the end in the face of racism. African-Americans fear no one. And unbeknownst to them is the fact that millions of us Africans living in the Motherland of Africa and around the world admire them.
There are over a million people of African descent living in Canada. The former Governor General of Canada is a Black woman of Haitian descent. The Lieutenant Governor of the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia is a Black woman. The Mayor of Amos City in Quebec is a Black man. Yeah, we've made some progress in Canada. We're doing alright. However, African-Americans are leaving us in the dust demographically and politically. It's projected that in twenty years, people of African, Asian, Hispanic and Native American descent will outnumber Caucasians in America. And African-Americans alone will represent twenty percent of the total population of the United States of America. African-Americans refer to one another as 'brother' or 'sister'. They see themselves as one family. They are more united than Black Canadians will ever be. And I envy them.
