As we step into Black History Month, our team is excited to reflect on the importance of celebrating black culture, history, and the countless contributions of Black individuals—both in the past and present. Throughout this month, we’ll be sharing personal stories from three of our team members, each offering their unique perspectives and experiences…
A Nigerian at Space & Time – Ayanam Udoma
As someone who grew up in Nigeria, spending most of my formative years in Lagos, I’d say my experience as a black person in the UK is possibly different to most. However, that is not to say that I haven’t had moments in the UK where I’ve been made to feel self-aware of my skin colour, it’s just been a different experience generally speaking. For one, I grew up in a country where most people looked like me and only really moved to the UK when I was a teenager.
In terms of the black history, I spend a fair amount of my spare time watching documentaries about the history of Nigeria, its colonial past, its many coups, its civil war and it must be said that many of Nigeria’s lowest points appeared to have come down to inflated egos, an inability to listen, and a hunger for power.
As a content strategist for Space & Time, what I enjoy about working here is that everyone listens to each other, people manage their egos and there has been no coup reported as of 2024.
Is comparing Space & Time to post-colonial Nigeria a fair comparison? Possibly not. Does it make sense to dedicate just one month a year to black history? Again, debatable.
But as one who grew up in Nigeria with limited experience of growing up black in the UK, I have to work with the black history that’s directly affected me and, from that perspective, I’d say Space & Time has done a fantastic job of avoiding the trappings of military dictatorships of the past.
It is genuinely a lovely place to work and somewhere where I feel supported and, if it were a country, somewhere I’d be proud to call home. So for that, I say cheers to you Space & Time.