Louisa Adjoa Parker, 49, is a writer of EnglishGhanaian heritage who lives in Somerset with her husband Peter Fry.
There's a photo of me giggling in the surf, smiling in the sunshine, yet bracing myself as the cold water laps my legs. I remember the moment so well. I was seven years old and visiting my maternal grandparents, who had recently moved to Devon. I was happy there, yet never felt I belonged in rural Britain.
My dad is from Ghana, my mum is from Reading, Berkshire. They met when a friend of my mum's set up a dating agency and Mum agreed to go on a few dates. My dad proposed on the fourth one and, after my siblings and I were born, we moved from Yorkshire to East Anglia. Their marriage didn't last and they broke up when I was 12. We then moved to Devon and rarely saw Dad.
As a child, I never felt completely equal to my white friends. White children didn't understand why I looked different and asked why my skin was darker than theirs. After we moved to Devon, I never met any other black or mixed heritage kids, and I longed for a friend who looked like me because I wanted to feel normal.
この記事は Woman & Home の March 2022 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は Woman & Home の March 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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