‘My Parents Were Deported Back To Africa When I Was 6, But I Had To Stay’ | GOVERNMEND
If you see Folasade Badetito today, she’s probably somewhere globetrotting and exploring a new place in the world. However, this wasn’t always the case.
Her parents emigrated to Houston in the ’80s, which is where she was born. When she was only 6 years old, her parents were taken from her and deported back to their home country of Nigeria.
Folasade spent her childhood moving from family member to family member. Many would threaten to send her to Nigeria when they felt she was misbehaving. She was never able to have the true stability that comes with being in a home with her parents, in one place. This took a toll on her mentally growing up.
She didn’t get the courage to travel internationally until 2008, but it was only because she was forced. “My dad was an English teacher in Quito, Ecuador at the time,” Folasade said. “He passed away there. He literally died trying to save money and get back to the U.S. or Canada so he could see his kids. I saw him alive in person for the last time when I was 6, and the next time I saw him was in a casket.”
“I hadn’t seen my mom in over 20 years because she simply could not afford to come back to the U.S. on her own due to lack of economic and job infrastructure in Lagos, Nigeria.”
Superstitions from relatives in the U.S. about traveling back to Nigeria alone caused Folasade to postpone her plans to see her mom until 2013. However, she was afraid that her mother would pass away before she had a chance to reunite with her again. So, she took the leap and went.
Source: Travel Noire
