00:07

Q – TELL ME A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF.

Oh, thank you. My name is Evelyn Henry. I'm from Imo State in Nigeria and I am an Igbo woman. I'm not a lady, I am a woman. And I am married with two children and all of us we are here in the UK. I came as a student. I did my MS in Public Health, now I am working as a healthcare worker here in South Wales. Thank you.

00:41

Q – WHAT WAS IT LIKE GROWING UP IN NIGERIA?

What was it like growing up in Nigeria? I grew up in Nigeria. In Nigeria we have different cultures and different religions and different belief. So, growing up in my own cultural group, when I go to other cities, I find it very difficult to cope because in my own culture we eat akpu a lot, we eat fufu. The kind of food we eat in my village or in my community is not the kind of food I see outside. So, I find it very difficult to… mingle with other communities because what they eat is not what I eat. So, if I'm going to another place to stay, I need to go with my food because I love food a lot and I can eat. Yeah. Thank you.

01:35

Q – DESCRIBE YOUR HOMETOWN OR VILLAGE.

Ok, my village is Obowo in Imo State… My village, we don't have light in my village and network. If you want to get network you need to put your phone on top of a hill, or a tree, on top of a fence for you to get network. To make a call in my community is very difficult because there is no network in my community. That is my community, but we used to go to town… and to go to my community you will take bike. You know what is bike, ‘okada’, like machine. You take it, they will drive you to my community.

02:21

Q – SO WHAT ARE THE ROADS LIKE? HOW IS IT DIFFERENT?

We don't have roads. Our road is OK but once rain fall the road will not be OK, slip slip like… mud, mud road. Sometimes you fall down from the bike… you enter the bike, when the bike go with speed you and the bike man will fall down. So when go you hold the bike tight so you won’t fall. Yeah.

02:53

Q – HOW IMPORTANT IS THE CULTURE?

Very, very important. I love my culture so much because in my culture, in my community, if you don't have money, you can’t marry a young lady in my community. Our bride price is drawn from everybody's bride price… So when you call my community outside Nigeria, like, in another place, outside that community, you can’t marry there except you have money. So my bride price comes from every other community bride price, so, if you don't have money, you can’t come to my community to marry because you must pay everything that is on the list. We have lists, we have male list, female list, youth list and young girls list. You must make sure that everything in that list is complete before you can marry a lady in that community.

03:47

Q – WHAT SORT OF THINGS ARE ON THE LIST?

We have machine, like ladies machine. There's one machine we use to produce palm oil. You know, we have palm oil in my community. So there's a machine we use… so that machine now, you bring it, you bring sewing machine, you bring hundreds of yam, you bring five bags of rice, you bring like, 25 litres of water… you bring five of it, kerosene. I don't know if you know what is kerosene, you bring kerosene too, five litres. So many things is on the list… morning rose powder. So many things is on that list so you have to provide it, otherwise they won't allow you to go with the woman.

04:38

Q – SO THE MAN BRINGS THE THINGS OVER?

The man bring everything on the list.

04:44

Q – DOES THE LIST DIFFER FROM WOMAN TO WOMAN OR IS IT THE SAME LIST?

We don't do woman to woman… Every woman has the same list, but being the first daughter is different from being the second daughter. I have a sister, my younger sister, I am the first daughter, she’d the second daughter, her own bride price is different from my own bride price because I am the first daughter, because in my community, first daughter have a say in my community. I still have a portion in my father's house, I'm the first daughter so my younger sister don't have because she's not the first daughter. There’s a difference between first daughter and second daughter. So I am the first daughter, I have a say, she don't have a say, so my bride price is different from her own bride price. Yeah.

05:36

Q – WHAT ARE THE CLOTHES LIKE?

We like tying scarfs, our head tie is different from Yoruba people, like the Western tie aso oke, like this thing they tie it on their hair, while we tie a big one… we tie it to be very big. And our own culture, we wear blouse… you know, blouse? We wear blouse and we tie a wrapper. We tie two wrapper, we don't tie one wrapper. As a married woman, you don't tie one wrapper. You are insulting the culture. You tie two wrapper. If I'm going for a meeting, I need to cover my head… I need to tie a scarf on my hair, wear a blouse and tie two wrapper. If I don't dress they will fine me and I will pay for it because it’s a fine. Yeah.

06:42

Q – HOW MUCH IS THE FINE?

It depends, maybe the fine can be 200 naira, you know we deal with naira, like 200 naira. Uh-huh.

06:54

Q – WHAT PART OF NIGERIAN CULTURE IS MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU?

I will say my own room 'cause I don't even… I don't say about other people's culture. I say about my own. I love my culture and I… don't even think of other people's culture. No matter how difficult my own is, I love my culture and I love my culture, in fact I don't know of other people, my own is the best.

07:24

Q – HOW DOES THAT DIFFER – THE YORUBA TRIBE FROM THE OTHER TRIBE?

OK, I'm from Imo State, like Oyinyechi from Igbo State… in our own culture you can marry with five naira, like £1, you can go and drop £1 the woman will follow you to your house. That is the difference. My own you must pay, you will pay, you are you are paying a bride price, but Hausa, you don't do that. Any amount you bring, they will tell you is fine with them… Anything the husband have you can give to the parents. Yeah.

07:59

Q – WHAT WAS SCHOOL LIKE IN NIGERIA?

My school in Nigeria?... like compared to the school here, the school here is very difficult. The school here, even though, if you know something like, if you are very intelligent or you're smart then you're coming here, it make you look as if you don't know anything. Because the way… all standard of education is the same as our own standard of education… I did biochemistry in Nigeria and I work with the Ministry of Health in Nigeria. I'm a surveillance officer where I work. Coming to this place, and there's a course I did when I was in, when I was doing my master’s epidemiology, and in my unit back then in Nigeria, I am an epidemiologist because I'm under surveillance… What I'm saying is different from what I study and what I'm doing in my office. So coming to this place, the educational system is different, way, way different from my.

09:01

Q – WHAT WOULD YOU DO FOR FUN WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER?

Play. I play loads, I play you know... here they don't have sand. We used to play you know, you know all sand? We play lots, we play, play very well. I play.

09:18

Q – WHAT SORT OF GAMES?

Is not really a game, is like local play.

09:29

Q – THE NIGERIAN FOOTBALL TEAM PLAYED YESTERDAY, DID YOU WATCH IT?

Yeah, I watched it, I was not happy yesterday, because they won us. You know I refused to eat my food yesterday because how can Ivory Coast win us, you know, we're giant of Africa, Nigerians, we are Igbo, we have that strength. I don't know, I feel that the referee was blowing against us, that was why they won us. [Q – YOU FELT LIKE YOU WERE ROBBED?] Yeah, we are robbed in the game, we are really robbed.

09:57

Q – DO YOU KNOW JAY-JAY OKOCHA?

Yeah, he’s from Enugu State.

10:02

Q – IS HE YOUR FAVOURITE FOOTBALLER?

No, it's Kanu Nwankwo. Kanu Nwankwo is my favourite. Do you know Kanu Nwankwo, he play in Arsenal team, he’s my favourite, not Jay-Jay Okocha.

10:19

WHAT DO YOU MISS ABOUT NIGERIA?

What do I miss? Food! I miss food because I love food a lot. I miss my food. Coming to this place, I'm seeing different kind of food here, I can't even eat it. I can’t eat. I'm seeing canned food, different kind of canned food. I miss my swallow, I miss my akpu, I miss my fufu. I miss my Owerri. That's what they call, I’m from Imo State, the capital of Imo State is Owerri. We have our own food. Oh my God, I missed that food. I miss my food so much. I miss my weather, although my weather is very, very hot, but I still miss it… sometimes when the sun hits you, you come back to your house, it will reset your brain.

11:06

Q – YOU KNOW WHEN YOU SAID YOU CAN’T EAT THE FOODS IN THE UK, FISH AND CHIPS IS A DAILY CULTURE…

I love it but I can’t be eating it every day now. You get tired of it, you know, when you eat a particular food every time, even chips, even burger you, you get tired of eating that particular food. You want to eat different, yeah, I love tasting food. Because I love food, I want to eat different food. [Q – NOT THE SAME ONE EVERY DAY?] Not the same one every day, no.

11:39

Q – WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT LIVING IN WALES?

I love the people. I think they are lovely people. They accommodate everyone. Because I know some people will say, ah, racist, I said, but where I'm staying there’s not like racist. I love the community where I'm staying. I have a neighbour, he’s Bob, he’s always greeting me, “Hi, Evelyn, are you OK? How's your baby?” You know, I love the community. I love my, I love the community.

12:00

Q – DO YOU HAVE ANY FRIENDS?

I have lots of friends, like my son, my son have a friend, his name is Charlie, he used to come and call him to go to and play. The family love my son very well. They should take me out for shopping, everything. So I'm very, I'm very happy, I'm very comfortable. Yeah.

12:19

Q – DO YOU THINK THE SHOPS ARE DIFFERENT TO WHAT THEY’RE LIKE IN NIGERIA?

Yes, so ha, the shop here is different. Here is, yeah, you call it shopping where we call it market. Yeah, you know it's market. Open market yeah, you can buy, you price. In Nigeria I price, if I want to buy sugar now, they say is £1, I will price £0.50p or £0.40p. In Nigeria you price, but here it’s a fixed price you can’t price. By the time you buy, buy, buy, what you bought is £200, you can’t say, “can I giv you £150 or £120?” They say “no”. The other day I tried pricing, they said no, that is the price. I went with this.

13:06

Q – WHAT TYPE OF CULTURAL DANCES ARE THERE?

You know me, I’m an Igbo woman, I’m not an Igbo girl. Once you are married in my culture, you're a woman. You're married woman. I'm an Igbo woman so I love dancing Igbo dance. We used to shake our waist wen dancing, that's our dance. If you not shake your waist you’ve not danced, although I don't really have a waist, but I shake the little one I have. Yeah, we have a different dance, a different dance track, different music. Different music tells you different story. OK, so different story, different music, different dancing, different body movements and different facial expression. OK, Yeah.

13:47

Q – YOU KNOW THE FOOD IN NIGERIA, DO YOU COOK THAT IN WALES?

Yeah, I cook, I cook here. The food in my country, I still cook it here. But it's very expensive to cook it here. [Q – IT’S HARDER TO BUY IT?] To buy it, like, when getting it from the shop, is on a high price because it is an African food, African store. So the price is higher. So I cook it, I still eat my Nigerian food, but this particular one I’ve not eaten, I really want to eat it which is fufu.

14:23

Q – WHAT’S THE WORST THING ABOUT LIVING IN WALES?

Worst thing? I think it’s the weather. You can't predict this weather, you come out, you think, the sun is shining but it’s cold. I get confused, look at me I'm not wearing stockings, I just came out without stockings. The cold was too much, I was trying to still hide my leg. The cold.

14:47

Q – IN NIGERIA, IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY?

We have Harmattan. You know Harmattan? Harmattan is the dry season, they call it dry season. Yeah, the breeze here, the breeze, the wind is too much, that is the only time the weather i cold, but that dry season, it breaks the lips and the leg. If you not wash your leg very well, it will break it. Now we have sun.

15:19

Q – WHAT WERE WEDDINGS LIKE IN NIGERIA?

Wedding? Our white wedding? We have white wedding, we have traditional wedding. So which one do you want me to talk on? Traditional wedding. Our traditional wedding. This we call it ‘Igba Nkwu’, can you say it, ‘Igba Nkwu’. It’s ‘Igba Nkwu’. Our traditional wedding is umm, you dress traditionally, you bring, you take the drink. You take the drink… OK the wife will go and meet the parents, the parents will give her a drink. She’ll carry the drink and go and look for her husband, and bring her husband, and give her husband a drink to drink, meaning that the husband has accepted to marry her. Then after the husband has taken the drink, both of them will now dance and go and meet the parents and kneel down before the girl’s parents for blessings, that is how our traditional wedding is.

16:27

Q – ARE THE WEDDINGS BIG? ARE THEY BIG WEDDINGS?

Big one, or you know, this kind of place we use for our wedding, this kind of garden, we just put canopy. Is big, you see people now because they cook different kinds of food, you know sometimes we just, you know, today is for wedding, Saturdays are for wedding, you prepare, empty your stomach you go and eat and come back. You see people gather from different places… people wear the same clothes, the same materials… look unique, and everybody wants to look their best in a traditional way, would want to put on their best, most expensive clothes. In traditional wedding you see expensive things people put on. Yeah, our cultural wedding is always big, is a big celebration.

17:18

Q – JUST ONE LAST THING THEN, WE WERE TALKING ABOUT HOW THE STORIES ARE TOLD THROUGH DANCE, THROUGH FACE MOVEMENT, DO YOU WANT TO JUST SAY A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT?

OK it depends the kind of music, as I earlier said, your music would tell what the story, what the dance will be like, and the facial expression. Some song comes emotionally, it will show, your facial expression will tell what the song is saying. The way your body, your body language would tell what the song is saying. It depends, the kind of song that will determine what you want to dance. If this song is saying sorrowful thing, you, your face will tell, your movements will tell, your body language will tell. Just the kind of song that will determine what you want to dance. Now you don't just dance, you dance according to the music, according to the sound, yeah. You have any other thing again, who want to ask question please? [LAUGHTER. TELL US ABOUT YOUR FRIENDS THAT WERE IN YOUR WEDDING, I DON’T THINK YOU MENTIONED THAT] My friends that comes around, they call it umm… OK during my wedding, during my traditional wedding… I just finished my NYSC (National Youth Service Corps), I have a lot of friends then… so they came around, they stayed with me, there were many in my house, they helped in preparing the food. They helped clean the environment, washing, in fact they helped in serving food, they helped a lot. In my culture people come around to help you when you want to celebrate. They help you to cook your food. They help you to prepare, they help you to clean everywhere. So, my culture, we do things together because if you want to do your wedding, your traditional wedding… I will go there before the day, so I can help you arrange your things, that's what we do.

19:30

Q – THERE’S A DANCE IN WALES AND IT GOES LIKE THAT [DEMONSTRATES OFF CAMERA]

Like this? [THAT’S A DANCE IN WALES]. In Wales yeah? Is that how you dance, like this? [LAUGHTER] No, we do like this, we shake, shake our bum bum. [LAUGHTER].

ENDS