To Speak in an Unnatural Way.

         Every year, it is a ritual for our family reunions, we try as much to do gatherings that made us come together, my cousin from states usually comes back to Nigeria, to spend her Christmas.
   
      I think her first time to Nigeria then, I was very little, I and my sisters. But her visits, became, consistent. I remember one of her visits, we were very young teenagers, we traveled to Owerri, all of us. When she talks, she talks through her nose , ona ekwu n'imi n'imi.  At first, I had to stretch my ears to hear what she says, I and my sisters found it nice to have someone of our own, speak just the way those Americans we watched in movies do.
   
      But growing up, I found it silly and the most unnatural way to speak, what was wrong with the Nigeria accent.

      Being little, I mostly enjoyed foreign movies, I was in love with the American accent , and the British accent too.  I wanted to speak and to sound British or American. To speak in unnatural way, I longed to be that way.

     My second year in college,  I met twin brothers who spoke in a British accent, one was my course mate I didn't notice so much, their skins in a very darker shade of  black,  we became friends because of the accent.  Apart, from having this accent, they were very funny and sarcastic, they made you laugh so hard that your tight cornrows threatened to spill from their knots. I loved being around them, I wanted to speak like them, they laughed too often when I pronounced words in my rarely often Igbo accent.

     I felt shy about the Igbo accent, and tried very much not to overemphasize the way I pronounce the 'Rs'.

     But to speak the unnaturally way is hard,  it's like you twisting yourself to talk in a way that's silly and unnatural.
 
    We have our own stories to tell about, speaking in an unnaturally way, especially girls, who usually turn this into an art form, to impress who they are trying to.
   
      I have to realise how my Nigerian accent with a hint of my Igbo accent, was sexy and of me, who I was. There's nothing wrong if you speak the natural way, it's you embracing your beauty.
   
     I know how we make black Americans try to speak in most unnatural way to get through job interviews.
   
    I know how Igbos speak in most unnatural way to try to prove their class. How our parents teach us English while growing, as not have us speak in our thick igbo accent, the unnatural way .
   
    I know how Nigerians in diaspora, try to speak in unnatural way to feel they belong, and not to feel that awkwardness that comes with speaking in a natural way.