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We Need To Start Thinking Beyond Black America

On the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, my Twitter timeline was filled with tweets urging everyone to listen to Young Jeezy’s ‘My President is Black', as it was the last time the song would reflect America's political landscape. These tweets were championed by people of colour from across the globe who both had and had no connection to the experience of being black in America. I, a Nigerian with long-term residence in the United Kingdom also found myself, nostalgically listening to this black American anthem in celebration of what had been and in mourning for what was to come for America.

In the months after, as the stability of Nigeria’s current President’s health has come under questioning, I have been forced to critique how little attention I pay to socio-political issues outside America.  More specifically, how little attention I pay to socio-political issues affecting black people across the world in comparison to my focus on African American issues. For one, my attachment to Young Jeezy’s song was hypocritical given that my entire childhood in Nigeria saw me governed solely by black men and women. My president had, for a long time been black, so why the attachment to the Obama legacy in America?