Online Reporter
WE have been running the story of teenage schoolgirl Mikaylah Mushinga after she penned a book titled ‘I’m More Than The Black Girl.’
She reveals in her book that she faced a barrage of queer questions from her new schoolmates in England — did she live in a hut, did she wear real clothes and did she even go to school during her time back home in Zimbabwe?
She said one of her schoolmates even asked her a bizarre question — do you have water in Zimbabwe?
She ended up providing a sarcastic reply and told them there was no water in Zimbabwe and she used to drink animal milk instead.
Another of her schoolmates even asked her if she was a refugee?
It’s quite an explosive book and some will dismiss it as schoolyard banter.
But, for Mikaylah, it was much more than that.
She says in her book that it was about race and about being the only black student at an English primary school.
She says a black person in the UK is hard, it’s layered, It’s tiring but she also says that it’s also powerful.
Mikaylah says she carries generations with her — a language, a rhythm, a history that goes deeper than anything which those she has come across in the UK, including her schoolmates, will ever learn from TikTok
She is now 13 and was 10 when her family arrived in England to settle in the UK.
It was quite an adventure for her as this was her first time on a plane.
Her book is a bold and fascinating read in which she bravely tackles all the challenges, including racism, which she has faced.
She says she has always known that she was black and she was fine with that because it was something that was very normal back home in Zimbabwe.
“It wasn’t something that needed defending or explaining — it simply was,” she writes in her book, “Everyone looked like me — my friends, my teachers, the shopkeepers, even the people on TV.
“Being black wasn’t political or loud, it was peaceful, background, freedom.
“But, when I started attending school as the only black pupil (at her school) in England, everything changed.
“Here, being black isn’t just who I am — it’s what I am to other people. A label. A burden. Something they notice before they notice me.”
She is not the only one who has faced such hurdles.
She just happens to be the teenager who has dared to put it into a book and tell the world her story.
We salute Mikaylah for her bravery.
By writing her story she has managed to confront the issues which were haunting her.
She has managed to push them into the open for others to debate.
It’s not a weight that she carries anymore.
She now understands that this is the way the world is and has accepted it that way.
Writing her book has helped her, in a way, to heal.
