Whenever I get asked where I’m from, which is more often than I care to remember, I always hear an inner voice reminding me that I started my life in Spain as a stateless three-year-old girl. And I’m sure a lot of people ask me this question because they find it hard to believe that a woman can be black, Spanish and middle-class all at once. But I can’t help it, that’s what I am!
I’m convinced that my story and other ones like it are worth telling, and if no one else is going to tell them, I will.
Let me introduce you to Enami, the ancestral spirit within all people of African descent wherever in the world they may have settled. She was introduced to me by my friend and soulmate Reina-Flor Okori. Enami inspired her successful sports career, and I feel it is both my duty and my honour to tell you about Reina-Flor’s journey and its four cornerstones: body, mind, spirit and, last but not least, nutrition.
Telling Reina-Flor Okori’s story is my creative project for 2022.
You might be wondering what all this has to do with the Supreme Court, or with taxes, or with my new volunteer position at the ICC, advising on green taxation and carbon pricing. But to me it all makes perfect sense. Enami is part of me: she’s the one who silently helps me deal with the micro-racism my children and I face from time to time, and who makes me feel proud of who I am as well as grateful, because I was one of the lucky ones.
Thank you Clara Gil Martín for the amazing illustration. Thank you Reina-Flor Okori Makendengue OLY for allowing me to tell your story.
