Hi ,

This Monday is Africa Day — 63 years since our founding fathers signed the OAU into existence in Addis Ababa.

I want to share something with you before the day arrives, because it has been sitting on my chest.

I recently watched a video that broke me. A little boy was crying when his mum came to pick him up from school. He told her his classmates had said, "Go back to Africa where you came from."

And then he said:

"But Mum, I was born here. I don't know any other country."

And then they called him a monkey.

Mother and son wept together.

If you are raising children in the diaspora, you already know how this story ends if we don't intervene. Identity crisis has devastating, long-term effects on a child's well-being. And the world is not getting kinder—the #StopMigration noise is loud and getting louder.

Here is what I want you to hear from me this Africa Day:

A passport is paper. Identity is bone. One can be revoked. The other cannot.

Wherever you live, carry your Africanness with you—the food, the language, the values, the clothing. Do not drop your culture at Murtala Muhammed, at Jomo Kenyatta, or at any airport you fly out of. And please, do not let it die with you. Teach your children.

I have written the full piece on the blog — including practical ways to keep your children rooted (technology, storytelling, family video calls, the great kings and queens they should know about), and how to handle the family members who make "going home" feel impossible.

👉 Read the full post here: https://latifahajet.com/africa-day-2026-diaspora-culture/

If this lands with you, forward it to one African mother in the diaspora today. She needs to know she is not raising her children alone.

Happy Africa Day. 🌍

With love, Latifah Parent & Teen Coach | Author of The Phone-Free Teenager and Beyond the Goat Pen

9JA no dey carry last. 🇳🇬