What does it mean to have more than one identity? Being Black Nigerian-British and Ghanian-British respectively, Ore Ogunbiyi and Chelsea Kwakye know how it feels to navigate the tensions of hyphenated identities. From the pressure to assimilate to the feeling of being constantly in flux, the challenges of having your identity regularly reconstructed, questioned and misunderstood are manifold. Ore and Chelsea share how questioning the conventional narratives around migration and confronting Britain’s colonial past helped them to plant roots as part of the African diaspora. As recent University of Cambridge graduates, Chelsea and Ore experienced being a minority in a predominantly white institution. Their experiences led them to write Taking Up Space, a groundbreaking exploration of the problems of diversity in education. This manifesto for change is both a guide for black girls to navigate universities and higher education and a call for change in these white dominated institutions more widely. Chelsea Kwakye is a first-class honours History graduate from Homerton College, Cambridge. She is currently studying at the University of Law in preparation for a training contract with a city law firm in London. Ore Ogunbiyi is a Nigerian-British Politics and International Relations graduate from Jesus College, Cambridge. She has since completed a Masters in Journalism at Columbia University, New York and is currently working as a Special Assistant and Speechwriter to the Vice President of Nigeria. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
