Kemi Badenoch is back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. In an interview with The Spectator, the newly-elected leader of the UK’s Conservative Party rejected being associated with Nigeria, saying she identifies more with her ethnic Yoruba heritage and went further to say that she has nothing in common with northern Nigerians.
The irony in arguing against being lumped in with Northern Nigerians is that she deployed a stereotype by associating northern Nigeria with ‘Islamism’ and ‘Boko Haram.’ Perhaps it was Badenoch’s attempt at virtue signalling, considering the rise of t*rrorism and interregional tensions, like in many other African countries, are deeply rooted in the power imbalances created by British colonial rule in Nigeria between 1882 and 1960. It begs the question: If Badenoch has nothing in common with Nigerians from the north, how does she have anything in common with the British crown, whose imperial efforts created the deep divide between the north and south of Nigeria?
This cognitive dissonance is even more apparent when Badenoch says her maiden name, Adegoke, means warriors who protected the crown, and, therefore, she sees herself as a warrior who intends to fight and die for the British crown.
Badenoch’s willingness to put her life on the line for former British colonial settlers, whose policies continue the exploitation of Nigerians and the broader Global South, reminds us of the famous phrase, ‘All skin folk ain’t kinfolk.’ In fact, Pan-Africanist Malcolm X (1925-65) called them ‘house negroes.’
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