How I Got Here
I live and work in Toronto and as a Black Afrikan woman this is a question I get asked so many times directly or in many variations. I was raised in a traditionally creative home. The women in my family use their hands to make clothes, bake, braid hair, farm. Creativity existed in a non-traditional yet natural form.
In high school I was the friend who sent handmade notes and had a cards collection stocked for the entire term’s use. I would spend a portion of our evening writing personalized notes for my friends and during Valentine’s Day I was in a club that made cards to sell.
After graduating from Journalism School in Kenya, I realized spending the whole day looking for bad news to tell audiences wasn’t me. All my internship stories were about community building and I couldn’t get a byline easily. I pitched to Mama setting up a craft business and she supported the initial costs of setting up and rent. But like a good mother who teaches how to fish, I had to raise funds through clients for upkeep.
I was only 23 and realized I didn’t have enough business skills to manage a business. My aunt in Canada started pitching the idea to advance my education in Canada. I was finally picking up, working actively with wedding cards clients, starting community arts projects. How could I just leave?
One day randomly scrolling through Instagram I found an international universities fair. I walked in to casually browse, hhhm but now I know my steps were being ordered by God. I kept looking for a business course in the arts and couldn’t find a match. When I was tired and walking away someone sat on a table that had been empty the entire time. She was representing Humber College and had an Arts Administration and Management Program, everything I needed to learn was in in. Financial management, HR, marketing, policy, planning. She kept mentioning the fees in millions (Kenyan Shillings) and I was nodding confidently.
I called Mama my funder and pitched again. She asked me to choose any course at any private university in Kenya and would sponsor me freely because this Canadian option was beyond her ability. I challenged her, mentioning she’s taught us that God always provides. So she agreed for me to apply and should I get in, it would be God’s will. I think she didn’t expect me to be selected because she was shocked when I got approved.
But reality sank and we had to face the fact that I couldn’t afford the fees to take this course in 2017. I remember sobbing so hard while I wrote my defer email to the program officer recruiting us. It was more of my faith being challenged. If we ask we should receive, God is a provider, how could he not have provided this? My mind was now set on this Canadian transition, how do I go back to running the business in peace?
………. to be continued