SE2/EP 14: Conversation with Taiwo Ogunnaike-Williams on her Childhood Experience as a Farmed-Out child and living in a Children’s Home in London

Taiwo and I connected after she commented on one of the articles I wrote published on my blog on Nigerian & Ghanaian Children Farmed Out to White Family in Britain. After reading the article, she commented that she was ‘farmed' with her twin sister and twin brothers. She also attached a link to the article she wrote on her blog about her experience. I could not resist but asked Taiwo if she would be willing to come to the podcast to tell her story.  I wrote the article at the time because I could not wrap my head around such a horrifying act of an able body parent who famed away a new baby to a white family in unfamiliar territory. African culture and tradition cherish children, and Africans dedicate so many sayings and songs to express the essence of having children. In this conversation, Taiwo talked about her traumatic childhood experience and her relationship with her parents and siblings. As she continues to heal through talk therapy, we talked about how a lack of emotional bond between a child and biological parents could have an everlasting impact later in life. We discussed why many with similar experiences are refraining from talking about it. Is it because of shame, or it may be such a traumatic experience that those who went through it just want to reflect on what they may perceive as a good childhood experience and bury the challenging feelings of the whole ordeal? We further talked about how this experience has affected Taiwo’s understanding of her racial identity. Taiwo graciously and vulnerably spoke about her childhood to destigmatize the pain of traumatized childhood experiences. As she wrote on her blog, “I used to call myself a survivor, but if I really did survive, why is my lurking depression a constant reminder of my trauma." A Short Bio of Taiwo: I'm a mother of two grown sons who live and work in the UK. I am married to my wonderful husband, Enson Williams. I was born in London, and I studied for my degrees in London. I worked in Dual Diagnosis for about ten years. I also worked significantly with the homeless in London, setting up advocacy work with teenage parents and working with other disadvantaged, marginalized sectors of society. The advocacy work focuses on mental health and homelessness. I was a spoken word artist, appearing many times on different London stages with my poetry - primarily in the later 90s. I belonged to an African/and African Caribbean spoken word performance collective that came from London. We were part of an album called 'One Hell of a Storm (Versemongers Meet Soundcreators), a compilation album of the jazz and hip hop genres, released in 1994. I embraced Ifa around this time, as it gave me a balance of being grounded and in touch with my Nigerian/Yoruba heritage and roots. I migrated in 2012 from my birthplace of London, UK, to the sunny climates of the Caribbean: Guadeloupe and the Commonwealth of Dominica (where my husband comes from). I am currently researching for my fictionalized reimagined memoir of my mother when she first came to the UK in the 60s. I love to read, write sporadically in my blog about my life in the tropics,  Taiwo's Blog, drink lots of coconut water, have lots of sea baths, and idle gently on the beautiful white sands of Guadeloupe's beautiful beaches, pouring plenty of gratitude to the hot climates of the Caribbean. When I'm in Dominica - which has 365 rivers, I visit Osun daily. As she wrote on her blog, “I used to call myself a survivor, but if I really did survive, why is my lurking depression a constant reminder of my trauma".