Podcast: Exploring cultural identity with My Africa Is producer Nosa Garrick

Welcome to Cultural Identity month! We’re kicking off our March conversation by introducing you to the wonderful Nosarieme Garrick, who we had a chat with on Skype. We heard Nosa's story, which includes supporting young Nigerians, changing foreign perceptions of Africa and learning to defy sexism. In short, if this podcast doesn't get you feeling inspired, we'll eat our hat.

She’s a truly global individual who spent her early years moving around because of her diplomat father. Now (sort of) settled in Washington D.C., she sure keeps herself busy: she’s a writer and entrepreneur who founded Vote or Quench, a non-profit dedicated to engaging young Nigerians, at home and abroad, in the electoral process.

Nosa also produces and hosts My Africa Is, a documentary series whose aim is to show a more balanced Africa and ‘change the victim narrative we see so often explored in Western media’. She was inspired to make the films after returning to the US from Nigeria, when her contemporaries’ questions included whether African people lived in trees, or have cars.

We highly recommend you pop over and check out the documentaries, which are an encouraging, vibrant and diverse representation of a continent often diminished and misunderstood by the West.

But not before you listen to our podcast (above), where Nosa talks about the expectations upon her – as a young woman in America, as a Nigerian woman – and how she negotiates a cultural identity that is sometimes conflicting, sometimes difficult to navigate, but always evolving.

And, of course, you’ll get to find out what Nosa sees in the mirror. Once you've had a listen, tell us what you think in the comments, and don't forget to tell us what you see.

Want to hear more? Head over to Soundcloud for more of our podcasts, or subscribe to our RSS feed on iTunes. Stay tuned for another podcast interview with journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, coming later this month.