Harvard University

“Eko o ni baje ooooo,” my grandma said to us in Yoruba at our annual Christmas dinner in Lagos, a bustling city in Nigeria. I said they’re confused about what this phrase meant but continued to speak in my English accent and show off the new vocabulary I had learned from boarding school in England. As the granddaughter of the event, I thought it would only be polite to introduce myself around. “Good evening, my name is Faramola Bakare and I am going to be the President of Nigeria,” I proclaimed loudly in my age-eleven voice. An elderly woman said to me, “that’s not how to pronounce your name,…