I recently made the acquaintance of a fantastic older lady at a gathering. She came across as nice, passionate and motherly. I was so intrigued by her that i bugged her endlessly to write some stories for my blog. Although she is a very busy person, she obliged me. Enjoy her stories..

The Brine Night

As a child, I was quite withdrawn. This was cause of concern for my paternal grandmother, so she insisted I attend a boarding school outside Lagos for more exposure. There is a custom at the Secondary school I attended which is to have what we called the Brine Night at the beginning of every new session. The brine night created an avenue to build up the confidence of the new students coming into the boarding house of the school. At the Brine Night, new students were expected to make a performance of some sort either by rendering a songs or reciting a poem. On my first Saturday night at school it was my turn to perform.

Now we all know brine is a solution of salt in water and people believed (and some still believe) the popular myth that albinos are not supposed to eat salted food. As I walked on to the stage for my performance, the audience began to shout, “afin o je yo”...

Catch up with the rest of this story and over 50 more posts on issues on albinism at www.lightskinafrica.com

It is a whole different world you never believe existed!