By Henry Uche
•Mr. Brooks (3rd right); Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (3rd left), with other dignitaries.
There comes a time in everyone’s sojourn in life when one begins to ask critical questions about one’s destiny/ fate, sojourn and life at large. Mr. Chris Brooks, a son of a Nigerian mother and a white American father, said he became worried after spending many years in the United States of America, because something kept telling him the black race, his people – Africa –needed him.
Brooks, a co-founder and Managing Partner of Brown Venture Group, United States, and other investments, said, despite his attainment, he kept thinking about home, which led him to write a book, Omówálé (the child has come home).
Omówálé, with 12 chapters, is a personal memoir about the author and the journey he had taken – a journey that had led him back to Nigeria, a place he called his home. He chose the title carefully to let the world know how much he longed to return and make an impact, having seen the enormous potential (through research and travel experience) embedded in the giant of Africa.
At the launch of the book in Lagos recently, he reminisced how he had been learning, discovering and understanding his history, his ancestry, and returning to his people. He said, “My desire to know more about my people became insatiable, so I took an ancestry test.
“The test results seemed to take forever. Finally I received an email confirming a deep truth that would begin the next leg of my journey: We were the descendants of West African people. When the test results hit my inbox. I sat and stared at the colourful pie chart full of African nations. This was my story. These were my people. Something shifted inside of me at that moment. A critical, missing puzzle piece of my identity locked into place. For maybe the first time in my life, I knew where ‘home’ was.
“I imagined my ancestors walking along the terrain in Nigeria and the adjacent nations. I could picture them as strong, muscular and regal. I began to imagine whole communities full of my ancestors. It was a brand new and shocking set of mental images. The more I let my mind wander down those sacred paths, the more I wondered about my own story and my complete lack of connectedness to the African continent and the West African people—my people.”
Foreword by a former US Ambassador to Tanzania, Charles Stith, who is also the Chairman of the Pula Group, a Black-owned African mining company, and his first child, Selah, he affirmed: around the world, there were people of African ancestry who were searching for signs where they belonged, whom they hoped to find and embrace.
He added that, earlier, he knew almost nothing about Nigeria, and the American education system taught him very little about Africa as a continent, and what he was taught was mostly inaccurate. How unexpected. How strange. How exciting!
“I began curating my personal and professional networks to focus on my Nigerian relationships. I began researching Nigeria—the largest (population wise) and arguably most powerful Black nation on planet Earth.
“As I did this deeper dive and learned about the impact of Nigerians across the African continent and the world, thoughts of the city of Wakanda from the movie Black Panther filled my imagination. Nigeria was, at least in my mind, the Black capital of the world. And my people were from this mysterious, powerful nation. My research turned into conversations with Nigerian leaders in the US and on the continent. Today, I have found my people –Nigerians.”
However, Brooks urged President Bola Tinubu to make home attractive for Nigerians in diaspora to return and make the country great again: “I had the opportunity to meet President Tinubu at United Nations General Assembly in September 2023, at the diaspora reception he said, ‘Nigeria has arrived. Forget the frustration of previous seasons of leadership. Come home. Nigeria needs you.
“I, Chris Brooks, have come home. I stand as Omówálé, the son who returned home after hundreds of years of family separation. But the government must make the land conducive, secured and appealing to local and foreign investors. It is my belief that if we can come together as a people we can overcome any obstacle that stands in our way.
“Cooperation is not enough. We must develop an interdependent economic framework that finds its roots on the African continent and reaches the entire global diaspora—and beyond. We must connect historically Black colleges and universities in America with other Black-led educational institutions globally, sharing knowledge and best practices.
He stressed, “We must do the same with Black-led financial institutions, centers for arts and culture, and convene Black leaders and companies from every sector. Over time, we can displace the most egregious and extractive practices of White Supremacist economies and replace the old and tired models with models that result in human flourishing. This is not out of reach. I believe that we can make this happen in a single generation.”
Gracing the occasion, the Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Mrs. Abike Dabiri -Erewa, urged other Nigerians in diaspora to think home with sustainable solutions to salvage the country from imminent collapse.
Dabiri-Erewa pledged wide publicity of the book, as well as moral support to the author. “I am taking this book to places, and moral support as well, I’m sure you will be glad we did,” she assured.