Her parents did return, but with few jobs available in the economic decline of the s, many Nigerians did not. Makanjuola, who has a pharmacy degree, works in public health and is the founder and editor in chief of Radiant Health Magazine , came to the U. As an undergraduate student in Nigeria, Jacob Olupona, now a professor of African religious traditions at Harvard Divinity School, was a well-known activist in his community.
He considered a career in politics, but a mentor changed his mind. Like Olayiwola, the importance of education was instilled in him from a young age but so too was the importance of spreading knowledge. That belief is what translated into his career as a teacher. Olupona stresses that Nigerians have also achieved a lot in their country of origin. Moving to the U.
Still, he believes the many academic opportunities in the U. Marry those American opportunities with an upbringing that emphasizes education, a drive to serve the U. Anyone from the Nigerian diaspora will tell you their parents gave them three career choices: doctor, lawyer or engineer.
Raised in the southern port city of Calabar, she had the Nigerian hustle baked into her upbringing. Four and a half years ago, she launched Innov8tiv to highlight success stories back home in Nigeria and throughout the African continent. Through her magazine and through African Women in Technology, which offers networking events, mentorship opportunities and internships, Akpe is helping propel women into careers like hers.
Like Akpe, rapper Mekka Don took a traditional career route at first. He got a law degree from New York University and worked at a top law firm, but he had always wanted to pursue music. At 25, Mekka, who is the younger brother of Jacqueline Olayiwola, and Sylvia and Okey Onyejekwe, decided to take the plunge. Omalu, the forensic pathologist, was recently in the news again after his independent autopsy of Sacramento youth Stephon Clark showed that the year-old was repeatedly shot in the back by police officers , which conflicted with the Sacramento Police report.
And what about Nigerians who come to the U. Choosing the right career is only one part of that. Akpe feels the same.
Now that doctor, lawyer and engineer are no longer the only acceptable career options within the community, the path to professional achievement is rife with more possibilities than ever before. And the negative stereotypes? In , the U. Nigerian communities. In , Nigerians were the 29th largest immigrant group in the United States. As a group, they display some notable characteristics.
For example, Nigerian Americans are one of the most educated groups in the U. More than half are employed in management, business, science, and art professions. Nigerian immigrants as a group also have higher rates of participation in the labor force, and are more likely to speak English at home than other foreign-born communities.
Some remarkable members of the Nigerian population in the U. Nigeria gained independence in From then on, a trend developed of wealthy Nigerians moving to the U. Migration of Nigerians to the United States rose in the s and s, due largely to political upheaval and economic stagnation in Nigeria. By , the Nigerian population in the U.
In more recent years, Nigeria has become one of the fastest growing origin countries for immigrants to the U. The genetic data was analyzed against historical records of over 36, transatlantic slave trade voyages that happened between and the early 19th century.
Previous genetic studies have shown that African Americans in the US have more African ancestry from populations that lived near present-day Nigeria than from populations that lived elsewhere in Atlantic Africa Western and west central Africa.
In agreement, it was shown in this study Nigerian as the most common ancestry within the US, the French Caribbean, and the British Caribbean. The overrepresentation of Nigeria ancestry reported was found to be a result of the later intra-American slave trade between the British Caribbean and the mainland Americas.
The intra-American trade which was an inter-colonial trade involving over 11, slave voyages within the Americas stretched as far as Boston to Buenos Aires and also Atlantic and the Pacific littorals. Intra-American trade records show that while the transatlantic voyages were going on, slave traders transferred nearly , slaves throughout the Americas with most intra-American voyages originating in the Caribbean.
Though the British outlawed the slave trade in and started intercepting slave ships, the intra-American slave trade continued. The intra-American slave trade voyages on record sailed until the s as there the slave trade continued in the US and between Spanish Caribbean colonies. The researchers also reported Senegambia underrepresentation in the Americas such as in northern South America and Central America despite being the source of nearly half of the enslaved persons who landed at ports in the areas.
This underrepresentation was linked to the fact that Senegambia is one of the first African regions from which large numbers of people were enslaved in the Americas. It was presumed to have resulted in reduced African ancestry in the population.
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