How COVID-19 Quarantine Inspired My New YouTube Series
As an Entrepreneur who usually travels for my work, I am now stationary, quarantined in a spacious warm home that I share with family, working from home like millions around the world. Stay-at-home orders and closed social establishments have forced many people to sit still with extra time on their hands. I am absolutely sitting still, but my mind is still in travel mode. Recently, I was reviewing my photo cloud and I came across at least 500 images and videos of priceless moments from my travels a few years ago. I’ve only posted about 5% of my experience on social media. After an hour or so of reviewing and reflecting, I realized that I couldn’t just hoard this content. This is the time to share this content. By following stay-at-home orders, I could use some of my time to create valuable content and publish it to my YouTube channel. Not only will the audience enjoy it, but producing it will help my mental fortitude. As I mentioned in my book, my recipe for strengthening my mental fortitude includes creating something new every day. It’s time to create.
Me sitting still.
As an Entrepreneur who usually travels for my work, I am now stationary, quarantined in a spacious warm home that I share with family, working from home like millions around the world. Stay-at-home orders and closed social establishments have forced many people to sit still with extra time on their hands. I am absolutely sitting still, but my mind is still in travel mode. Recently, I was reviewing my photo cloud and I came across at least 500 images and videos of priceless moments from my travels a few years ago. I’ve only posted about 5% of my experience on social media. After an hour or so of reviewing and reflecting, I realized that I couldn’t just hoard this content. This is the time to share this content. By following stay-at-home orders, I could use some of my time to create valuable content and publish it to my YouTube channel. Not only will the audience enjoy it, but producing it will help my mental fortitude. As I mentioned in my book, my recipe for strengthening my mental fortitude includes creating something new every day. It’s time to create.
My Salone Story: A U.S. African Diasporan Returns #returningdiasporan
As an African Diasporan with parents that immigrated to the United States from Sierra Leone, the ‘mood’ of my #yearofreturn experience to Sierra Leone doesn’t quite align with the #yearofreturn ‘mood’ that many witnessed or experienced in December 2019. It was exciting to see the posts of African Diasporans cross my timelines on social media. African travel was finally being embraced by the masses, especially African-Americans and Caribbean-American Millenials, not just the typical communities that self-identify as Pan-Africanists, World Explorers or Missionaries.
This change ushers in an additional narrative. African Diasporans with direct family ties to a particular country on The Continent tend to deal with complex family dynamics that the #yearofreturn community doesn’t deal with. The element of family dynamics has a huge effect on the #returningdiasporan’s overall travel experience. Obligations exist that go well beyond holiday socials and gift-giving activities. Travelers with direct family ties may even experience culture clashes with extended family members, especially when these family members are impoverished. These moments are not usually pleasant, and present themselves at the most inconvenient times, leaving #returningdiasporan caught off guard, searching for answers. Most #returningdiasporans do not have the time to ‘fix’ a misunderstanding. Travel time for the #returningdiasporan is limited. The comedic moments delivered by comedians like @aphricanace that poke fun at the African family dynamics… are now in real-time, less the humorous punchline. Imagine dealing with those dynamics while your travel buddies are around you. Try ‘playing off’ an embarrassing moment with a relative whose ego has been bruised ego in front of your travel buddies. Drama. This and other situations are what many #returningdiasporans face when they travel home, and the topics need to be unpacked. These thoughts have been on my mind since January 2020, but I haven’t had the time to unpack them… until now. Let’s get into it.
Archive 1987: The granddaughter of the late Paramount Chief, Bai Koblo Pathbana, II, I am pictured, happily among my aunts who are my peers and playmates, daughters of my grandfather’s last wife.
YouTube Series: My Salone Story
Through each episode in this series, I share my travel experience as the #returningdiasporan with the intention to:
Explore the complex scenarios and unpack the inner feelings that are typically deemed as ‘too embarrassing’ to discuss outside of immediate family members
Relate and connect. There are so many threads that are apart of the woven fabric that defines today’s African Diasporan. I believe the #returningdiasporan perspective is relatable to many, not just African Diasporans. This content and dialogue can help create a deeper understanding as we all become more connected through travel and technology.
Encourage travel to Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone has a unique beauty and charm that will shift your mind and touch your heart in a special way. Despite the adversities faced by Sierra Leoneans, they are still a welcoming society to travelers. (P.S. They need to work on treating fellow Sierra Leoneans with the same level of kindness. I address this in the series too…)
As many of us around the world adjust to COVID-19 and ‘new normal’ activities, additional hours in the day for some means streaming more content than usual. For those who have the luxury of Wi-Fi, subscribe to I Am Gayima. A Podcast. on YouTube, and turn your notification on so you never miss new content. My wish is that each episode provides insight, and provokes dialogue and lasting connections. Good vibes only, people!
COVID-19 Breeds Compassion
After receiving calls and texts from family and friends in Sierra Leone, wishing us the best and praying for us, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. They have survived a long, infamous civil war, devastation of environmental disasters that include a murderous mudslide, and the threat of Ebola at their doorsteps. Yet they practice compassion, making time to call or text to check on us as COVID-19 pierces through their borders, courtesy of a few #returningdiasporans and foreign nationals. My God. I paid the compassion forward. I called my cousin, a travel-enthusiast and nurse who is fighting COVID-19 in New York City. I wanted to check on her mental health. The news was saying a lot, but I needed to know how she was coping. She was evasive at first, armor up, emotions buried, but I refused to change the subject. She finally responded with a deep sigh.
“(American) People just need to be more compassionate, Yima. I’m seeing memes and posts…people are complaining about being quarantined. I’m used to going to work and dealing with people dying on my shift. Now, people are dying at higher rates, because of COVID-19! I have fewer days off to rebuild my mind. I’m getting tired. My mind is tired. I swear, it’s crazy out here. ”
Perspective.
COVID-19 is at the forefront of my mind, but creating this series and hosting my online happy hour is helping my mental health, and I know the content will help my cousin and others in her shoes too. If you are privileged like me, with more time on your hands to create, don’t take the time for granted. Now that the world is under quarantine, we need to tap into our creativity and connect to one another like never before.
My offering to you is My Salone Story. Let’s connect.