“I’ve been singing ever since I can remember. Growing up, it was standard procedure to join the choir in school and at church, so I’ve always enjoyed that. I moved from Nigeria to the United States in 10th grade.
I attended Duke University and had a wonderful experience there. I joined an acapella group which was a different kind of singing, but it was a lot of fun. I was on a pre-medical track but I wasn’t certain that medicine was what I wanted to do because I also love the arts. I love drawing, singing and writing. At that time, I didn’t think that there was room for all of who I was in medicine.
I studied in Los Angeles my junior year through Duke in LA, which is an arts, media and entertainment program. While there, I learned photography, interned for a film producer and learned how animations are made. It was a wonderful experience and I felt so enlightened. While in class there, a black guy was talking about how he drives a nice car and is often stopped by LAPD and asked for identification. He shared that his friends who drive similar cars do not get stopped. In class, we discussed these injustices and my teacher said, “we need to tolerate each other more.”
I could see where she was coming from. It’s a natural feeling to not want discord or hostility, but I didn’t feel like tolerance was enough. When I think of tolerance, I think of it as, “this is not ideal, but I’m just going to put up with it.” That’s where the song ‘Don’t Tolerate Me’ came from.
‘Don’t Tolerate Me’ has been in my heart since 2016 but I didn’t have the time or confidence to work on it until 2018. I was living in Houston with my family and singing it to myself in the house almost everyday. One day, my youngest brother (then 3) sang the last line back to me, which made me seriously consider releasing it, since others might enjoy singing it too. He was the very first person to sing my song, so I released it on his birthday, April 3rd, 2019.
‘Don’t Tolerate Me’ was born from my desire to see humanity shift from a mindset of mere tolerance to true love in our relationships with each other, especially across the superficial lines that so often divide us.”
Story: Claire Schenken, Photos: Nmeli Anene