I am a Northern girl. But I am not the Northern girl you imagined.
When people hear “Northern Nigeria,” many immediately picture a Muslim Hausa woman.
That woman exists.
But so do I.
I am a Northern girl. I am Christian. I am not Hausa. I am Laka/Godogodo.
And sometimes explaining that feels like I am introducing myself three times before people finally understand where I come from.
The problem is that Northern Nigeria has been reduced to one religion, one language, one culture and one kind of woman.
But the North is not one people.
There are Christians. Traditionalists. Muslims. Indigenous ethnic groups. Minority languages. Women who wear hijab and women who don’t. Women who grew up in churches. Women who grew up in mosques. Women whose grandparents spoke languages most Nigerians have never even heard of.
We exist.
And I think one reason many people don’t know we exist is because we haven’t told our stories loudly enough.
So yes, I am a Northern girl.
Just not the version of Northern Nigeria you were taught to imagine.
ImANorthernGirl