Meet Ola! We’re going a little vintage in this photo.

Ola and I are classmates at SCAD. Writers have to stick together. One of the first things I noticed about Ola is that we have similar backgrounds — we both have Nigerian fathers who married our American mothers. But our dad’s are from different tribes, so despite some of the similarities, there are a lot of differences.

How to explain — it’s like saying one person is from Oakland, and the other is from Newport Beach (culturally, worlds apart, despite being in the same state), but they speak different languages, eat different food, and may have different religious beliefs. And so on.

Despite our different upbringings, we can still relate to a lot of shared childhood experiences, having immigrant fathers from a particular part of the world. Life was strict with a focus on good grades, higher education, discipline and we were always trying to explain (our own) American culture to pops — like why it made sense for 8-year-old friends to spend the night at each other’s houses. Neither of our dads ever allowed it (“You have your own BED!”). Sigh.

My favorite is when, at random, Ola will burst into an accent that sounds just like my dad’s, usually admonishing me about something. It’s strange — as much as my dad’s directives used to drive me nuts as a kid, and sometimes caused a lot of suffering, now — Ola’s imitations send me spinning with laughter. Is that weird? I dunno. It’s our heritage. It feels pretty normal to me.

The Nigerian English accent has a lot of variations. Just like us, it depends a lot on where that person grew up, and what their educational background is; where they studied, Britain or America. But even if they studied here, because of Nigeria’s British colonial past, there’s always that undertone of the English English.

Basically, it’s in the intonation. For example, Americans ask a question with a rising intonation, the last word at a higher voice-level — say this out loud: Where are you from? But the Nigerian will usually say the same thing with an alternating intonation , and the last word is at a lower level: WHERE are you FROM? Add to that a different approach to the letter “R” and you get: Wheh ah you FROM?

Here’s a great clip from the British comedian Omid Djalili, talking about the accent. It’s not all-inclusive, and you’ve got to take it with a grain of salt. But you’ll get my drift and it’s funny! I love the part where he talks about Nigerians using unnecessarily eloquent language, and the classic non-word “eh-eh!” used to express everything from shock to agreement. Hilarious. I could totally relate. This Nigerian comic performing in Ghana was pretty funny, too.

There aren’t many things I miss about days gone by — the present is too exciting. But sometimes, I wish I had more access to that food my dad used to cook. Ola helped me out with that.

Look at that fish stew! Ola fried up some tiliapia, and tossed it into a scalding hot pan of red onion, tomato and green bell pepper. Yet another joke we shared, is that Nigerians season everything with Maggi. So naturally, she tossed in some of that staple, too. It is pretty good. Long live the bouillon cube. And Sunday lunches with friends.