‘We own this space’: Tolü Makay and FeliSpeaks tell Tommy Tiernan about black Irishness
FeliSpeaks and Tolu Makay on The Tommy Tiernan Show on Saturday night.
Singer-songwriter Tolü Makay and poet FeliSpeaks have described carving out their place as black Irish people while staying true to their Nigerian heritage.
Makay caught the country’s attention on New Year’s Eve with her haunting cover of the Saw Doctor’s classic anthem, N17. She told Saturday night’s Tommy Tiernan Show that she enjoys the anonymity she still retains in her home in the midlands, partly thanks to a changed hairstyle and wearing a mask in public.
“The hair’s different, people don't recognise me. It’s the best thing,” Makay said.
“The mask can hide me because no one can really see my face, but then by changing my hair often no one can be like, ‘You the one from N17’. No one stops me on the road, I love it, it's great. I go about my business.” Makay and FeliSpeaks have been friends since they were 15 and they both love their place as black Irish women with a strong Nigerian heritage.
“We were both born in Nigeria and moved here as children. We’re Nigerian born but Ireland formed a lot of our personality,” FeliSpeaks said.
“There's quirks and jokes that straddle both fences, Nigerian and Irish, so you're nearly too black to be Irish but you’re too Irish to be Nigerian.”
“That happens a lot,” Makay agreed and added she feels “pride” about the place they are carving in society.
“I feel like we're the first of our own. We own this space and we should, we should be allowed to own it. I can switch into the Nigerian accent and then the Irish accent so quickly, it just is. It is just who we are and I think we should embody and embrace that.”
“I think part of the complexity is the fact that it is such a young, budding space.”@FeliSpeaks and @ToluMakay talk to @Tommedian about the exciting evolution of the Black Irishness#TommyTiernanShow pic.twitter.com/RWMbZceN2N
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) March 13, 2021
FeliSpeaks said black Irish people cannot compare their culture to that of black British people, though elements of that experience are evident in the evolving black identity here.
“I think part of the complexity is the fact that it's such a young, budding space. It's not like the black British experience but that is part of what we're borrowing,” she said.
“We're borrowing a lot of black British experiences and black African American experiences and mixing all of that with like continental African experiences and creating what black Irishness looks like. The thing that's making black Irish identity really popular is TikTok.”
While they are making waves on social media, their impact is clear in Ireland’s evolving culture. FeliSpeaks said one of her recent achievements that she is proud of is having her poem, ‘For Our Mothers’, included in the Leaving Certificate curriculum.
“One of my favourite news and achievements so far as one of my poems is in the Leaving Cert. It’s so exciting. Yeats is right under my name.”
