Growing Yams in London

Growing Yams in London Synopsis

'Makeeda?' I looked up from my phone. 'Hold this for me,' Aunt Grace said, shoving her bag into my lap as she disappeared into a cubicle. 'Great, no signal!' I mumbled, shoving my phone back into my bag. As I stared into the mirror, I began to wonder why I was dressed head to toe in a black and white ntoma, at a memorial service for someone I didn't even know? As usual, with family functions, 'no' wasn't in my parents' vocabulary. Makeeda is a fourteen-year-old Ghanian whose love of all things western causes her family to despair. She is always being compared to the dutiful and obedient Afua, her Aunt Grace's daughter. But it seems that whatever Makeeda does, it ends up in trouble. She just wants to hang out with the fit Nelson and her mates, and forget about the Ghanaian stuff. But when she has to do a school project, she begins to understand the depth of her cultural heritage and wonders if she can honour her culture and enjoy life as a London teenager.

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