In Newfoundland, she found a 'sea of white faces' — but sticking out doesn't shake her
CBC N.L. sits down with Mimi Sheriff to talk race, identity and belonging
Mimi Sheriff still isn't entirely sure how she ended up in a shed in rural Newfoundland, posing for photographs with a family she'd just met.
She'd just been trying to use the bathroom.
The then graduate student, raised in Zimbabwe and South Africa by her Ethiopian parents, didn't look like a typical kid from the bay, and her friend's family noticed — first staring, then probing politely, then wanting a picture to mark the occasion.
"We had a photo shoot," Sheriff says, laughing. "They said, 'We've never met someone from Zimbabwe before.'"
After 10 years in St. John's, Sheriff says that's been a running theme: locals staring, asking questions. For the most part, she doesn't mind. "I had to stop and remember … I came to a place that's pretty homogeneous," she says.
But she describes mixed feelings whenever someone asks about her customs and upbringing, or sometimes wants to know about the entirety of Africa itself.
"On the one hand, I felt a great sense of responsibility.… I felt like I had to represent every African, from every country, from the whole continent — all 54 countries, I was representing them," she says.
People would tell her they'd only ever heard about Ethiopia from their frustrated parents, begging them to eat their food and think of the starving children.
"That's what they grew up with," Sheriff says. "That's what they know — poverty and starvation and a 'lack of.'"
On the other hand, she knows her accent piques curiosity.
"I think that if I have an opportunity to be here, and I am different … I can explain the difference to people who don't know," she says. "If somebody asks me a question or puts me in that position, I'll do the best that I can."
Sheriff didn't know much about Newfoundland and Labrador before landing here. She didn't realize how empty and cold it could feel, how she'd stick out at parties. "I call myself 'spot the dot,'" she says, smiling.
"In a sea of white faces, I am one brown dot."
WATCH | Mimi Sheriff couldn't find home. Here's how Newfoundland helped
Her mind started doing funny things. Walking to school, she'd take the long way to use the crosswalk, instead of darting across the road when traffic cleared.
"People are going to think that brown people don't know what a crosswalk is," she recalls reasoning.
"I don't know where this came from, but that played in the back of my mind a lot.… Everything you do is a reflection of every other person that looks different."
There were times when she thought she'd never fit in, no matter how strong her friendships or sense of community. She recalls bawling one night after her friends teased her about her "posh" accent, feeling as though no place on Earth was truly home.
But Newfoundland had a peace offering up its sleeve.
As a "third culture" kid — someone who grew up in a place different from their heritage, then uproots themselves for somewhere new — wondering where she belonged was a common thread throughout her life. When a United Nations internship through Memorial University came up, Sheriff lunged at the chance to discover the home she'd never lived in, and spent a month roaming around Ethiopia.
"I always found it funny that Newfoundland, a place where I stuck out the most, was the place that provided that opportunity for me to then go somewhere to feel the most connected," Sheriff says.
Today? Home is spread across an ocean and between four countries, and Sheriff wouldn't have it any other way.
"At times you feel like you just want to fit in, be like everyone else in a box, because it's safe there," she says. In that place, you don't stick out.
Now, she'd rather be the dot, she says.
"That makes you unique."
Video shot and edited by Mark Cumby. Interview by Ramraajh Sharvendiran.
About N.L. in Colour
N.L. in Colour is a five-part series examining race and identity in Newfoundland and Labrador. This is the fourth instalment. We'll be bringing you the final episode next week.
Here are Ramraajh Sharvendiran's first three interviews:
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
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