In Nigeria, colonial thinking affects everyone. It is time we found new heroes | Eniola Anuoluwapo Soyemi

True emancipation of the black mind means questioning every communal understanding we take for granted

A few weeks ago, I sat in the paediatric ward of a private hospital in Lagos waiting on my then 10-week-old son's vaccinations. In the waiting room, all toys and loud crashing from US cartoons, I took in the sight of a Nigerian woman, her body tinged with the tell-tale redness of poisoned, bleached skin. Two beautiful babies sat, in car seats, at her feet.

I exclaimed, You had twins!" I recognised her from a few weeks before, each of us in the final throes of pregnancy. I actually had triplets," she grinned. On cue, her Nigerian husband emerged from the doctor's office carrying their third child. Awestruck, my son in my arms, I congratulated her on her strength.