Nollywood actress, Mercy Aigbe, has called on African parents to reflect deeply on their parenting styles and emotional connections with their children.
Speaking at the premiere of her latest film, My Mother Is a Witch, Aigbe opened up about her own parenting journey, emphasising how much she had to grow in order to understand her daughter, Michelle, better.
My daughter, Michelle might think that the upbringing I gave her was Harsh and truly it was. I was harsh on her I can’t even lie but I raised a vessel for God. As parents, we need to have closure on so many issues with our children and we also need to pay attention to them. I want to quickly share a story.
She recalled how Michelle opened up to her about how harsh she was in raising her, and how she spotlighted one time she hit her with a bucket and never apologised for it.
A few years ago, I sent my daughter to Canada for school and one day I was calling her and she wasn’t picking my calls so I called her friend and told her I couldn’t reach my daughter.
Eventually, when Michelle picked and I asked her why she wasn’t picking she said ‘mum I’m traumatised’ and at the time I asked her ‘Which trauma, are you okay?’ and she said ‘mum you hit me on the head with a bucket one day.’ At the time I thought she was going mad because she was abroad but I realised that I wasn’t thinking about how she felt.
The actress emphasised the need for African parents to be more emotionally available and to apologise when necessary.
She said,
We have a lot of damaged adults out there who have not properly healed from their childhood trauma so I’m very proud to be part of this project that highlights this.
I think it’s time we start having these conversations, this is why we have narcissists all over the place. And as African parents, we’re honestly too proud to apologise. If I can apologise, other parents should too, this film is a call to action for African parents.
