Elizabeth's Daughter in Pictures
About Elizabeth's Daughter
From October 2010 to February 2011, I traveled to Nigeria to conduct research on the life of my late mother, Elizabeth Bassey Essien, who died eight years ago from cancer. In the course of my trip, I conducted interviews with my mother's surviving relatives and childhood friends in Akwa Ibom State where she grew up, visited her village of Mbak Etoi, and schools at which she was a student and teacher before immigrating to the United States.
As a writer/filmmaker by training, I took photos, video and audio interviews, and drafted over a dozen memoir essays toward a collection exploring history, memory, loss, culture and identity in my mother's life and my own. Elizabeth's Daughter explores issues related to identity, spirituality, immigration, education, and politics--tracing the history of my mother's life as a would-be nun turned wife and mother, as well as my life as an artist, daughter, and Ibibio woman.
Read an excerpt and watch video from Elizabeth's Daughter here.
