THE ROOM All her life Kubet Weston has stood out. Now she's speaking out about diversity and inclusion, and what it was like to break the colour bar in Canadian rowing. T H E O N L Y O N E I N L ouise Umoessien was driving home dodging potholes when
“Nigeria was a nation in turmoil,” she says. “When we moved to Tillsonburg, we were able to just be kids. We didn’t have to worry about violence. But at the same time, there was no getting away from the fact that we were different.” “When people heard we were from Africa, many assumed we were famine victims like the ones they saw on television,” Kubet explains. “Others thought we were orphans who had been rescued from a life of poverty by the nice white woman who took us to the park.” In truth, they were none of those things. Kubet’s father was a respected PhD scientist. Her mother had a bachelor’s degree in home economics. Both were graduates of the University of Toronto, where they met and married. In Nigeria, her parents weren’t poor; they were working professionals living amongst other working professionals.
she heard voices. Suddenly men with machetes were climbing onto her car. Terrified, she threw the transmission into reverse and stomped on the accelerator. The vehicle hurtled backward, sending the men reeling. She swerved left, then right, then back again. Only when the last attacker fell away did she dare look back at her three young children—Allen, Kubet and Serina—cowering on the floor behind her. As an expatriate working for the Nigerian government, Louise knew political tensions were high. But an armed attack on her family? She wasn’t about to let her children die in a military coup. Not tonight. Not ever. And so, though it broke her heart to do it, Louse took the children—ages seven, five and three—and fled to Canada. Her Nigerian-born husband stayed behind in Africa.
Louise Umoessien and her children Kubet, Serina and Allen before leaving Nigeria and moving to Tillsonburg in 1980.
“My mom gave up her marriage and the life she had built when she left Nigeria in 1980, but what we gained in Canada was safety,” her daughter Kubet recalls. Now a mother herself, Kubet has nothing but compassion for her parents and the impossible choices they faced.
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