It took coming to Canada for Nigerian man to learn about and celebrate Black History Month

It took coming to Canada from Nigeria to prompt this St. John's resident to gain an understanding of Black History Month, and now he wants people to better appreciate Black innovators.

"We were not identified as Blacks. We're just identified as Nigerians and we had different cultures, we had different tribes — but race was not the identifier back home," Isaac Adejuwon, CEO and founder of software company MetricsFlow, told CBC Radio's The Signal.

Two years ago, Adejuwon was asked to speak about Black excellence for a Newfoundland and Labrador government event. He said he didn't have a lot of knowledge about Black contributions in North America, but that set him on a path to learn more.

"Coming to North America, it became a bigger celebration of Black History Month," he said, adding that while it is a global celebration, Africa is a continent with 54 countries with unique cultures, languages, food, dress and ways of life.

"When I was asked to speak on black excellence, I had to change my understanding of excellence."

Innovators despite barriers

Adejuwon took to social media to share the historical significance of Black innovators. He says it goes beyond the narrative of slaves who were forcibly taken away from their homes.

He pointed to surgeon and researcher Dr. Charles Drew who pioneered work on blood storage and transfusions, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams who helped develop the field of heart surgery and engineer Otis Boykin who worked to improve the pacemaker.

There's also Dr. Patricia Bath who invented the laserphaco probe to prevent blindness and Dr. Kizzmekia Shanta Corbett who was a leading scientist who helped develop the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

"If we can encourage more Black people in medicine, I think there could be a lot more contributions from black communities," Adejuwon said.

Advocacy and community leader Laurabel Mba and activist Nicole Obiodiaka both saw Adejuwon's social media post about innovators and say they were touched by the effort.

"I liked it because it wasn't this curated thing. It was him and I was really touched" said Mba.

Obiodiaka said Adejuwon's words were authentic and relatable.

"Especially with that narrative of what everything that Black History Month is typically portrayed as — like slavery and things of that nature — which is definitely important to still talk about, but there is another aspect to it," said Obiodiaka.

Breaking down barriers

But closer to home, Adejuwon points to St. John's dermatologist Dr. Bolu Ogunyemi, who recently became the first Black president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association, which has been around for 158 years.

"He's now an emblem of, you know, representation to many blacks," he said.

He said if his daughter wants to study medicine, she can look to Dr. Ogunyemi as inspiration.

Adejuwon says there have been historic barriers for Black people studying medicine. For instance, Queen's University barred Black people from studying medicine in 1918. That ban was in place for decades and was only officially repealed in 2018, he said. 

But, he said, those laws have had ripple effects that have had a long negative impact on Black people enrolling in medical school.

"If you don't see someone who looks like you, who acts like you, in the position of power, in a position of authority, then it diminishes or it reduces the chance of having other people who want to pursue medicine," said Adejuwon.

Mba said Dr. Ogunyemi is visibly breaking down barriers and hopes it's the start of more Black doctors seeing that type of success.

"There's a joy in that," said Mba. "And but there's also like this, it took what, till 2025-2024 for us to get here."

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