Racism, feeling invisible: podcast on the black experience in Hong Kong, HomeGrown, acts as a guide for expats

Weekly podcast HomeGrown was created by two British Nigerian expats who felt there was a lack of resources for black people moving to Hong Kong

It covers everything from workplace dynamics to dating and examines how the circumstances of their move and background can affect black expats in different ways

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A new weekly podcast by British Nigerian expats Folahan Sowole and Marie-Louisa Awolaja sheds light on the black expat experience in Hong Kong. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Published: 12:15pm, 19 Nov 2020Updated: 6:16pm, 6 May 2021

“It’s Where’s Waldo. I’m looking for my black man, where are you? He doesn’t exist here,” laments Janelle Mims, an African-American expat from New York who recently moved to Hong Kong. “We’re unicorns,” replies Folahan Sowole, a 30-year-old British-Nigerian business development manager also living in the Chinese city.

Chicago native Jarius King, a DJ and performing artist who’s lived in Hong Kong for five years, thinks he’s telling his girlfriend’s mother “I’m happy to meet you” in Cantonese – only to discover he is saying something quite inappropriate.

These are just two of the many hilarious moments on HomeGrown – a new podcast launched to shed light on the black expat experience in Hong Kong. From workplace dynamics, to how school systems work, to the chasm between local and expat communities, co-creators Marie-Louisa Awolaja (33 and a legal project manager), also British Nigerian, and Sowole (aka Fantastic Fo) have it all covered.

The weekly podcast, which came about because of the lack of resources Awolaja and Sowole found to help prepare them for life in Hong Kong, also serves as a guide for black expats who are moving or looking to move to the city.

Marie-Louisa Awolaja and Folahan Sowole, British Nigerians who started a podcast for black expats in Hong Kong. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Though Awolaja’s transition was relatively seamless, as she had visited the city before and knew what to expect, she says: “It’d be great if, when I was coming out to Hong Kong, I had some kind of guide.” While Googling black hairdressers and black girls in Hong Kong, she came across Facebook group “Sisters in Hong Kong”, through which she met 11 black women in the week she arrived.