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La’Tanya Scott @LScott3257 is a social media personality who graciously conducts interviews for Purposely Awakened. In her daily life she is an environmental science educator for the Cahaba River Society, which is located in Birmingham, AL. If you are ever in Birmingham and are interested in exploring the Cahaba River, you can contact www.cahabariversociety.org.
She recently is interviewed C. Nichole, founder of the Pan African Think Tank and you can follow her on Instagram @panafricantt and @mscnichole. C. Nichole has traveled the world, working to bridge gaps between all people that are represented in the African Diaspora. She is also an author and entrepreneur.
Read the interview below or watch the recap above.
La’Tanya Scott: Please go ahead and introduce yourself to our followers.
C. Nichole: Hi Guys, I am C. Nichole, my first name is Christen (pronounced Chris-ten) but a lot of people have a hard time pronouncing it, I become Christy, Christina, Christian and so I just said forget it, I feel like everyone can pronounce Nichole, so it’s C. Nichole. I was born in Dallas, TX and raised in Los Angeles, CA. I attended the University of Houston, where I received a degree in marketing with a minor in journalism in European Studies. I studied abroad in London as well as in Ghana for a bit. I like to cook, love to travel and write. I am one of the authors under the Pan African Publishing House and I am coming out with my new children’s book, “The Reign Africa.” I am an introvert and family oriented.
Once I graduated from college, I went into production, television, and film. I have a marketing company and I work in experiential marketing, in events and advertising. I have always been self-employed, I have never worked a 9 to 5 job, which has afforded me the opportunity to be able to travel to 93 countries and I am 29 years old.
La’Tanya Scott: Perfect! So you are an author, how many books have you published?
C. Nichole: This is actually my second book that I have published. I did not publish my first book until January of this year, and I did not expect to have 2 books in one year but with Covid-19 I figured, why not.
La’Tanya Scott: Tell us about the Pan African Think Tank, from what I have seen, you are phenomenal, and you have traveled so many places and have had so many conversations and from what I have gathered, you are looking to bridge the gap between members of the African Diaspora, so that together we can combat the issues that impact us, is that correct?
C. Nichole: Yes, you are correct. Pan African Publishing House is actually the sister company of Pan African Think Tank. So I thought why not put these things together and like you said we are looking to bridge the gap between Africa and the African Diaspora, so that is basically everyone of African descent and while we are doing that, why not do books about people of African descent in Africa, Pan Africa because we are looking to bridge the gap, in our history and education, we need books that are through a non-westernized lens and so the both of them go hand in hand.
The Pan African Think Tank was started last year and so we just celebrated our one-year anniversary (L. Scott extends her congratulations), thank you! It has been going well but Covid-19 has kept us at home but as soon as someone gets this (the pandemic) under control we are going to be back out there.
La’Tanya Scott: I was reading about how you came up with this and I was checking out some other interviews that you did on entrepreneurship, talking to some local businesspeople, what was the reason that you created this?
C. Nichole: You have all these ideas and to this day, I have traveled to 93 countries, so I meet people of African descent everywhere and they just seem to think that we are so different and it is true we do have some differences kind of like siblings but when you get down to the bottom of it, we still have the same issues. I was coming in contact with people in Africa who did not think that there were poor people in America, they do not understand the plight that people of African descent go through in America.
I was coming into contact with people of African descent in Brazil and their issues are parallel to our issues in America, it is not even funny…the exact same issues, people in Africa see us differently, because of the media and the images that they see on the television and in the movies and I was trying to tell them that we are the same, especially when you go into Latin American countries, The Caribbean and Colombia and they were like we have the same skin and I was like I know, we come from the same place. There is a language barrier but that does not mean that we are different.
So, while I was in Brazil, I decided to go to the favella, which people here would call the ghetto, and I just wanted to see how they lived. I like to see both sides of the spectrum and people were saying that it was so dangerous, and I thought well I looked Brazilian so I would be okay (they both laugh). I got a chance to look at one of the schools there and I asked someone why the kids were out of school so early, it was midday. They told me that there were not that many schools in the favella and so the kids only go half a day, similar to Pre-K here in the United States. So I asked, if they are only in school for a half a day, then what are they learning, how many of the kids go on to college, and he said that only 1% of the kids in the favellas go to college. The rest just stay there, and work in their family businesses they do not really have to know how to even pass the tests.
I said well okay what do they learn, he said that they learn everything but history, world geography and technology, those are 3 major factors…they do not know how to work on computers.
La’Tanya Scott: Are they doing that on purpose?
C. Nichole: I think it is systemic like here in the United States and I also think that they do not have enough funds and once again that is because of the system. He told me that people cannot even point to Brazil on a map so how are they going to point to Africa on the map. I asked what they knew about their history and he said they know whatever their parents know about their history. That is why Latin Americans do not even associate with Afro-Latinos because they do not even know where they are from. So I was like this has to stop and when I came back from my trip, my nephew who was 6 years-old at the time, I asked him where he came from and he said Texas and I said okay but beyond that, where do you come from? He said Texas and I thought so I am failing here at home too.
So not only are we failing out there, but we are also failing at home! My sister and I live together, and I am someone, who at that point, had been to 79 countries and I have a nephew who is right here with me and he does not even know, so I had to look inside myself to realize well if I am failing at home then there must be other people failing elsewhere, it is time to step up and do something about it. So now when he goes around the house, he calls everyone, ‘of African descent’ and I am just trying to teach him…I understand that the word Black is out there, but I am trying to teach him that when you say ‘of African descent, you are actually pinpointing yourself to a region that you can be proud of.
La’Tanya Scott: I am glad that you are having this transparency with me and with yourself because a lot of people will not say, hey I am failing at something, especially not our culture, our history…where we come from, where our melanin comes from. What are you doing to educate folks about where they are from and are there any barriers for the education to get through?
C. Nichole: What I am trying to do to educate people about where they are from first and foremost, our first forums for Pan African Think Tank were in Africa, why not start in Africa. After we do the forums about where they want to see their country, where they want to see Africa, where they want to see Pan Africa as a whole, I stay there so that we can have a regular informal open conversation, say what you want to say, ask what you want to ask and from there we educate each other. There are some many things about certain countries, I remember that I had a great talk in Dar Es Salaam Tanzania, there were so many misconceptions of how I view them and how they view me…you know, people in the United States that we talked for almost 2 hours and I was like…alright!
Just breaking down those misconceptions, because a lot of people of African descent within the African Diaspora do not travel to Africa and that is a whole other conversation right there.
La’Tanya Scott: I am saving up my coins (C. Nichole states that it is so expensive), no it is really not. My mother, I love her so much, she is my best friend, she watches Nollywood every single day and it got to the point where it was so annoying because all that you would hear was the music from the videos. But sitting down and watching it with her and doing my own research…because a lot of folks that I know, do not want that education to find out how it is in Africa because the one thing that you are doing is working to break down the misconceptions that have been given to us as to how Africa is, how Africans live or how they are. The thought is that they live in muddy huts and they have no running water, they have no shoes…those kinds of things and that is not the case.
C. Nichole: Sometimes it can get expensive though because when people look into Africa, they do not consider the visas, the shots…things like that, so if you have a family of 4, I get it. I have also had that talk, especially in places like Ghana where they want us back, and it’s like well can you give your sister a discount because you sold some of us over here so can we get a discount to come back…no, ok.
La’Tanya Scott: I have a friend that moved his family back to Africa, his name is Derrick Ashong, he is the owner and the founder of ‘Take Back the Mike’ and he moved his family back to Africa so that his beautiful brown skin girls would not have to grow up in the U.S. society, to protect them from the belief of how it is thought that brown skin girls should look and act…so he moved his family back there so that they can know their value and their worth. So, when are we going?
C. Nichole: Let us go back to what you said about the education point, so being over there the educational piece is just being immersed in people that look like you, not even thinking about race because all you see is Brown and it will get to the point where you might thing well dang, I want to see some different ethnicities and then you come home here to the United States and you think well maybe I should go back. I am not going to lie; I am a very transparent person and I really do not care about how people feel but I know that sometimes when I come back to the States, I forget that there are so many white people. I have been in Africa so long and then I come home and it’s like oh, like I literally forgot.
La’Tanya Scott: I am glad that you brought that up because that is another misconception because there are so many advertisements and videos, there are a lot of things on Instagram that I have seen where there are white Africans, if you get what I am saying. A lot of people that I have spoken to say that Africa is turning white and America is turning white and that melanated people are being displaced.
C. Nichole: Africa is not turning white and this is the thing that I tell people all the time is that our DNA…our melanin is so strong that even when we get with a white person, the baby is automatically going to be Brown. Are they moving there for the money? I would say that there are more Chinese people than white people that are moving there to take Africa not in terms of slavery but just from the perspective of wanting to buy it…they are doing that but supposedly by 2050, Black people or people of color will be in the majority. Africa is a huge continent and they are having a lot of kids over there and the population of youth is the biggest ever on any continent at the moment and so you cannot believe that, you have to go and see it for yourself and again that is the point of education…we need to educate each other, I have an app on my phone called African News, so it is this non-bias news organization where you are learning about things all over the world, I do not even watch CNN or Fox, I have my own un-biased news sources. I actually do not watch the news, I read it so that I do not have to hear their bias tone.
The way that we are also bridging the gap is that we just started…it will be a 3-book series called “The Reign,” and the first book is going to be about Africa, so I decided to say hey, there are people in Africa that do not even know about tribes outside of their country because most people forget that Africa is a continent not a country. There are also people in the Diaspora that do not know about tribes who feel kind of like insensitive to tribes, they feel as though they are savages. I am showing in the book the beauty of these tribes, their tribal garb, and some fun tidbits that you can learn…I did not know about these tribes.
The second book is going to be, “The Reign: North and South America.” In this book you are going to be learning about how people of African descent got to the Americas and about the ethnic groups that we still have here that people do not talk about. There are so many ethnic groups in the Caribbean, in South America and here in North America, people do not know that people from the Congo when it was Congo Kingdom with a “K” invented the Tango (style of dance) so I have something in there about Argentina and Brazil.
The third book, we go into something that no one talks about, we go into Asia and Oceania. People do not understand that in Fiji there are people with our same skin color with mini afros.
La’Tanya Scott: I did not know that. One of things that I would like for you to talk about is your Go Fund Me, I know that you all have raised a little more than $4,000 with a goal of $120,000, let our viewers/readers know how they can donate.
Also, given that you have never worked a 9 to 5 and being an entrepreneur, having your own non-profit and marketing company, how does one get on your level so that they can be just as good if not better?
C. Nichole: In order to be an entrepreneur, not having a 9 to 5 job, it takes a lot of…I hate to use the word sacrifice, so I will say more of a compromise and so the things that you desire are going to have to be put on hold. For me, I go years without being in a relationship because I know that it will take away from what I need to do. You may not be able to buy that Gucci bag that you wanted because you need to invest in your business. You have to be okay with being called crazy because your family may not understand what you are doing because you are about to break generational curses. You have to have a strong mindset and not be someone that succumbs to peer pressure, you have to be a leader, a trendsetter a trailblazer.
If you are someone who gets broken easily, who does not have the strength to go on when someone tells you no, then this is not for you. You have to be a resilient person and at the same time you have to be realistic. You need to print your goals and actually have a date next to them, you have to have an end date and do the research. You cannot wait for people to tell you, you have to spend money on consultations, you have to be able to pay invoices; if you cringe at the sound of the word invoice then you probably should not do this.
You need to be able to educate yourself beyond college. I learned more outside of college than I did when I was in college. I will be honest with you, in my opinion, you really do not even have to go to college. As long as you take the time to educate yourself about what you are doing and you are moving in the right circles, you can do it. Everything that you need to know…no excuses because everything is on-line, you spend your time on Instagram and Twitter, I do not understand why you cannot spend your time reading a book. Also, this is a global world, so just to be culturally aware, you need to get out. I understand that people want to go the Bahamas or Jamaica for vacation…no, you need to go somewhere that is going to make you uncomfortable, that will get you out of your comfort zone, so that you could also as a leader, grow in empathy and compassion. That is what a lot of our leaders are missing, to be able to step into someone else’s shoes.
I would say travel, get your money together which means sacrificing the things that you want. You will have to sacrifice some relationships, there are going to be some people that do not need to be in your circle and there will be times where you cannot have the girlfriend/boyfriend because you will need to focus on yourself. I would also suggest that you hold off on getting married and having kids because once you do that, that will take away so much. I am about to be 30 and back in the day people would say that you are supposed to be married and have kids by this time…NO, that is not the case! Even buying a house will settle you down so much so that you cannot even move around freely.
La’Tanya Scott: I am trying to get on your level, and I know that a lot of our viewers/readers are trying to get on your level as well and what I mean about that is that you have so much under your belt; knowledge, experience and so many conversations that you have had and your passport is probably over stamped by now. With me being an African American and wanting to go to Abuja, Nigeria, Namibia, and Kenya so that I can go to the giraffe manor, I was supposed to do it for my 30th birthday but I was not able to because like you just talked about, I did not sacrifice…I was focused on other things and other people.
C. Nichole: There are 2 things as a woman that you are going to have to be, First, you are going to have to be weird because you cannot be like everybody else. I am very weird, and I am proud of it. You have to be able to not worry about what everyone says. The last one is the most important one, you have to be fearless. You have to know in your heart that when it’s your time to go, it will be your time to go. As you are living on the Earth right now, you will have to do whatever you need to do in order to grow mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, that is why I take sabbaticals and go on these trips.
La’Tanya Scott: That is why you are going to be my best friend (C. Nichole laughs), because my nickname is ‘fearless adventurer’ and also ‘Miss go-getter’ ‘fearless go-getter’ it is so weird. You just signed, sealed, and delivered a thought in my mind, so thank you for that. What you are doing is immaculate, it is so wonderful, you are not only educating but you are helping people to have a better sense and knowledge of different places, you are traveling, you are writing books and a lot of people have not even opened up a book.
So, for you to be doing all of these wonderful things, you are a rock star!
C. Nichole: You asked earlier about this, the Go Fund Me, if you go to @panafricantt on Instagram or Twitter or just can go to http://www.panafricantt.org you can go to donate and you will be able to donate directly or you can go to the Go Fund Me, which there is a link there as well. We do have a big goal because achieving that goal will help us to do everything, so I like to be straight forward about it.
La’Tanya Scott: What are some of the things that you are looking to do?
C. Nichole: There are 38 forms that we need to have where we go and talk about our issues in order to figure out realistically what we are going to do and also that we are going to have in our Pan African Think Tank Convention where all the leaders of the world organizations that we partner with, come together and we sit down at a table and realistically discuss and map out a plan. I believe that sometimes we talk about the things that we want to do but we do not have a plan. We want a plan without government interference because sometimes they do not have the funds and when they say that they are going to do something, they do not do it. So we want to have a plan so that we can help ourselves without interference.
So, that is where all of that money is going to, the forms and the Pan African Think Tank Convention.
La’Tanya Scott: For that convention, what are you guys thinking as your end date, when are you looking to have it, is it in the next year or two?
C. Nichole: There is a lot going on, but I would like to have it in 2024. I think that at that point the world will have recovered from this pandemic because we will be bringing people from different continents into one place, and we would like to have it in Rwanda because that would be the easiest place for everyone to come together. We will focus on the top 10 issues that are affecting us globally, together… then in this generation we will direct our attention to the top 3 issues with the hopes that each generation after us will continue on.
I think that some people think that change happens overnight, and it does not. So, these are organizations that I partner with that are here for the long run and who share the same vision as us.
La’Tanya Scott: What are some of the issues that you are referring to?
C. Nichole: Education comes up a lot of the time because even if we do have education, it is not an education that is positive for our people, it is more of a westernized education. Technology is another issue that we talk about. We have to be able to communicate with each other and if you do not have internet in your village or you do not have lights, that is a problem. We also talk about the fact that we lack leadership because a lot of countries not only in Africa but within the African Diaspora, there are some dictatorships that are going on, just like we have going on right here in the states right now (they both laugh).
Those are some of our top issues right now. We are hopeful with these Generations of Millennials, Gen Z and Alpha…we are hopeful.
La’Tanya Scott: Perfect, so I am going to donate.
C. Nichole: Thank you very much, and you guys can also buy apparel that goes directly to us so not only are you donating but you can get something as well.
La’Tanya Scott: I want a T-shirt. What are some other projects that you are working on?
C. Nichole: I am working on another project and I will be finishing up with that very shortly. I have not really talked about it so I guess that I will talk about it here first. I am coming out with a Pan African Think Tank EP. So, basically every single song will give you something that you can groove to and the genre is Tribal Trill, I am mixing African grooves with southern drums and percussions and things like that and not only in these songs are we talking about things that uplift people of African descent in a positive way, I am also dropping history in there, so not only are you singing along but you are learning about your history.
The first single drops in February, they call it Black History Month, but I call it Pan African History Month because I want to learn about everybody. The first single is called, ‘Ghetto’ and in this song I am talking about everything that people outside of our culture calls ‘Ghetto’, but it is not. It is our culture, and you should be proud of it and it is a very upbeat song.
That is the project that I am working on, and so not only am I going to hit you with the books to educate you, but there will also be education in the songs and then we have the Think Tank as well. So if you do not like my music then fine, you can buy the book and if you do not like to read…fine then buy some clothes, you do not like the clothes then jam to the music.
La’Tanya Scott: Give them options! I really like that you are into educating.
C. Nichole: I just want to say one line from the song, “Raised from the sand of The Mother Land, washed in the now with my father’s hand. Like Mansa Musa I’m so grand. Fight like Shaka Enzanga, educated in Kemet, that’s Egypt…”
I have a song on the second EP which is an upbeat dance song and I go through and name all of these different African Empires that people do not even think about. You will be singing these empires of Africa and it is going to make you want to look into these empires, so it is a jam, but you are also learning about the continent.
La’Tanya Scott: See you are going to make me want to do my DNA so that I can find out where I am from, I still got it, I am just on the fence about it.
C. Nichole: I did it too (she laughs).
La’Tanya Scott: I want to get you connected to Derrick Ashong. He is an entrepreneur like you, and he has a couple of Emmy nominations under his belt and I believe that he can help to amplify what you are doing. His project, ‘Take Back the Mike’ may be able to help to raise awareness and help add to your financial goals.
C. Nichole: I am down for whatever because I am at a point where you have to understand that when you are doing something like this, you have to realize that it is not about you. So it is about everyone and who ever I can connect with to make it happen…people know that I am an open arms person, I freely give out my contact information. I live on all time zones, so anything that we can do to make it work, in that manner, I am very friendly.
La’Tanya Scott: Perfect! Can you please give us your social media handles, your website, and some last-minute words of encouragement and also if you can tell us one more time about your Go Fund Me?
C. Nichole: You can find me on Instagram and Twitter @misscnichole. You can find all the Pan African Publishing House books at @panafricanph or at http://www.panafricanpublishing.com as far the Pan African Think Tank goes, http://www.panafricantt.org the Go Fund Me is there on the website, @panafricantt on both Instagram and Twitter. Please know that all of your funds are going directly to Pan African Think Tank, we have our own separate account, and we do our taxes every year if you would like to look it up to see where it goes. If you are interested in purchasing our apparel in order to represent us and to spread awareness about us by word of mouth, that would also be great.
Some words of encouragement, this is what I have told myself since I was younger, and I will tell it to you with the hopes that you receive it well. What God has for you will be for you, there is no need to rush, take your time…find your purpose. It may take you a little longer than others but do not worry about what everyone else is doing, when you feel in your heart that this is what you are supposed to be doing, you will know. Keep it positive and respect yourself, know your worth, keep the faith and please sustain your peace!
La’Tanya Scott: I am blown away because I did not know a lot of what I learned today, please follow C. Nichole on Instagram, donate, and help her nonprofit organization out and buy the books and have them in your children’s libraries (C. Nichole holds up the book and displays all of the beautiful illustrations in the book). What age group would the books be good for?
C. Nichole: I had to put ages 6-12, but I am going to be honest, as an adult there is so much that you are going to learn. I have teenagers who have seen the book already and they are just immersed in the images because people think that people in Africa wear loin cloths. It is for everybody.
La’Tanya Scott: I got some folks that I would like for them to read that book, they read to their kids every night and sing songs…they sing songs like, ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing (Black National Anthem), they want their kids to know where they come from and all about the struggles that our ancestors dealt with so that we can be where we are now. I am definitely going to buy your books; I am definitely going to donate, and I am going to purchase some T-shirts.
Nichole thank you so much and I really want to call this Part 1 because I think that in a few months we can check in with you to see how things are going with your goal. I believe that there will be more for us to talk about and some more questions that I am going to have for you. I know that I am doing this for Purposely Awakened, but I would like to learn more from you. Thank you for giving me some of your time.
C. Nichole: Thank you so much for having me.
La’Tanya Scott: You are welcome.
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