Chipping Away at the Same Iceberg

Abstract

This collaborative dialogue between Nigerian Nordic feminist writers Faith Adiele and Lolá Ákínmádé explore their lived experiences as AfroNordic women navigating multiple intersecting identities across Nigeria, Nordic coun-tries, and the United States. Through intimate conversation, the authors reflect on how their creative practices—spanning memoir, fiction, and visual storytelling—serve as sites of resistance against Nordic exceptionalism and White supremacist structures embedded in supposedly egalitarian societies. The essay interrogates the contradictions between Nordic ideals of equality and the reality of racialized experiences, revealing how concepts like Swedish jantelagen and the “happiness index” function to silence dissent and maintain racial hierarchies. Drawing on their positions as cultural insiders/outsiders, Adiele and Ákínmádé demonstrate how their creative practices of AfroNordic feminism emerges from the intersection of Nigerian patriarchy, Nordic Whiteness, and American racial dynamics. Their analysis reveals institutional resistance to AfroNordic narratives while highlight-ing the strategic use of accessible creative forms to build community and foster difficult conversations. The authors position their work in a broader framework of coalition-building with other marginalized groups, particularly Indigenous Sámi communities, arguing for solidarity-based approaches to challenging dominant narratives of Nordic exceptionalism and modeling community mothering practices that teach the next generation to demand more.