Omo Osagiede is the co-founder of the popular travel blog hey! dip your toes in.
Osagiede was born in Nigeria. His parents came from two different tribes in Nigeria.
Omo Osagiede in thought. Photo courtesy of Omo Osagiede
Africa is made up of over 200 ethnic groups and it can be confusing to navigate culture, so instead of raising him using one of his parents’ culture, they chose to raise him speaking English with an English influence.
“In a way, it de-culturalized our home growing up because they had to find a middle ground,” Osagiede said. “Basically, they raised us as children who were culturally neutral.”
Osagiede spent hours looking at books and learning about other cultures.
“I got curious about other cultures,” Osagiede said. “I got curious about, not too much Nigerian culture, but global culture. I wanted to know more about the rest of the world.”
After finishing university in Nigeria, Osagiede got a job opportunity in England. The move to London “hit the reset button on his life,” he said. Although he had been raised with English influence, the culture was much different from Nigeria.
“I got thrown into the deep end of this culture here,” Osagiede said. “It was both exciting and scary at the same time. I could finally explore my interest in other cultures.”
Even though he was thrown into the deep end, he said this move changed his life. He met his wife who now runs a travel blog. The two met because of their shared love of travel. They took their first international trip to Costa Rica. By the trip’s end, his aunts were hoping they would get married. Read Eulanda’s story in part one of the series.
“It was also scary in the sense that I was leaving familiar ground and going to another country and not knowing what the expect,” Osagiede said. “That’s one of the beautiful things about travel is that before you get thrown into the deep end it exposes you to that other culture.”
Among some of his favorite places he has traveled to for the blog are Morocco, Portugal, Madeira and Mexico City, although all destinations and experiences — both good and bad — have had a positive impact on his life.
Before moving to England and traveling for the blog, he had not been to Africa. When he visited Morocco, he saw a different side to his African identity, he said.
“We had a shared sense of brotherhood with the African identity, so it was a learning opportunity to really see my earth continent from a different perspective,”Osagiede bemused.
For Osagiede, one of the most important lessons he has learned from traveling is that humanity is everywhere, he said.
Read part three of the series to learn about how Osagiede and his wife made their dreams come true and started their own travel blog-HDYTI.
