Early 1990s

VALLERIE MWAZO

This photograph was taken in Kenya when my mother was probably twenty or twenty-one. She’s the one in white. I have always loved this photo. Her demeanor, cool and collected, looking far off in the distance. Her clothing. That subtle cross of her feet. The bottle of Coca-Cola in her hand. It’s hard to believe my mother, or any of our mothers, really, had lives before they had us. How strange . . .