FREEDOM FROM FOOD ADDICTION
By Tchaiko Omawale
WHENEVER I’M ASKED TO DESCRIBE WHO I AM, THE SAME THING INEVITABLY HAPPENS. I ALWAYS MANAGE TO STUTTER A PLAINTIVE, “I’M DIFFERENT.”
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’m a third-culture kid: born in Rome to Carib- bean parents, raised in seven different countries and currently living in the United States. Everywhere I’ve been, I’ve been an ‘other.’ Even in my early life in Jamaica, before I started moving around the
world, I felt different from my cousins. They had more money than us and trav- elled to the US to bring back American toys, snacks and cereal. My family never went to Disneyland -- instead of Barbies, we had books at our house; instead of
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Corn Pops, we ate Jamaican corn flakes. When I left Jamaica and started traveling, everywhere we lived I was different – not quite Jamaican, not American, not Thai, not African, not Christian or Muslim. I was always out of place.
It’s taken years to make peace with this feeling and, this year, I’m doing some- thing pretty impressive for my younger self: I’m making my first feature film “Solace” inspired by my story of being a black girl with an eating disorder who also flirted with self-harm. It’s a piece of art dedicated to anyone who has ever felt alone, othered or out of place -- a way
to explore so many things that made me feel different throughout my
life...not just being a black girl with a “white girl’s” is- sue but being an outsider as an atheist, a queer black woman and, of course, being an artist.
At age 29 I was forced to face myself. Before this I had buried myself in helping other people and being in relationships where my partners’ issues rendered mine non-existent. At the recommendation of a doctor, I had gone on the Master Cleanse to solve some chronic digestive issues and, after the ten-day fast, something horrific happened: my chronic stomach
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