Nigeria: A black American who made Nigeria home

In the spirit of America’s Black History Month, observed every February, I often write about themes that resonate with the occasion. In that same spirit, I am reproducing a slightly edited version of a column I wrote on March 2, 2013 about Mrs. Cecilia Crump Erinne, a remarkable Black American woman who later became my mother-in-law.

I have developed a renewed appreciation for her in light of the contentious debates that have surfaced lately between African immigrants in the United…