Why I Wrote The Scapegoat That Grew Wings
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This is not a story I wanted to tell.
For years, I kept it buried. The hunger. The exploitation. The specific loneliness of being everywhere and belonging nowhere. I thought: who would want to read this? Who would believe it?
But stories have a way of demanding to be told.
I came to America from Lagos in 2017. I was 17. I had a suitcase, a sketchbook, and nothing else. No money. No connections. No safety net.
The plan was simple: survive.
What actually happened was more complicated.
There's a version of the immigration story that gets told over and over. The hard work. The sacrifice. The eventual triumph. The grateful immigrant who made it.
That's not this story.
This is the story of what happens when the American Dream turns out to be a lie. When the people who were supposed to help you exploit you instead. When you realize that "making it" might mean losing yourself.
I started writing The Scapegoat That Grew Wings in 2019, during one of the darkest periods of my life. I was sleeping on floors. I was hungry more often than not. I was beginning to wonder if I'd made a terrible mistake.
But I had my sketchbook. And I had my pen.
So I wrote. Not to publish. Not to share. Just to survive.
The book follows Ochuko, a 17-year-old Nigerian artist who comes to America alone. The details are changed. The names are different. But the feelings? Those are mine.
The hunger is real.
The exploitation is real.
The transformation is real.
Five years later, it's finished. 14 chapters. 150+ pages. Original illustrations throughout.
I'm calling it "The Scapegoat That Grew Wings" because that's what happened. I carried the weight others refused to hold. And somehow, instead of being crushed by it, I transformed.
If you see yourself in this story, that's not an accident.
This book is for the ones who never saw their story reflected anywhere. The ones who survived things they don't talk about. The ones who are still becoming.
— Patrick
The Scapegoat That Grew Wings is available now at afrophilia-x.shop. First edition. Signed. Limited.