Welcome to the Blog
Hi!
I started this blog, out of a great need to air out my thoughts,
I had just become a new mum and was not coping too well.
I have never doubted the strength of Womankind but I never could have imagined how motherhood could be challenging and wonderful in its unique way.
There were just so many things that we never talk about or shared… from stretchmarks, to morning sickness, or attachment and hair loss. and so much more.
I felt like I entered a brand new space where I was expected to know exactly what to do, when really I hadn’t a clue.
I decided to blog as therapy and 6 years later I am still at it.
There has been an evolution or transformation to my blog in that what started as parenting frustrations has been whittled down to my latest passion and obsession; diversity in children's literature.
As a professional in the field of education, reading and books have been a constant in our home.
Quite early on I noted the gap in the literature, and went out of my way to find books which would reflect the lives of the children I was raising.
In March 2018, one of my greatest fears came to life, my daughter looked at me and told me she didn’t want to be brown anymore. She didn’t want to be different. She wanted to look like everyone else.
Being a third culture kid myself, my husband and I have raised our children in a world as diverse as we could provide, in our choice of schools, teachers, friends, tv shows, travels, everything was deliberately selected and vetted to broaden her mind and show her the beauty and complexity of her culture. By the time our girl was 4, she had already traveled 3 times to London, twice to LA, twice to the Gambia, once to Senegal and several other trips.
So, when she shared with me how she was feeling, I was not sure what else I could do. We spoke, and I comforted her and reminded her of the beauty of her brown and I decided to focus on enriching her self-esteem.
I could not change the world she lived in, but I could change how she lived in the world.
We spent even more time together, just talking and playing. I worked with her school to ensure they were aware and supported and one thing we did which made such a difference was we read books where she could see herself. I went through the library in her room and picked all books with African or diasporan characters and we read them over and over. I made up songs for her from the books and I hoped it would help.
One evening I was in the kitchen as she was in the bath and I heard her sing “kwela Ella African princess, Kwela mummy African queen, Kwela we are African beauties” it was one of the made songs from the book Jamila’s Dress by Niki Daly which we loved and read so often.
In that moment I decided to create my company to bring more books to children like mine. We tried to order more books from amazon and I was told the wait for delivery was three months as there was not a large demand for books like the ones we had ordered and I knew then, even more had to be done.
And so, I am doing it. I wrote my first children’s book and published it in July 2018. It is available on Amazon. The book is set in the Gambia and shares a tiny part of our heritage with the world, Mangoes &MonkeyBread and Smaka På Frukterna can be ordered now!
Thank you for following our journey.
xoxo Emily
