Kunda Kids, a company founded by marketing powerhouse couple, Louisa and Oladele Olafuyi recently released a collection of four picture books titled Africa’s Little Kings & Queens, a beautifully illustrated collection of picture books perfect for the next generation of young leaders, thinkers, and game-changers of Africa’s great history.
During the lockdown, unable to find modern, informative, and fun content for their son about Africa’s ancient history to keep occupied, the couple decided to create the book for kids everywhere. Together they began writing Africa’s Little Kings & Queens, which has now spread like wildfire within the black-African community in the United Kingdom.
Also, in light of the resurgence of Black Lives Matter and the advent of Nigeria’s #EndSars protests, Louisa and Oladele believed it was important to counter-balance the constant negative stories and depictions of Africa. A strategic response was to provide positive narratives focused on the contributions real African heroes and heroines have made to the world to inspire the next generation.
Read also: Kunda Kids widens diversity in children’s literature
Commenting on the need for representation of African themed books abroad, Louisa said in a statement, “Less than 5% of children’s books published in the U.K last year had a black character, evidence of an industry that continues to under-represent children from minority ethnic groups. Children’s books are also six times more likely to feature animals as the main characters than BAME people.”
In addition to this, Kunda Kids partner, Oladele Olafuyi said, “When children literature and content, in general, fail to provide an accurate representation of individuals from different backgrounds, cultures, and races, the inaccuracies can register within children as true and as a result, breed ignorance, prejudice, and racism in the future.”
The collection, Africa’s Little Kings & Queens, includes four rhyming fictional stories inspired by four of ancient Africa’s influential leaders – Queen Yaa (Ghana), Mansa Musa (Mali), Queen Kitami (Uganda) and Shaka Zulu (South Africa), and it’s suitable for children 3 – 8 years old.
Each vibrant illustration is beautifully drawn and designed by Nigerian born and based Illustrators Isabelle Irabor and Tiolu Yoloye, with stories written by Louisa (Ugandan) & Oladele Olafuyi (Nigerian and edited by Krystle Appiah (Ghanaian).
Parents have given reviews but worthy of note is the similar testimonial that says, “The books are suitable for children between ages 3 – 8 years, they are perfect for reading to little-ones and great for those learning to read independently.
Driven by the purpose to inspire the next generation, Louisa & Oladele, founded Kunda Kids, a content creation studio aimed at producing books, songs, and animations to normalize positive and progressive stories on African themes for children. On November 28th, Kunda Kids was announced as the winner of the BYP Network Pitch 2020 event.
“These are incredible stories to be enjoyed by all children and the family.” One of the judges had said while applauding their initiative.
Pre-orders have already exceeded expectations of over 1,000 books sold in the first week.
