Award winning Kenyan actress, Lupita Nyong’o is set to release her book which addresses issues of colourism on October 15.
The 36-year-old actress, in a tweet, reveals that her book “holds a mirror for dark-skinned children especially, to see themselves reflected immediately, and it is a window for all the others to cherish peering into.”
Sulwe, a children’s picture book which means ‘star’in her native language, sends a powerful and integral message to girls of colour.
While sharing a picture of her 5-year-old self on twitter, the Oscar-award winning actress spoke on how colourism affected her feelings growing up in Kenya.
“This is 5-year-old me. I reflected on this little girl’s feelings and fantasies when I decided to write my children’s book. With this book, I wanted to hold up a mirror for her,”Nyong’o wrote on twitter.
Reminiscing on her growing up days, she wrote: “As a little girl reading, I had all of these windows into the lives of people who looked nothing like me, chances to look into their worlds, but I didn’t have any mirrors.
“While windows help us develop empathy and an understanding of the wider world, mirrors help us develop our sense of self, and our understanding of our own world. They ground us in our body and our experiences.
“Colorism, society’s preference for lighter skin, is alive and well. It’s not just a prejudice reserved for places with a largely white population. Throughout the world, even in Kenya, even today, there is a popular sentiment that lighter is brighter. Colorism, society’s preference for lighter skin, is alive and well. It’s not just a prejudice reserved for places with a largely white population. Throughout the world, even in Kenya, even today, there is a popular sentiment that lighter is brighter.
“I imagined what it would have been like for her to turn the pages of picture books and see more dark skin in a beautiful light. This book is my dream come true for kids like her today. #Sulwe arrives Oct 15!”she tweeted.
Recall that the actress had revealed in 2018 that she would be writing a book about the struggles she experienced with her complexion and self-image in 2014.
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Yinka Akanbi
