It’s February 2020. The road is bumpy, the air is fresh, the weather is perfect, the sun is out, and Mt. Kilimanjaro is to the left of me. I get to the entry gate of Amboseli National Park, and beautiful dark-skinned women run-up to the safari vehicle’s window. Their heads are clean-shaven, they’re dressed in bright red, and my eyes take to the colorful beaded bib necklaces around their necks. The women that speak English begin telling me the prices of their hand-made jewelry. Of course, I am a fashionable woman, and I instantly picture all the outfits I can jazz up back home in America. But most importantly, I’m thinking about how I can bring Africa home with me and how I can display it proudly as I turn heads in my own American streets. I then think about how so many children of African descent would see my jewelry and be in awe and not knowing where it came from, let alone the Maasai women that made it. Most also won’t know the name “Kenya,” where it is on the map, who the Maasai tribe is, how beautiful the women who sold me the jewelry were, etc. Kenya gratefully tallied my country count to 88. On the ride back to Nairobi, I began to think about all the other ethnic groups of African descent that I was blessed to collide with all over the world. My background is in Marketing, so I’m biased to believe that if Africa had better marketing, would people of African descent within the Diaspora want to claim the continent more? Would many young continental Africans dare not assimilate to Western culture when they travel out the continent for either just a visit or after relocating?
I started getting into travel in my late teens but never wanted to write a travel book. I had just spent two months traveling around Africa and looking at beautiful faces while I engaged in forums put on by my non-profit, Pan African Think Tank. My experiences intensely shoved me into writing The Reign: Africa. I started with the hardest thing I had to do, narrow it down to 20 continental African ethnic groups, making sure to hit all the corners of the continent. As a woman of African descent, I was beaming; I was ecstatic to know that I held the keys in my hand to determine how Africa was going to be portrayed. I knew that I could be the first introduction to Africa for a lot of young kids. I made sure that the illustrations matched the ethnic groups to a tee and that they were drawn to capture kids with all the colors and different skin tones. While writing the book, there were so many historical facts that I, in my late 20’s learned about, so I knew it would be an eye-opener for many youths of all ethnicities, especially those of African descent.
I’ve hung out with penguins in Antarctica as I accomplished visiting all seven continents, had a song on FM radio in the States, worked on movie sets with household names, and even published a book called American Presidential Parties: Their Relevance to People of African Descent earlier in the year. But, getting a physical copy of The Reign: Africa in my hand is my proudest moment to date. I know that I have and will continue to build my legacy and cement my place in history. There’s no better way to do it than to educate the masses, especially people of my culture. I will continue to publish the rest of The Reign series under the imprint of Pan African Publishing House because it’s up to us to write our history, our way.
The Reign: Africa(Sailesh Acharya, December 2, 2020, 52 Pages)
C.Nichole is a singer, songwriter, television producer, non-profit founder, creative group, and publishing house owner. The Reign: Africa is her first children’s book, influenced by the need to have more historical books about African ethnic groups for the youth available, especially for children of African descent. She is also the author of American Presidential Parties: Their Relevance to People of African Descent. C.Nichole is a graduate of the University of Houston, having received a BA in Marketing and Minors in Journalism and European Studies, which included studying abroad in Europe and Africa. She cites herself as being a citizen of the world with 90+ countries under her belt before 30 years of age but makes Dallas, Texas, USA, her home base. She is an advocate for Pan Africanism, uniting all people of African descent, as she is the founder of the non-profit, Pan African Think Tank. You can find out more, donate, and shop apparel at PanAfricanTT.org.
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