African Heritage Picture Book Author Spotlight: Mayowa Precious Agbabiaka

For some background, tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from and what you do? My name is Mayowa Precious Agbabiaka, most people call me Precious. Born and raised in London but I am Nigerian. Yoruba. Ijebu babe. Currently, I'm a freelancer in UX/UI design, writing and content production.

When did you first become interested in writing for children? Did you always know you wanted to write African heritage books? Oh, absolutely not, lol! If you had told me I'd be an author 2/3 years ago I would have ignored your comment. I think my fiction writing interests were more to do with wanting to one day be a film director or write film / TV show treatments but never books. I fell into this by accident but I'm really glad I did! I've always loved languages, I started teaching myself Spanish in year 4, did French in Year 7, went back to Spanish afterwards and Yoruba has always been a language that connects me to my people and heritage. Plus growing up with a Jamaican childminder Patois was something I always heard and understood, having Indian friends too meant I picked up a few basic Gujarati phrases. So I've always loved being surrounded by and had an appreciation for different languages.

How I got into this was, that I wanted a fictional Yoruba adult book to read, to practice with and I couldn't find one. I didn't trust the kid's books that I found as they were written by white authors and were just translations rather than authentic stories so I wrote a book myself. That was literally it!

What have been the challenges to writing, publishing and/or marketing an African heritage book? Umm... My biggest challenge(s) has been making sure the translations were correct especially because I don't know most of the languages to be able to say, “oo there's a spelling mistake” or to really know if the story is actually a story that makes sense.

Like are they just sentences in this new language or does it have all the "she said" and the "they walked away." Do you know what I mean?

It was also so interesting but frustrating learning that a lot of our languages can vary quite drastically. So there's like central Igbo, and Twi Ashanti/Asante and Fante. The Twi translation had me on WhatsApp video calls with people in Ghana late at night trying to correct what I thought was Ashanti/Asante but was actually Fante.

I think my next challenge is trying to make it accessible to people across Africa. I haven't figured that one out yet sadly.

Did you have any fears or self-doubts when writing an African heritage children’s book? What were they and how did you overcome them? Not really to be honest. I remember receiving a video clip pre-release of a Yoruba influencer and his three sons who are now like my internet nephews (@yoruba_pikin). He sent me a video of all four of them reading the book together and I cried…like that was genuinely enough for me.

Ooo actually, on the day of release I was nervous! My body was SHAKING and my cousin had to come to my house and bring me alcohol to take shots LOL. Then I pressed send on all of the tweets/posts. I don't know if I'd call it doubt, it was more like I wasn't sure if I really wanted to release my baby to the world I guess. Either way, two shots of whisky and encouragement from friends sorted me right out!

What advice do you have for authors writing African heritage children’s books? Please, write them! I don't want to be the only one doing this. As much as I love making each adaptation of my books unique to your cultures, don't let this Nigerian-Brit be the one writing your stories for your people.

Write the adult fiction in Patois, the non-fiction in Shona, the teenage novels in Krio. Write it all and release it. I AM ON MY KNEES BEGGING - JOIN ME!

What is your favorite African heritage children’s book? Sadly the only one I know of was called "I Don't Eat Toothpaste Anymore," and it was written by a white woman. But that book never left me because her characters were Nigerian heritage and the girl was called Abiola - same name as my brother (many Yoruba names are unisex). So that book after about 20 years old - is one I remember and always will.

Any advice on how people can encourage children to read more diverse books? Buy it for them, LOL. Like children don't have money so how else are they going to read diverse books? Buy it for them, the responsibility is on you as an adult not the children. We have access to so many bookshops now, Google is free, there's no excuse. Ruby's Reads, There's Roundtable Books, and This is Book Love. They all specialise in racially and religiously diverse books. Buy them for the kids in your life, donate to schools/classrooms, donate to libraries.

What are you working on next? Are there any other African heritage children’s books that you have written? Nope, There's Rice At Home is my first and only. I haven't even decided but in 2021 I'll be writing more books for sure. Eventually venturing into books for adults too one day. I'll also be commissioning writers to write books in their native languages but that's all I can say on that for now!

Three Fun Facts

• I'm a published author is my biggest fun fact

• I love films and TV shows

• I am such a big foodie

• Bonus: You can buy “There’s Rice at Home” in 8+ languages on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BookDepository.com, and at Ruby’s Reads on Instagram

Connect with Mayowa Precious Agbabiaka:  Instagram (If you buy her book, be sure to tag her on Instagram)