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Lupita Nyong’o On The Impotance Of Literature On BBC

The Star of 12 Years A Slave, Lupita Nyong’o was invited to the  Harris Westminster Sixth Form, London to mentor young women on leadership and the importance of literacy in an event hosted by the National Literacy Trust in partnership with Lancôme.

Nyong’o, now a best-selling author, told the BBC she didn’t even like reading when she was young as the books were not about her personality and kind.

She believe books should be about all people, black and white and it should address all concern.

Last year, she released her book ‘Sulwe’  a children’s fiction picture book that addresses colorism in the Black community. It follows the story of a young girl who wishes for her dark skin to be lighter. The story is ultimately about colorism and learning to love oneself, no matter one’s skin tone.

While there, the Kenyan-Mexican actress spoke to the BBC about the importance of literature and her own journey with reading books as a child.

‘I realized that books don’t have to be about White people, they can actually represent all people,’ the actress says describing her complex relationship with literature during childhood.

“When I was growing up I didn’t like reading but I was surrounded by books all ti mes and I did know how to read. But as I grew older I realized that with reading comes comprehension and confidence,” Nyong’o begins. “And I think those are two qualities that are really important as you get into the workforce and try find your place in the world.”

Intermittent snippets show the actress speaking to the young women about the roles reading and studying have played in her professional career when having had to play certain characters with specific capabilities.

Cutting back to the main interview, Nyongo’o continues, “When I was younger, one of the things that didn’t help my dislike of reading was the fact that not a lot of the books that I was reading were relevant to my immediate life, to my immediate world.” She adds that, “I realized that books don’t have to be about White people, they can actually represent all people.”

Towards the end of the interview, Nyong’o says simply, “When you are reading stories that have themes and characters that are relevant to your world, then you’re more likely to stick with [reading] longer because you can see the ways in which it is applicable to your life.”

 

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LUPITA NYONG’O SPEAKS ON GROWING UP WITH SKIN DARKER THAN HER SISTER’S OWN

Lupita Nyong’o spoke to BBC Newsnight about being a “victim of colourism” as a child and how she “wished to have skin that was different”.

The Oscar-winning actress, who has starred in movies such as Black Panther and 12 Years a Slave,  was raised in Kenya before moving to the United States.

She spoke with BBC Newsnight ahead of the release of her children’s book, Sulwe, about a girl with darker skin than her family.

Lupita told Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis: “I definitely grew up feeling uncomfortable with my skin colour because I felt like the world around me awarded lighter skin.”

She said her younger sister, whose skin was lighter, was called “beautiful” and “pretty”.

“Self-consciously that translates into: ‘I’m not worthy’.”

She said colourism was “very much linked to racism” despite the fact she experienced it in a predominantly black society like Kenya.

“We still ascribe to these notions of Eurocentric standards of beauty, that then effect how we see ourselves among ourselves,” she said.

The actor said she was once told at an audition that she was “too dark” for television.

But Nyong’o said the relationship to her skin had been separate to the relationship to her race, according to BBC.

“Race is a very social construct, one that I didn’t have to ascribe to on a daily basis growing up,” she said. “As much as I was experiencing colourism in Kenya, I wasn’t aware that I belonged to a race called black.”

She said that changed when she moved to the US, “because suddenly the term black was being ascribed to me and it meant certain things that I was not accustomed to.”

Colourism is prejudice against people who have a darker skin tone or the preferential treatment of those who are of the same race but lighter-skinned.

 

 

 

Credit: LIB

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LUPITA NYONG’O WRITES BOOK TO INSPIRE CHILDREN TO LOVE THE SKIN THEY ARE IN

Here’s the plot for the book titled “Sulwe”.

Sulwe has skin the color of midnight. She is darker than everyone in her family. She is darker than anyone in her school. Sulwe just wants to be beautiful and bright, like her mother and sister. Then a magical journey in the night sky opens her eyes and changes everything.

In this book, actress Lupita Nyong’o creates a whimsical and heartwarming story to inspire children to see their own unique beauty.

She shared a post about the book on Twitter:

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