Kunda Kids, a company founded by marketing powerhouse couple Louisa and Oladele Olafuyi has just released a collection of 4 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.
Kunda Kids was birthed by husband-and-wife Dele & Louisa Olafuyi during the Covid-19 lockdown. Unable to find modern, informative, and fun content for their son about Africa’s ancient history to keep him occupied during the lockdown, they decided to create their own. Together they began writing Africa’s Little Kings & Queens, which has now spread like wildfire within their community.
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. Their 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.
Commenting on the need for representation of African themed books abroad, Louisa said, “Less than 5% of children’s books published in the U.K in 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.”
To support her claim, Kunda Kids partner, Oladele Olafuyi added, “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 is 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).
At first, Oladele and Louisa intended the book series to be a Christmas gift for their son but friends and acquaintances started requesting copies. The couple quickly identified a gap in the market for children’s adventure stories about ancient African places and characters.
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.
As part of their 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 said while applauding their initiative.
The collection will launch on December 15th, 2020. Pre-orders have already exceeded expectations of over 1,000 books sold in the first week. Pre-orders include free stickers and four downloadable activity books for children, plus free shipping to the UK and Europe, and discounted shipping rates to U.S and Canada.
Beyond Africa’s Little Kings & Queens, Kunda Kids is currently working on developing board books, a picture book series on African Empires, nursery rhymes, and animations.
About Kunda Kids
Kunda Kids is an all-Black content creation team made up of writers, illustrators, editors, musicians and animators with a single purpose, to inspire the next generation of young people about ancient and modern African history and culture. We create high-quality books, songs and animations that are insightful, fun and engaging for children 0 – 8 years.
Media Contact: Louisa Olafuyi – Co-founder, (hello@kundakids.com) | www.kundakids.com
