Hello and welcome to my first ever post. For this post I have chosen to write about a topic I feel very passionate about, something which will also help me explain why we are here in the first place.
If you’ve read the short bit about me, you will know I am Nigerian, was born in Germany and moved to the UK when I was 12. Growing up in Germany obviously meant that I was taught in German and more importantly, my history lessons were about Germany. When we moved to England, I attended the German school in Richmond, where the lessons were all about 1066 and all the different Henrys. I failed my history Mittlere Reife woefully, but luckily did much better in the rest of my subjects.
Fast forward to 2018 and I came across a video titled In Conversation with Afua Hirsch & David Olusoga in which they speak about topics raised in their books Brit-ish and Black and British.
In it, David Olusoga explained that his book is in part a response to certain absences he found with regard to history classes at school. I realise now that I wasn’t too daft to understand the causes of the Franco-Prussian War, but I just couldn’t identify with what we were being taught. It felt like I was being forced to take on a history that wasn’t mine. This history didn’t feature people like me and was definitely not part of my identity. So how could I say that it’s my history?
Allow me to take you back again, this time to 2008 when my sister and I decided to move to Nigeria. It was our first time ever living in our home country but more importantly, living in a country as part of the majority. I loved it. Finally I blended in with everyone and I didn’t have to spell my name let alone anglicise its pronunciation. At the time I was working as an Art Director at an advertising agency, and quite surprisingly to me, I really struggled to create adverts for the people I so believed I could identify with. This left me feeling somewhat amiss. I didn’t feel I belonged in Germany, nor could I identify with English values and beliefs, and Nigeria… well, the more I tried to understand the culture, the more I realised that I couldn’t understand it fully, because I didn’t grow up in it.
So, what does this have to do with children’s literature, I hear you ask? Well, quite a lot. So much in fact, that a lot of books and articles have been written about the effects of the omission of black people in children’s literature. You can read some of them here, here and here. Furthermore, the aforementioned absences of black people especially in children’s literature, point towards a long-existing gap in the market which desperately needs to be filled.
With this in mind, I would like to draw your attention to the graphic novel German Calendar No December written by Sylvia Ofili and illustrated by Birgit Weyhe.
Addressing the topic of identity and belonging, the story in itself is very interesting and much needed especially in today’s socio-political climate. Targeted at a teen audience, I believe this book can be used as a tool to help our children understand their feelings around belonging as we encourage them to carve out strong identities of their own.
The colour of dual nationality
German Calendar No December tells the story of Olivia Evezi who is from a small town named Warri in South Nigeria. Olivia’s mother is German and her father Igbo Nigerian. The story is divided into two parts. The first detailing Olivia’s transition from small town Warri to boarding school in Lagos. The second shows Olivia’s move to Hamburg to attend university. Ofili captures the many nuances of life at a Lagos boarding school, which much to Olivia’s surprise wasn’t the same as what she expected growing up reading Enid Blyton books.
What struck me most as I was reading through this graphic novel, is how the illustrator used colour in her illustrations to capture the protagonist's sense of not quite belonging to either country. Other than people’s skin colour, the entire book is printed in three colours; green, red and black, which is the same as the Nigerian and German passports. A passport being an essential part of what makes up your official identity. To explain the relationship between the colour, countries and identity, the title page of the book depicts an illustration of a Nigerian sculpture in green which with a pretzel draped around its neck in red.
Pretzel are of German origin, it is therefore used as a vehicle to represent German identity in this illustration, while the sculpture represents Nigeria. The colour green has been used throughout the book to represent Olivia’s affinity to her Nigerian identity, and red to Germany.
Taking a closer look at the physical book, you will notice that the first part of the story is held together by red front endpapers and the second, by green back endpapers. I believe this deliberate use of colour is used to explain Olivia’s feelings of not quite belonging in either place, as well as being unsure of her own personal identity. The middle-point of the book which marks Olivia’s transition from Nigeria to Germany is divided by a green page.
Additionally, as the clothes we wear can be considered an outward expression of our identity, if we take a closer look at Olivia’s clothing, at home her clothes are both green and red in equal measures, which serves to reinforce the tension between her German and Nigerian identity. Her mother however always appears in a red dress and her father, a green shirt, both representative of each of their nationalities.
As we read through the story you will notice the shift in colour as we enter the part that is set in Germany. Olivia’s clothing as well as other illustration elements were predominantly red while the story was based in Nigeria, later transitioning to green while in Germany.
The use of red and green in the two different parts of the book as lead colours is representative of the conflict in the protagonist’s mind with regard to belonging.
In as much as Olivia feels a sense of belonging to Nigeria, due to the fact that she is of mixed race, she still stands out as being different to everybody else. This conflict comes to a head when Olivia arrives in Hamburg and comes to the realisation that she also doesn’t quite fit in there.
This illustration is the only one in the entire book that appears in plain black and white. This illustration captures the whole essence of this book. The frustration in Olivia’s realisation that she is considered 'Oyinbo' in Nigeria and black in Germany, raises the question of ‘If I belong in either place, then where do I belong?’.
So, what can we learn from this book?
As our children navigate their way through this book, draw their attention to the deliberate use of colour, as this can be a starting point for conversation to explain feelings of isolation and not belonging.
As depicted on the left, it is down to us parents and carers to support our children as they carve out their own identities and find their place in this world.
On a more personal note
I love the storyline even more so, as it is the same as mine growing up in reverse. I can also relate to the excitement Olivia feels arriving in Lagos. On the right of this photo is a picture I took when I first moved to Lagos. This same sign appears in the book, signalling the transition of quiet life in Warri to the hectic life in Lagos, further accentuated by the busses, people and cars almost bursting out of the frame.
Additional material on this theme Checking Out Me History - poem written by John Agard This poem is so incredibly poignant in that it perfectly demonstrates the strife within a political setting, but even more so in education, with regards to the absences and omissions of positive BAME people in history. Watch a video of the poet reciting it here.
Cited Works
In Conversation with... Afua Hirsch & David Olusoga. London’s Big Read, performances by Afua Hirsch and David Olusoga. Library London, April 18, 2018. YouTube, youtube.com/watch?v=dIYfWsFRGyA
Ofili, Sylvia. German Calendar No December. Abuja: Cassava Republic Press, 2018.
‘Checking Out Me History’ by John Agard | English Literature - Poets in Person. BBC Teach, performance by John Agard. September 23, 2016. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFV_06_UidI
Bibliography
Botelho, Maria José; Rudman, Masha Kabakow. Critical Multicultural analysis of Children’s Literature: Mirrors, Windows and Doors. Routledge; 1 edition, 2009.
Hirsch, Afua. Brit-ish: On Race, Identity and Belonging. Jonathan Cape, London. 2018.
Klein, Gillian. Reading into Racism: Bias in Children’s Literature and Learning Materials, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986.
Larrick, Nancy. “The all-white world of children’s books.” Saturday Review, vol. Sept 11, 1965, pp 63-65. longwood.edu/staff/miskecjm/384larrick.pdf
Olusoga, David. Black and British: A Forgotten History. Pan MacMillan; Main Market Edition, London. 2017.
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