#SulweHomecoming: Lupita Nyong’o takes her children’s book to Kenya

Lupita Nyong’o shared her children’s book Sulwe with the world in October 2019 and a year on, the Kenyan actress is sending her book home to East Africa. There are now editions in her native language Luo and widely spoken Swahili.

The Oscar-winning actress shared the news on Twitter hoping that the message of Sulwe “can travel the world for readers of all ages, but it’s especially meaningful to bring it home”.

“#Sulwe is coming home! You can now find editions in Kenya in English, Swahili & my mother tongue, Luo. My childhood inspired Sulwe’s story,” she wrote.

Sulwe, which means Star in the Lou language, centers around Sulwe,
a dark-skinned girl who goes on a starry-eyed adventure and awakens with a re-imagined sense of beauty as she comes to terms with her dark skin.

With this being her first book, Lupita hopes to inspire young Black children to appreciate and accept their uniqueness.

A “victim of colorism” as a child herself, she took notice of how people with lighter skin like her sister were praised and younger Lupita “wished to have skin that was different,” she told BBC.