By Prisca Sam-Duru

Netherlands-based Ranti Akintobi, who works full time as a Finance Manager, was born in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria. The author of “The Royal Visit” is fascinated by diverse cultures of peoples across the globe, having lived in three continents (North America, Europe, and Africa) in London, Chicago, New Jersey, Ibadan etc.

Despite being a numbers person, Ranti’s passion to promote various rich African cultures, spurred her into the world of creativity, birthing “The Royal Visit”, a children’s literature launched recently.

Writing the children’s book as a prerequisite to animation series that can be watched mainstream, bringing the African culture and pride to children all over the world, was the author’s motivating factor.

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“The Royal Visit”: Book 1, is the first book of the T&T Nubian Adventure series written for children between the ages of 5 and 11 years. T&T Nubian Adventure stories are centred on an African royal family living in an African country called Lafiya, ruled by an Obabirin, a female king – Queen Lara”.

Explaining her reason for writing the book, she said, “I feel children of African descendants (all over the world) should have the option of seeing mainstream animated characters that look like them. It was also paramount to me that the story be told by an African that Africans can connect with. My main aim is to ignite the African culture in children all over the world and bring the culture to them through stories”.

Regarding books or authors that may have influenced her writing, Ranti said: “I have to admit that I intentionally didn’t read children’s books written based on African children characters, so as not to be tempted to deviate from my idea of my children’s book series (T&T Nubian Adventures). I am still learning how to write, and my editor has been great at guiding me.

However, one book I did read about African folk tales was “The Girl Who Married A Lion” by Alexander McCall Smith. It has fantastic compilation of African tales which I feel should be brought to the whole world”.

The book took the author roughly two years to put together, and will have about 4 to 5 books in the series.

“I feel it’s such a shame that underprivileged children have limited or no access to books via their schools. Public (government) schools are known not to even have libraries. While it may be argued that a child’s development is dependent on educational books, I feel it’s equally important that children have access to literature in order to develop their creativity, imagination, and vocabulary,” she said concerning the inability of the African child to access books. This informed her decision to work with orphanages and charity organizations by donating books to them, with the hope of sparking their imagination and their creative side as well as helping them learn how to read through entertaining storybooks.

Wondering what message she’s trying to pass across through depiction of human and animal communication, she pointed out that, “There’s nothing in particular I’m trying to communicate to readers here about talking to animals. This is a children’s book that has an element of fantasy and encourages wild imagination just like any of the Disney/ Hollywood children’s animated series or movies that our kids love to watch”.

While many creatives will point to lack of funds and rejection by publishers as major challenges, Ranti Akintobi’s case is different. “One of my challenges was having a full-time job and only having some weekends and some evenings to work on the book. But the greatest challenge (I guess you can call it that) was self-doubt.  I doubted myself/ my capabilities of writing something even good enough to read as I’m not naturally a writer”.

Vanguard News Nigeria