Some years ago I made a tribute to the late Scatman Crothers who was the voice for “Hong Kong Phooey” the star of the early 1970s cartoon show.
In the tribute I remembered even as a young child, the importance of just having the voice of some one that looked like me on TV was. This was at a time where you would rarely see a black person on TV in a positive role. Being represented in any form gives a sense of belonging and for me this cartoon had a positive effect on me on many levels.
Representation plays a huge part in the work I do with My Baobab Learning. There is power in a positive images, writing, music etc that can help our children along the road to greatness. As a negative message can send a child’s life spiralling into failure and unfulfillment, so can a positive one inspire growth and great achievements.
Encourage a child to have love for self and kind, confidence with an unshakable knowledge that they can and will achieve anything they set out to do and amazing things will happen.
Fast forward to 2018 and I’m sure we all witnessed the positive effect the block buster movie “Black Panther” had on our children.
