Beyoncé

From Dream Big by Sally Morgan, Scholastic 2018

Growing up, Beyoncé didn’t always love to be the centre of attention. She was shy. When she was seven, her mother signed her up for dance lessons, hoping it would give her more confidence and help her to make some new friends. It worked. Beyoncé was a natural entertainer who loved to perform. She entered local talent competitions and won. This was just the beginning. Beyoncé made friends too. She formed a group called Girl Tyme. Beyoncé and the group worked hard touring and playing gigs until 1997 when they landed a major record deal and renamed the band Destiny’s Child.

Beyoncé loved performing in Destiny’s Child and they became one of the most popular groups on the planet – but she still wanted more. She wanted to be a superstar. In 2003, while still a member of the band, Beyoncé released her own album, Dangerously in Love. It was a huge success and sold over eleven million copies worldwide. She released one more album with Destiny’s Child and then put all of her energy into her solo career.

She has since starred in movies, won shelves full of awards and toured the world. Beyoncé is now one of the highest earning musical performers of all time. Beyoncé worked hard and never gave up on her dream. She is a symbol to millions of girls around the world that they too are powerful and important.

Kofi Annan

When Kofi Annan was at boarding school in Ghana he believed he learned one of the most important lessons he would ever learn: that the suffering of people anywhere concerns people everywhere.

After winning a scholarship to study in the United States and completing his education, Kofi began his career at the United Nations. This career would lead him to work across the world, eventually becoming the first black African Secretary-General of the UN with the unique position of helping to maintain and promote world peace. Many questioned whether Kofi, who was softly spoken and friendly, would be suitable for such a commanding job. But he believed in using his diplomacy to persuade world leaders. His methods were proven to work when, in 1998, he managed to persuade a war-mongering Saddam Hussein to allow UN observers into parts of Iraq previously off-limits.

After serving two terms as Secretary-General, Kofi left the UN to set up the Kofi Annan Foundation – a non-profit organization promoting sustainable development, peace and security. Kofi also continued his diplomatic work, and in 2008 was invited by the Ghanaian president to mediate in a Kenyan electoral dispute. He succeeded and persuaded the rivals to agree to a power-sharing government. In 2012, as UN envoy, he persuaded Syrian President Assad to agree to a ceasefire.

Malorie Blackman

Malorie Blackman had worked her way through the children’s books in her local library by the time she was eleven years old. When her parents split up two years later, Malorie coped by inventing fantastical worlds in her head.

Malorie did brilliantly at school and dreamed of becoming an English teacher so she could help other children discover the joy of books. But her teacher didn’t give her a reference to study English at university – instead she said that black people became secretaries, not teachers.

When Malorie left school she studied to become a computer programmer. Her career allowed her to travel all over the world, but Malorie still loved stories. She enrolled on a creative writing course, where she was encouraged her to share her work. Malorie’s first book was published when she was twenty-eight and she hasn’t stopped writing since.

Now Malorie is a bestselling, award-winning children’s author. Malorie wanted her readers to meet characters from all kinds of backgrounds, and many of her books feature a central character of colour.

In 2013, Malorie became the Children’s Laureate, a role dedicated to helping young people develop a love of books and reading.

Queen Nanny of the Maroons

From Queens by Victoria Crossman, Scholastic 2020

In seventeenth-century Jamaica there lived a group of people known as the Maroons. They were descendants of West Africans who had been transported to work as slaves on the European sugar plantations of Jamaica. Some spent their lives imprisoned, but others managed to escape to live in the safety of the Blue Mountains. One, was to become a fearless chief: Queen Nanny.

Nanny was born in the 1680s in Asante, now known as Ghana, Africa. After being captured and transported across the Atlantic Ocean, she and her brothers were sold on to work in the plantations.

Queen Nanny managed to escape and formed a small village called Nanny Town, high up in the Blue Mountains, far away from the European land owners. She became a folk hero who courageously led raids against the Europeans and set free a thousand slaves, who joined her in Nanny Town. She taught her people how to become warriors by camouflaging themselves with leaves and branches and hiding in the trees, so when the enemy attacked they would be bewildered, thinking the trees had come alive.

The Maroons lived as farmers and hunters but all the while were anxious that the plantation owners wanted to destroy the life they had carved out for themselves. Queen Nanny’s mountain home offered a safe hideaway that was difficult to attack. After a period of unsuccessful British military raids, land was finally given to them and they were able to live their lives freely.

Her death remains a mystery, whether at the hands of the British in 1733, or living to an old age in Nanny Town. Today, the Maroons still take pride in their resistance against slavery. Through songs and legends, the memory of Queen Nanny is alive within the community.

Queen Nanny was made a national hero in Jamaica in 1976, the first woman to be awarded the honour.