*If we have no history, we have no future – It is remarkable that OUR ROOTS, Black history sketches by Nigerian Comic artist and cartoonist TAYO Fatunla has been a cartoon column series in London’s The Voice newspaper for over 30 years where it began running weekly.
The history of the Black race must be illustrated and that is what Nigeria cartoonist TAYO Fatunla has been doing. OUR ROOTS is a journalistic and historic journey that originally began for TAYO as a school project at The Kubert School in New Jersey, USA where he first created the series.
TAYO noticed how many did not know of Africa and African people whilst studying in the US. So, the urge to educate and inform moved TAYO to create the illustrated series. “I wanted to change people’s ignorance to understanding,” says TAYO.
Steve Pope the then editor of the Voice in 1989 wrote to TAYO (by post…would you believe that) when he was residing in Hackney East London to visit the Voice premise on Coldharbour lane, SouthEast London, with keen interest for his work to be featured in the paper. Tayo remembers sitting down with Steve to discuss how to run the feature in the weekly paper. TAYO says the initial challenge he had was to research about Black history makers from the UK and from all works of life internationally. His idea was not to focus on one particular black race but all black races in the diaspora. It worked and the interest in OUR ROOTS grew bigger and bigger.
Jerry Robinson the creator of the Joker ran a US-based syndicate called Cartoonists and Writers Syndicate. He showed interest in OUR ROOTS and the series was syndicated in the US newspapers which began as a series News Sentinel, a Fort Wayne Indiana newspaper.
Dr. Lee Bailey/Founder and Publisher of EURweb.com says … “We have been using TAYO’s OUR ROOTS cartoons for some years now and it’s a decision I’m glad we made. His drawings are always visually stimulating as well as entertaining and fun to view. We think of what we do as “infotainment” and TAYO’s content fits with our motif perfectly. EURweb.com is proud to be part of TAYO’s history and we’re proud to help him make history, too.
Also, Mr. Yumy Odom, Founder / President of The East Coast Black Age of Comics says … “Long before I met TAYO the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC, Inc.) Pioneer / Lifetime Achievement Award recipient 2018, I was very familiar with his work via The New York Amsterdam News, which I read for 25 years, enjoying the Pan-African (World) history Tayo shared. His work was, and still is, referenced in our many ECBACC workshops and presentations, demonstrating the relevance of OUR ROOTS even after 30 years.”
The British Museum loved OUR ROOTS series and commissioned me to do 10 AFRICAN KINGDOMS illustrations for its THE WEALTH OF AFRICA online educational resource. Here the Benin Kingdom and the Swahili coast.
OUR ROOTS was originally called AFRICAN SKETCHBOOK as a Kubert School, end of year project. My tutor Hy Eisman (Popeye cartoonist) helped with the logo and David Cuccia my classmate did the lettering for me. In 1987 it would then be published first anywhere in the world, in FLIGHT AFRICA magazine a Nigerian an aviation magazine which was published by journalist Mr. Femi Ogunleye, now a Royal.
A creation of mine at my alma mate art school, the Kubert School, the London based Voice Newspaper UK, began running OUR ROOTS as an illustrated cartoon feature in black and white, thanks to then-editor Steve Pope. A few years later, it got syndicated in papers in the US by Cartoonists and Writers Syndicate. What a fabulous journey and creation God blessed me with right from my Kubert Art school days. TAYO is regularly updating his OUR ROOTS feature if and when the hero or heroine he has featured in his drawings past have passed away on or in other cases when history is or was made.
He usually writes in date information like the year of birth and for someone late, he writes in the year of death. TAYO places importance to time and dates in his illustrated feature as they are important to historical/visual documentation. Updates in recent times include history makers like the late Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Nelson and Winnie Mandela and Kofi Annan to mention a few and record breakers like Usain Bolt and Lewis Hamilton and Nigeria’s Bobsled female winter Olympics team.
Through years of drawings, the ignorant and the less informed have been educated, children have got to know achievers, heroes and heroines, sung and unsung, people, places and things in Africa, The Caribbean, New Zealand, Australia, South America, the US, Europe and many more Black role models and Black people in the diaspora. I have done OUR ROOTS presentations in schools, libraries, Museums and Universities internationally.
TAYO has won awards including one in May 2018 when he was presented with the ECBACC Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award (PLA) for OUR ROOTS – Famous Black People in History. Receiving the award has been a journey of being appreciated and honoured for what one does and the impact OUR ROOTS has made in lives through visual and historical education. TAYO is also the recipient of the Lagos Baptist Academy Award (BAOSA) for professional excellence. He has held OUR ROOTS exhibitions (one at the Studio Harlem Museum, New York) and lectures in Universities in the US, France and the UK. Black History Matters.
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