*More than 30 years on, it is Black History Month in the United Kingdom. Heroes come and go but their legacies live on in many. One of them is my mother who inspired me into the comic book world.
She would often buy me British comics like Jack and Jill, Whizzer and Chips and Buster for her workplace as a Nurse at Lagos University Hospital. Her name?… Marcellina Durojaiye Fatunla without whom, I would not have been a Comic artist or OUR ROOTS creator.
She passed away last August the 23rd, and memories came flying past of how her encouragement led me to become a Comic artist.
With my dad, they pulled all stops to see me attend the Kubert School in New Jersey where I bettered myself in drawing cartoons, doing illustrations, designing greeting cards, drawing caricatures, studying human anatomy, learning the Business of Art, studying animation and more.
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB: TAYO Fatunla’s OUR ROOTS Goes Weekly in New York Amsterdam News
As I was heading to the plane to fly out of Nigeria to the U.S., I saw at a distance my mother cry. She was already missing me. Today I still cry about her loss and miss her, but I celebrate her life.
It was at School as a student that OUR ROOTS was created. I felt the need to document African history following my discovery of Black History Month celebration in the U.S.
Last year I began drawing OUR ROOTS feature about her but never completed it. So here, I feature her in OUR ROOTS as a tribute to her.
OUR ROOTS is about sung and unsung heroes and that is why till today many unsung heroes have been featured in this educational and entertaining feature.
Black History Month has commenced series of celebrations and events in the United Kingdom starting Saturday 1st October and ending on Monday 31st October.
OUR ROOTS will feature some Black British heroes on EURweb in the month of October. Nigeria also marks her 62nd Independence anniversary on 1st October.
Every Nigerian is still waiting for a better Nigeria and better leadership.
TAYO Fatunla is an award-winning Nigerian Comic Artist, Editorial Cartoonist, Writer and Illustrator is an artist of African diaspora. He is a graduate of the prestigious Kubert School, in New Jersey, US. and recipient of the 2018 ECBACC Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award for his illustrated OUR ROOTS creation and series – Famous people in Black History – He participated at UNESCO’s Cartooning In Africa forum held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and the Cartooning Global Forum in Paris, France and has held a virtual OUR ROOTS cartoon workshop for SMITHSONIAN- National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C. His image of Fela Kuti is featured in the Burna Boy’s mega-Afrobeat hit song “Ye”. –– [email protected]
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