Chizam’s Colourful Journey — tender, triumphant celebration of identity, belonging

By : Guardian Nigeria

Date: 26 November 2025 2:01am WAT

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Esosa Mokwunye

Esosa Mokwunye

In a world where conversations around identity, migration, and childhood self-esteem continue to grow louder, Chizam’s Colourful Journey arrives as a refreshingly tender and necessary contribution to children’s literature.

Written with warmth and emotional intelligence, Nigerian author, Esosa Mokwunye, offers young readers—and the adults who guide them—a beautifully illustrated, heart-stirring story about self-discovery, diversity, and the power of seeing beauty in all shades.

At its heart, Chizam’s Colourful Journey follows a spirited six-year-old girl who moves from Nigeria to Sydney, Australia. The transition is jarring. Suddenly, the familiar world where everyone looks like her is replaced with a new reality—classmates with hair textures she has never seen, skin tones she compares to milk or sun-kissed clay, and a landscape that challenges everything she thought she knew about belonging.

Mokwunye handles these themes with stunning simplicity. She shows, rather than tells, how children experience difference: not through politics or theory, but through colour, curiosity, and honest questions. And in the hands of loving parents, Chizam learns a powerful truth— her beauty does not diminish in a new environment; it only shines brighter.

The conversations between Chizam and her parents are the emotional backbone of the book. They are gentle yet profound, turning everyday observations into life lessons.

When her mother tells her she is as beautiful as a warm chocolate cake, and her father affirms the beauty in all shades—from milk to clay-red to deep black—Mokwunye is not just writing for children; she is healing generations who grew up hearing otherwise.

The story flows with a playful rhythm children will love, yet carries the emotional weight adults will appreciate. The imagery—poolside scenes, birthday party excitement, colourful balloons, and hair-styling debates—feels familiar and nostalgic, grounding the narrative in everyday African family life even in a foreign setting.

The book also subtly uplifts African cultural touchpoints: jollof rice, cornrows, Ankara gowns, Nigerian teachers and aunties, and the warmth of extended relationships. Yet it balances these beautifully with the multicultural world Chizam now inhabits. Mokwunye’s message is clear: identity travels with you. You do not lose who you are simply because you cross an ocean.

Where the book truly stands out—especially by global standards—is its ability to hold complexity in a child-friendly way. Colour is not portrayed as divisive; it is celebrated.

Difference is not a threat; it is a canvas. Belonging is not found in sameness; it emerges from confidence, community, and self-love

In the tradition of children’s classics that uplift self-worth—such as Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o, Hair Love by Matthew Cherry, and The Skin You Live In—Chizam’s Colourful Journey earns its place in the conversation. It provides African children, and indeed all children of colour navigating predominantly white spaces, a mirror.

At the same time, it offers children of other races a window—one that nurtures empathy and cross-cultural appreciation.

The bonus activity page at the end, encouraging kids to design their own birthday invitation, adds an interactive touch that educators and parents will appreciate. It reinforces the creative and celebratory essence of the book.

Chizam’s Colourful Journey is not just a children’s book. It is a warm embrace. A soft place to land for every child learning to love themselves in a world that sometimes makes that difficult. Mokwunye writes with clarity, heart, and purpose, delivering a story that feels both globally relevant and distinctly Nigerian.

In a literary landscape hungry for more African voices in children’s storytelling, Mokwunye’s work is a shining—and colourful—gift.

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