In Siya, I had the opportunity to explore a lesser known Ancient African civilisation: the Soninke people of Wagadou. Here, I remixed legend so Siya was no longer a helpless ‘virgin’ damsel who was to be sacrificed to a snake-god and saved by her betrothed – an army officer named Maadi. In our story, she leads an army and is far from helpless. In our story, they seek to save each other.
Though some stories are more closely tied to their original inspirations than others, it was so exciting to find ways to retain themes and homages while re-shaping them with my imagination, being adventurous with genre and tone. I had the privilege of reading a swathe of folktales from so many different cultures when curating which to work with for this book, and the ones I left out （with much reluctance） are because I feared I would not be able to de-tangle themes without totally robbing them of the rich cultures they were sourced from, and thus doing them an injustice.
Ultimately, all my stories are so very precious to me, and the ten stories inspired by myth and folktales are made all the more special by the research I got to do to make them, discovering and learning about worlds that weren’t my own, and challenging myself to relate and meld them to what I know. Though they are my stories – poured from the heart – I owe so much to the cultures that provided the seeds and inspiration. They wouldn’t be mine without their existence. It was such an honour and privilege to have the opportunity to breathe a new sort of life into them: I hope I did them justice.
Sources of Inspiration ??un: Yoruba myth and religion, Nigeria Scheherazade: 1,001 Nights, Persia
Psyche: Eros and Psyche, Ancient Greece
Attem: Ituen and the King’s Wife, Calabar peoples, Nigeria Yaa: The Princess’ Wedding, Asante Tribe, Ghana Siya: Ancient Soninke Legend, Soninke People, modern Mali, Senegal, Guinea, The Gambia and Southern Mauritania Naleli: How Khosi Chose a Wife, Lesotho
Nefertiti: Ancient Egyptian fact and myth Zhinu: The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, China Thisbe: Pyramus and Thisbe, Mesopotamia
Acknowledgements
Firstly, I would like to acknowledge that I am writing the acknowledgements for this book. That’s a big deal, right? Let’s take a moment to imbibe that. There were times （in front of my computer, in tears） when I struggled to picture that happening. In those times, though, I reached for the things that would pull me through the mire of insecurity, doubt and fear. This is, really, a list of these things.
My faith in God. I am strengthened through Him.
The fact that my dear editor, Katie Packer, somehow believed in me enough to carry this idea to fruition. Katie, you are a bad bitch, so smart, so savvy, so emotionally intuitive, and always there to assuage my rambled hysterical rants and bring me forth with a fortifying Beyoncé quote and to giggle over a shared celebrity crush. Somehow you saw me so thoroughly that you were able to bring out the best of me, trigger me to excavate my potential, and therefore making me grow as an artist. I could not have done this without your technical and professional support, sure, but I also couldn’t have done this without having you as a teammate, pulling me up when I felt as if I was stuck, and reminding me why I do what I do, and what I can do. You are such a force and I cannot wait till you are running this industry. You are so crucial and so powerful. One of the best parts about this process is gaining you as a friend for life.
That my literary agent, Juliet Pickering, read a short story four years ago and somehow believed in it enough to catapult me into a literary career and sign me. I was in the middle of fixing up my manuscript for public consumption when she said, ‘F*** it, I’m going to sign you’。 Obviously I am paraphrasing （barely）， but this is what it felt like – a pure and potent faith in me. I am so grateful that it was you that helped breathe life into my dreams. Thank you so much for responding to my typo-ridden, anxious, 2 a.m. emails with such steady calm and patience. Thank you for very sweetly, very gently kicking my ass when I needed it to be done. Thank you so much for being a beacon of support emotionally and professionally. Your guidance is forever appreciated.
That my TV agent, Jessica Stewart, was waiting on me to finish this book! Ha! I would like to thank you for your patience and encouragement and allowing me the space and time to write this. So glad to have you on my team.
That my mum and dad did not emigrate to the UK for me to be a flop! Mummy and Daddy, Olukemi and Olufemi Babalola, I adore you so much. As I write this, I’m crying a little, and I am glad I am not writing it in front of you, Mother, because I am sure you would roll your eyes. You are both everything to me. I would not have my career without your support. Since I was little, you have always told me I could do whatever I set my mind to. Thank you both for seeing the whole of me, and not trying to confine me to prescriptive notions of success – thank you for knowing that success is being able to be myself totally, and to do so with kindness, honesty and integrity. You are the best cheer team a girl could ever ask for. Every ounce of confidence that I have in myself is substantiated by your love and faith in me. Thank you, Daddy, for insisting on sending a WhatsApp blast to everyone on my phone with a link to my book. Thank you for talking everyone’s ear off about ‘your daughter, the writer’， ever since my very first newspaper article. Thank you, Mummy, for fortifying my backbone and for being there for every late night, for every frustrated cry, for every meltdown, with firm softness – telling me to cry it out and get over it, because I am destined for greatness and what was the alternative? Not achieve everything I’ve dreamt of? Ko possible. E se, ma. E se, sir. Everything I do is empowered by your love.