A Beautiful Sunrise follows a determined girl from Ipole, as her pursuit of education challenges tradition and becomes a moving story of resilience, women’s independence, and generational change. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

My Mum is my biggest inspiration for writing A Beautiful Sunrise. I grew up in Nigeria, and I am truly fortunate to have been raised by a strong, hardworking mother who valued education. I am also proud to say that in time her legacy will not only live in the children she raised with strength and purpose, but in the countless lives she helped transform through her unwavering dedication as an educator.

In addition, I am lucky to be surrounded by other wonderful women who have positively influenced and helped to shape my life – my sisters, my aunt, friends, and my late grandmother.

Professionally, my training and work in the health sector also helped me develop a strong passion for women’s and girls’ issues. In addition, I am privileged to have pursued graduate degrees in the US that allowed me to further explore women’s and children’s health issues. This experience deepened my conviction that education is not only a pathway to opportunity, but a powerful social determinant of health. Unfortunately, millions of girls are still out of school across the globe, so I chose to use creative writing as a modality to lend my voice to a cause that is close to my heart.

I started writing A Beautiful Sunrise, many years ago, but the Covid pandemic lockdown helped me make the decision to finish it. It took a bit longer than I wanted because of school and work. Nonetheless, this delay also gave me a chance to tap into the skills I gained from my Media and Medicine training at Harvard to see this novel through to its publication.

How did you approach balancing Abi’s personal coming-of-age journey with the broader cultural and historical issues in the novel?

I grew up in Nigeria, so I understand the landscape and a lot of the socio-cultural challenges that women and girls face in that part of the world, and this influenced my writing. As a young girl, I recognized that male children were highly valued in many families and communities. Sadly, I also saw that not every child got the opportunity to go to school. Sometimes decisions were largely influenced by resource constraints, and this meant families had to choose who got those opportunities. I must say things have improved societally from the way they were a couple of decades ago, but overall, gender inequality still persists.

The village, schoolrooms, farms, and family compounds feel central to the story. Were these details drawn from research, memory, oral history, or a mix of sources?

In writing A Beautiful Sunrise I drew on my understanding of Nigerian culture, my memories of the communities I grew up around, and the places I visited. Additionally, I did a lot of research and tapped into my imagination as I created fictional places. I chose to use fictional villages and communities because this allowed me to use more of my imagination. Besides, my hope was that when the book is released to the public, no community would feel singled out or denigrated in my attempt to address serious societal issues of women and girls.

What do you hope readers take away from Abi’s journey and the idea that educating one girl can affect an entire community?

As people read about Abi’s journey, I hope that families across the globe will fight with more commitment and dedication for opportunities for all their children, regardless of their gender. Additionally, I also hope that more women and girls would make tougher choices to keep fighting for their goals so they can all achieve their full potential. Lastly, I would like more leaders of organizations to rise up and offer support for girls’ education and women’s empowerment programs, and the time to do this is now. I invite you all to join me at the Grit and Spunk Impact Lab as we continue this conversation and effort.

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