MORE THAN 200 children gathered at City Hall for The Voice’s Made by History essay competition presentation ceremony last month.

The question posed to entrants of the competition – which is in its fifth year – was: “Who is your favourite black author and why?”

It saw the children celebrate not only the writers that inspire them but one another, too.

The schoolchildren and their supporters were welcomed to the venue by deputy mayor of London for social integration Debbie Weekes-Bernard, who congratulated them on their achievements – and stressed the need for positive depictions of black people in books.

With research revealing that just one per cent of children’s books feature a main character who is black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) and only four per cent feature any BAME characters, the competition topic served as a reminder that black children and their stories matter.

London Assembly member Jennette Arnold OBE highlighted the progress that has been made since her parents had to request for books featuring black characters to be shipped over from the Caribbean, but called for action to be taken to address the lack of representation.

“We have to rebalance that current deficit. It cannot be right,” Arnold said. “It is just not good enough that currently only four per cent of books reflect the beautiful diversity of our city and our country.”

The inclusion of two guest authors – Winsome Duncan and James Okoro – in this year’s programme drove this point home and gave the children the opportunity to ask an author their burning questions about the book-writing process.

Duncan galvanised the young audience with her enthusiasm about words and writing and her call to action for those in the room to write their own stories, be creative, original and follow guidelines.

Okoro challenged the children to an impromptu spelling test and showcased his books, including Beetle Reich and The Scruffapillar, to the delight of the young readers.

Each child was presented with a certificate of participation, while the winners of the different age group categories, inspiration award and overall winner were invited to the podium to read their essays aloud.

Ava Murdock, a student at St Michael’s Catholic, won the aged 10 category with her personal essay on Maya Angelou.

She said that winning had helped to “bring out my confidence in speaking out loud”.

“I wanted to enter because my mum would like me to try something new and she wanted me to see, even if I didn’t win, she would still be proud of me for putting my effort in and trying,” Ava said.

She added: “It’s inspired me to speak more instead of just hiding away in the corner, in the shadows. I can speak more and do lots of loud speaking in front of people because that’s bringing up my courage to do it.”

INJUSTICE

Also encouraged by his mum was overall winner and winner of the aged 13- 14 category, Malakhi Best.

“I feel like I’m always motivated. Like, whenever I’m down, I just come back to that motivation and I think that comes from my mum because she’s the one that always pushes me to do my best.

“She gives up so much time for me and my mum’s just like probably the biggest hero in my life,” Malakhi said.

Malakhi, a student at Willowfield School, wrote passionately about Angie Thomas, her best-selling book The Hate U Give and the importance of the speaking out against injustice.

The two wins took him by surprise. “It feels amazing because I literally just sat in my room and I wrote that and I wouldn’t even have thought that it would have been something that I would have had this much credit over,” he said. He added that the competition had given him the confidence to pursue a degree in journalism or literature.

Daniel Richmond, a history teacher at Willowfield School, was struck by the quality of the essays his students submitted. He said the competition was important for multiple reasons, especially its celebration of representation.

“It encourages the students to get involved in something that represents them. We need it in the community, they need to see themselves in the community,” Richmond said.

“I think for me, the key thing is the students being able to see so many different black people in different positions that they wouldn’t usually see.

“Black people involved in politics, black people involved in writing, black people involved in news reporting – so much that they’re not exposed to and it’s these sort of events that expose them [to that].”

Natasha Joseph, of St Michael’s Catholic, won the 11-12 category with her essay on Malorie Blackman, and she echoed Richmond’s sentiments.

“It encourages children to pursue their dreams, even if they might give up on it, and it’s nice to be recognised for achievements,” she said.

HAPPY

D’shaun Ansah, winner of the most inspirational award, used his entry to recognise his sister’s achievements. He won for his essay about his sister L’amour, a 16-year-old author of three books.

D’shaun, who along with his five siblings is homeschooled, said he was “really happy” to have picked up the prize.

Reflecting on his win, Bussa Bradshaw, aged nine, of St Anthony’s Catholic, said: “It feels amazing because I never thought I would get this far. To be honest, I thought I wouldn’t even be shortlisted and now I’m the best nine-year-old.”

Bussa, who wrote about slavery abolitionist and author of the memoir Twelve Years a Slave, Solomon Northup, said he had learned that “anybody can win, basically, no matter what skin colour you are, you still have a chance”.

The winning Made by History 2019 essays are published in full in the January issue of The Voice newspaper – out Thursday.