Ogo and Claire met at a London festival in 2016 and fell in love on the dance floor!
Soon after they met, Ogo travelled to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro and Claire met him at the end so they could travel together to Zanzibar.
Ogo is a proud 1st Generation Nigerian and loves wearing vibrant prints from across the continent. Whilst on their travels, Ogo had some clothes made for him by a local tailor. The tailor pointed out to Ogo the artistic symbols printed onto the fabric and how each one of them represented a message, often passed between generations. This, they were told, is an ancient African art of storytelling.
A few years later, Ogo and Claire welcomed their first child into the world, and over dinner one night as a newborn Chiasoka fell asleep on her father's lap they talked about how they could raise their mixed heritage children with confidence and pride. And then they recalled their conversation with the tailor!
This spark of inspiration started the creation of Akwa Baby and the mission to empower a new generation.
Akwa Baby's first print, OBI print, holds symbols Claire & Ogo handpicked themselves to represent three positive affirmations:
I am loved : represented by the flower symbol, this reflects an African proverb 'family names are like flowers, they blossom in clusters'
I am courageous : represented by the lion and lioness
I celebrate colour : represented by artwork from the ancient writing system 'Nsibidi' for the word 'CHI' which in Igbo is somebody's inner guiding light
Celebrate Colour is all about loving the uniqueness of yourself and the uniqueness of others. We hope it inspires conversations across every family household, across every country, to teach children to love, accept and celebrate all races, skin colours and more.
Let's raise our children to grow up in a world where they feel they are valued.