What happens when your life takes a drastic turn and you move across continents with nothing but sheer will? Ify Adenuga tells this story in her memoir, “Endless Fortune.”
Ify Adenuga is the mother of British rapper Skepta, radio presenter Julie Adenuga, grime MC Jme, and visual artist Jason. Suffice it to say that this is a family of successful creatives. In “Endless Fortune,” she documents her experiences raising these children in a foreign country while navigating work and school.
Growing up in the Nigerian civil war era of the mid-’60s, Ify Adenuga moved from chaotic Lagos to her ancestral hometown in Eastern Nigeria. From there, she migrated to the unfamiliar city of London, miles from home. It is here that she meets her husband, Joseph Senior Adenuga, who was also a working-class Migrant.
Four children and several jobs later, it is aconstant struggle parenting and surviving on meagre wages. Thus, “Endless Fortune” recounts this story of loss, survival, hope, and love, with Ify Adenuga at the centre.
On what inspired this memoir, she says,
My life’s journey to date has been a struggle to assert my own definitions of freedom and happiness whilst also living life through my cultural and traditional lens as a Black African Christian woman migrant in the UK… With this book, I have two objectives: First, is to utilize an opportunity I missed with my parents by informing my children and subsequent grandchildren about my life growing up & how different it is to theirs, and second, is to recognise and appreciate all diasporas, regardless of where they call home. It is important to me that migrants understand that survival and success are attainable.
This is a mirror into the life of a relentless Fighter, Thinker, Feminist, and Mother, told with vulnerability and honesty. According to Adenuga, getting her readers to relate with her life’s story is the primary purpose.
The memoir is due for release on October 15, but you can preorder here.
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