“Endless Fortune” tells the story of an Igbo woman in a foreign country raising some of the world’s most successful creatives today.
That is the story of Ify Adenuga, the mother of the rapper Skepta, radio presenter Julie Adenuga, grime MC Jme, and visual artist Jason.
During the punishing civil war of the mid 60s, Ify’s family uprooted from Lagos to her parent’s original state in eastern Nigeria. In 1980, she exchanged the still recovering war-torn nation for the strange streets of London. There, Ify had to start a new life as a working-class immigrant and student.
She met her husband Joseph Senior Adenuga at a bingo hall in East London where they were both working migrants. In the tough working-class area of Tottenham, they raised their four children and encouraged them to explore their artistic instincts, narrowly avoiding a violent situation that threatened to tear the family apart…
As the first book of its kind from the mother of successful British creatives to examine the experience of the African diaspora and the complications around immigration from a personal perspective, “Endless Fortune” is a timely addition to the ongoing conversation around migration politics and immigration in the UK. With Ify Adenuga at the very heart of the story, it explores the chasm between Lagos and London and how to not only survive but thrive in a new culture and country.
On the inspiration behind this memoir, Ify 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.
“Endless Fortune” will hit the shelves on October 15.