The single most influential writer in my life has been Maya Angelou. In many ways she is the reason why I am who I am today. Reading her autobiography gave me the freedom to believe that I can be whoever I want to be, I can excel in any area of life that I choose to focus on, and I can do all that whilst having a good time. I remember clearly the first book of hers that I read, All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes. I was living in London at the time and would regularly browse through the ‘black books’ section at bookstores looking for a book to grab my attention. On that particular day, her book grabbed my attention. I read the blurb and flipped through the pages. I was curious. I could see my country Ghana reflected. I bought the book and read it in a day. At the time, that was the 5th book in her series of autobiographies. I went back to the bookshop and bought every other book of Maya’s. I became even more inspired. She was a visionary woman of many talents. A writer, poet, revolutionary, dancer, actress, chef, professor…
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