Once upon a time, a sweet chocolate colored girl named Cindarella who was left with a tall and stubborn stepmother and two horrible stepsisters after the death of her nice father. The young woman, who came from Africa, became a discreet and kind young woman in England, but her stepmother treated her like a servant and made her do all the housework because of the contempt she had for her velvet brown skin.
But one day, a famous popstar called The Prince organized a picnic and invited all the pretty ladies of Britain. Cindarella wanted to go but her stepmother and sisters ordered her to make a huge cake for the picnic, and more than that, she had to clean the entire house before the picnic. Also, people with dark skin were supposed to stay at home and work. Cindarella managed to do everything thanks to her friends, the mice who also lived in the house. But she couldn’t go to The Prince’s rendez-vous’, and started crying when her stepsisters left home to go there. At the first tear, her fairy godmother appeared, and turned an aubergine into a shiny black Harley Davidson and Cindarella’s black skin became white thanks to one or two bags of flour…
Pretty as a princess, Cindarella went to the picnic and was admired for her beauty. She spent the sunny afternoon chatting with The Prince about Africa and the humanitarian project he was part of there. But after a moment, the wind started to blow the flour on her face off, and she had to leave in a hurry, forgetting a glove.
Thanks to this, The Prince looked for this unknown pretty woman, and finally found Cindarella, who was wearing the other glove. The stepsisters were very jealous, but couldn’t do anything. From then, they lived happily ever after, talking about Africa again and again.
The illustration above comes from an American website called BlackNews.com promoting fairy tales with black heroes. Here is an extract from their statement:
Washington, DC (BlackNews.com) - The Princess Briana book tour represents the first Black princess on the same level as Snow White and Cinderella. According to research done by clinical psychologists, Black children that do not see images of themselves consistently in fairytales and storybooks tend to have lower self-esteem and a poorer self-image.
The Princess Briana fairytale has had tremendous success with raising the self-esteem of Black children. Parents and teachers rave with excitement about the Princess Briana fairytale inspiring their children to read and feel better about themselves (see customer quotes at www.justlikemebooks.com/PrincessBrianareviews.htm)
Let’s wish them good luck for their project!