Akwasi to write stage adaptation of award-winning children’s book

Dutch artist Akwasi is writing a stage adaptation of the children’s book *Het meisje met de zaadjes in het haar* (The Girl with the Seeds in Her Hair), a story set against Ghana’s history of enslavement and forced displacement. The production is being made by Studio Figur, Nieuws.nl reports.

Akwasi said the project felt like a return to both theatre and Ghana. He has travelled to Ghana to research it and described the work as an effort to explore how to talk to children about what he called “one of the most painful chapters in our history”. He also asked how future generations could not only know that history but understand it.

The book, written by Nancy Bosmans and illustrated by Lisa van Winsen, follows Yaa, a Ghanaian girl taken with her mother by boat to another country, where they are made to work. Her mother hides seeds from their homeland in her hair and plants them at night. The picture book won this year’s Thea Beckman Prize, Nieuws.nl reports.