by Darasimi Oshodi

And during her gracious speech at the Oscar awards, she blew everyone away with the statement, “No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.”

Lupita Nyong’o, is undoubtedly the new face of black people, particularly black women, all over the world. The Oscar award winner, who won the 2014 award for the best supporting actress for her role in the film, 12 Years a Slave, is a Kenyan who was born in Mexico and is currently living in the United States. Apart from her impressive performance in 12 Years a Slave, she has been wowing audiences and listeners with her speeches.

Her speech at the Essence Magazine’s 7th Annual Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon last month is a speech that will definitely inspire every black girl, woman, and even, man that reads or hears it. In the speech, she talks about inner beauty as the true beauty and she also encourages people to accept themselves the way they are. What a beautiful speech! And during her gracious speech at the Oscar awards, she blew everyone away with the statement, “No matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.”

Who is Lupita Nyong’o? Lupita Nyong’o is Kenyan who was born in Mexico in 1983. The second of six children grew up in Kenya, having gone to Kenya at less than a year old when her father was appointed a professor at the University of Nairobi. At age sixteen, Lupita’s parents sent her back to Mexico for seven months to learn Spanish. She graduated from Hampshire College with a degree in film and theatre studies and got her master’s degree in acting from Yale School of Drama. The vivacious Lupita is fluent in her native Luo, English, Swahili and Spanish. Some of the production she has been involved in include: Shuga, a 2009 MTV’s award-winning drama series where she played the lead role; stage plays such as The Winter’s Tale, Uncle Van and The Taming of the Shrew. Her most prominent role, however, has been in the film 12 Years a Slave, a film that tells the real-life story of Solomon Northup, a free born African American man who was sold into slavery in 1841. In the film, Lupita played the role of Patsey, a slave who works on a cotton plantation, where she is cruelly treated by her master and his wife.

With her recent award, she is the first Kenyan to win an Oscar, the first African actress to win the award for the Best Supporting Actress and the first Mexican-born actress to win an Oscar. And going by her brilliance, profundity and oratorical prowess, I think Lupita has accidentally or unintentionally begun a career in public speaking. It is a preoccupation she should give serious considerations to because she has become a role model to millions of Africans and blacks all over the world.

Listening to her, and hearing her story will certainly encourage many insecure people all over the world to live their dreams, since she too confessed that she was inspired by the success of other black women, among whom are: Alek Wek, Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. Lupita has shown that she is capable of making speeches that will go into the history books as some of the greatest speeches ever made. But for now, the major message from Lupita Nyong’o’s speeches and her personal story is that THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BEING BLACK and that BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL!

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This article was published with permission from Omojuwa.com

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.