Welcome to this week’s edition of Gambian Trailblazers, where we spotlight inspiring Gambians making meaningful contributions in their respective fields. This week, we feature two sisters, YaAdam Fye and Anna Fye, co-founders of Fye Network (FyeN), a Gambian women-led creative media company dedicated to creating African stories for children and families.
The Fye sisters’ journey began nearly two decades ago with a desire to help a child see herself and to ensure her heritage was reflected in the stories she consumed.
Nineteen years ago, Anna was expecting her first child, a baby girl whose heritage would span The Gambia, Tanzania, Guinea, and America. The sisters wanted her to grow up knowing and celebrating all the cultures that would shape her identity.
Living in the United States at the time, they visited Barnes & Noble to find children’s books that reflected those cultures in a joyful, engaging way. Instead, they found very little representation of African children and families.
“Much of what we encountered centered Africa through the lens of outsiders, often focusing on hardship rather than the richness, beauty, and diversity of African life,” they recalled.
When Anna’s daughter turned two, the sisters were visiting their mother in Ethiopia when the idea of Princess Halima first struck them. An African princess who would travel across all 54 African countries, introducing children to the continent’s history, cultures, traditions, and people. “We wanted a princess we could call our own,” they said. That idea became the foundation of their publishing journey and, eventually, Fye Network.
From Rejection to Fye Network
The sisters initially submitted the Princess Halima concept to traditional publishing houses, but were repeatedly rejected. They were told there was no market for an African princess. But their mother offered a different solution.
“Then learn the industry and do it yourselves,” she told them.
They took her advice and learned the publishing industry, intellectual property, business development, and what it takes to produce books to international standards. Along the way, they made financial mistakes, trusted the wrong people, and learned difficult lessons.
In 2017, YaAdam and Anna’s mother encouraged them once again to “do your thing,” providing their first capital investment of $10,000. The funding helped them formally register Fye Network in The Gambia, establish their operations, and publish projects including Bakary on Safari and the Samba and Batch series.
Today, FyeN has expanded into publishing and animation, with ambitions to develop original African intellectual property for audiences in Africa and around the world.
The sisters acknowledge that access to capital and support within their own communities remains a challenge. However, they say those experiences have strengthened their resolve to build resiliently and pursue partnerships beyond traditional boundaries.
Why Representation Matters
For YaAdam and Anna, representation in children’s literature is about more than seeing an African face on a page. It is about helping children imagine what is possible.
They believe children should see their lives, cultures and communities reflected in stories while also being introduced to professions, places and possibilities beyond what they already know.
Reflecting on her own childhood, one of the sisters noted that her journey might have been different if she had known that being African could also mean becoming a scientist, aerospace engineer, business leader or astronaut.
“Sometimes, before a child can become something, they first have to be able to imagine that it is possible,” they said.
Telling and Owning African Stories
The sisters are equally passionate about ownership of African intellectual property.
They want African stories to be created, produced, owned, and shared by African creators.
“Plain and simple, ownership is how we take control of our African narrative,” they explained.
At the same time, they believe African stories can resonate globally without losing their cultural identity. Children everywhere experience similar emotions, dreams, challenges, and joys.
“If my children and I can connect with a blue dog named Bluey as he navigates the everyday experiences of childhood, then surely children around the world can connect with Bakary or Halima doing the same,” they said.
“We don’t have to make our stories less African to make them more relatable. We have to tell great stories.”
Dream Big, African Child!
One of FyeN’s major projects is Dream Big, African Child, a children’s book and multimedia series celebrating African leaders, innovators, artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, and changemakers.
The idea came through Anna’s daughter, whose questions about people’s lives and what she could become made the sisters realize how many remarkable African stories remain undocumented.
The project also aims to preserve stories traditionally passed down through African oral traditions.
As families become increasingly dispersed across cities and countries, the sisters believe documenting these journeys is more important than ever.
“We are capturing yesterday’s dreams to inspire tomorrow’s dreamers,” they said.
Bakary on Safari
FyeN’s animated project, Bakary on Safari, is particularly personal to the sisters. The series is dedicated to their father, Serigne Omar Fye, an environmentalist who worked with the World Bank and whose passion for conservation influenced the family.
The series follows Bakary, a young African boy whose parents are a veterinarian and a park ranger. Growing up around wildlife and national parks, he makes conservation part of everyday life.
In each episode, Bakary travels to a different African national park, working with local junior rangers to solve conservation challenges.
The first season will take viewers through Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal and The Gambia.
For the sisters, the project is also about changing the perspective from which African conservation stories are told.
Building a Creative Future
Beyond their own projects, YaAdam and Anna want FyeN to contribute to a sustainable African creative industry. They believe young Gambians need to see that careers in writing, animation, illustration, design, filmmaking and other creative fields can provide meaningful and financially sustainable futures.
They point to Gambians such as Babu Ceesay, Baba Jagne, Mariama Colley and Christopher Tijan Smith, the lead writer for Bakary on Safari, as examples of Gambians making an impact in the creative space.
“The creative industry is here, and it is here to stay,” they said.
Their message to young people is to “Try it all. Explore. Create. Dream bigger. Do it all.”
YaAdam and Anna want FyeN to be remembered for leaving authentic African stories, greater ownership of African intellectual property, and children who believe they can dream big and build big.
They want the company to help shape both how the world sees Africa and how Africans see themselves. They want to continue preserving African stories, creating opportunities, and helping develop the continent’s creative industries.
Their journey began when two sisters went looking for stories in which their family could see themselves. When they could not find enough, they decided to create them. Today, they are building a platform to ensure that African children can see themselves not only in the stories they read, but in the futures they imagine.
From The Gambia to the world.
