IN CONVERSATION WITH CANDICE BRATHWAITE

interview JANA LETONJA

Sunday Times best selling author, advocate, journalist and TV presenter Candice Brathwaite is embarking on her biggest UK tour, ‘Manifesto’ before the release of the book on 5th September.. Besides this, Candice is also a co-host of the smash-hit podcast ‘Closet Confessions’.

Candice, you’re releasing your new book ‘Manifesto’. Tell us more about it and what inspired you to write it.

‘Manifesto’ is like my cheat sheet. I've completely changed my life in the last 10 years, and I've done so primarily using the laws, as it will, of manifestation and the tools and the practices that are listed within the book. What inspired me to write it is because, as ever, I don't know why I keep thinking this is my job, but I keep closing gaps in the market. Over the last 10 years, I hate to use the word suffered, because I have learned a lot, but I've suffered content, videos, books, podcasts about manifestation from the same kind of people, over and over and over again. Middle class white man, , second divorce, he's decided he's now going to train for a triathlon, get up at 4 am, have his ginger shot and listen to Andrew Huberman on repeat, and his life is magically going to be better. Or an exceedingly thin, Western beauty standard, white girl in her early 20s who glazes over all of the nepotism in her life, and is like ‘I'm going to show you how to get the life you deserve’. That's all well and good, and it's not to say that the things they say and teach don't work, but what they don't understand, through not having to, and sometimes by not wanting to, is that manifestation is so much harder when you exist on what people perceive to be the fringes of society. Now, that could be via race, class, disability, income, but what does manifesting mean when you're a dark skinned, black girl from South London and you ain't got two pennies to rub together? Riddle me that. These people don't have those experiences. They actually arrive at the start line of life with a head start, just based on what they look like and yes, I know it's not their fault. It's no one's fault. It's the luck of the draw. But that does mean that there are millions of people who don't engage with that content because they don't see themselves. I am blue in the face repeating how important it is to see what you want to be. This is all well and good, but how does manifestation work in the life of someone who is at the receiving end of the recent far right riots, who is at the receiving end of the N word, who is at the receiving end of knowing that when they put their CV in, it may automatically get rejected because someone can't be bothered. Well, no, the computer can't read their first name. What does it mean to manifest then? That's how ‘Manifesto’ was born, because I was like “You have really turned your life around using these practices, because you haven't let the visual of the teacher put you off”. But surely there's millions of people who won't engage with this thing because they're basically looking at these people thinking “Well that's all right for you, but I don't look like that. I don't have that start in life. I do not have those privileges”.

You are a huge advocate of manifesting. How do you look at manifestation and what does manifestation mean in your life?

Manifestation looks at me. It honestly looks at me. I explain this in ‘Manifesto’, because I understand that there are people that don't believe in it, or they're a bit cynical. If you use a diary, handwritten or Apple calendar, Google calendar, whatever, you manifest. And what I mean by that is, in four weeks time your mate’s having a birthday party, you put that in your calendar, and you just expect that day to arrive. It's a bit cheeky of you because we have actually no idea that we're even going to make it tomorrow. So that date goes in your diary, and especially when it's a thing that floods your bloodstream with good feelings, like a birthday or a wedding, you're excited about this thing that has yet not arrived. You're buying an outfit for this thing that has yet not arrived. And another thing you're not doing is constantly going to your diary wondering if this thing is going to come to pass. That is what manifesting is. I don't wonder about my New York brownstone, even though I don't have it yet. A bit like how tomorrow in my diary, it says that I am going to Birmingham to date number three on my ‘Manifesto’ book tour. It's the same way I look at the things I want to manifest in my life. They are going to come to pass no matter what.

I flood myself with the same good feelings about the things that I desire, so that, to me, is what manifesting is. It is setting in stone and being completely unshakable about the knowledge that what I desire is going to come to pass, and what manifestation means to my life is quite literally everything. Because coming from where I'm from, the life that I have right now, logically on paper doesn't make sense. It's inconceivable. Again, South London, born and raised in Brixton, lots of violence, lots of crime, constantly on the poverty line. I'm going yada yada yada, not because it's irrelevant, but because I don't like to meditate on that, but to look at Candice who was born in 88 and Candice who lives this life now in 2024 it makes no logical sense. I say it in ‘Manifesto’, and I say it all the time. Don't let small logic rob you of Big Magic. Stop allowing people, or yourself, to try and logicalise everything. Step out of that. Really dream big. Encourage yourself to see yourself at the highest level. That's what manifestation means to me.

The book focuses on the four pillars of wellness, wealth, love and happiness. How do you navigate your life towards all of them through manifestation?

Just by living it and, again, by expecting good things to happen to me. We have been very well trained by the media to just expect bad weather, just expect poor politics, just expect far right riots, just expect sub par everything. That's not the way I live my life. I genuinely wake up every day and I expect good things to happen to me. I expect gifts to meet me at my door. I expect to be treated even far better than I can conceive, sometimes treating and speaking to myself. And so that runs across all of those pillars. I expect to make good money, I expect to be loved hard, I expect to be content, I expect to live in a healthy body.

Now, this should not erase the fact that we have to work for these things, and sometimes the work is very insular. As in to work your way to these expectations, maybe around money, it's about really checking how much you think you're deserving. Many of us can expect a good thing, but if you don't truly believe you're deserving, it's never going to reach you. When it comes to health, I can expect to have a one hour 15 Hyrox finishing time all I want. If I don't show up for the next 11 weeks and give training my actual all, then it's not going to come to pass. So I say this in manifesting. As I say in life all the time, don't think that you can just meditate and make your vision board and buy some crystals and then be lazy . It doesn't work like that. You have to find tiny little ways every day that are going to build you towards this self actualisation. ‘Manifesto’ is not a reading book, it's a doing book. It's only going to work if you do. Yes, I've given this book my all, but I need you to meet the book halfway and also give it your all, and then I think you'll be absolutely shocked about how quickly your life can change.

What is your advice to your readers on how they can manifest things for themselves?

First and foremost, you need to expect good things to happen to you. You need to see yourself as worthy of magnetising, pulling towards you great experiences, great income, great love life, great friendships. I think, especially for my POC readers, we have typically undersold ourselves by proxy of the world in which we live. Most of us reading that book are living in spaces where we're not the majority. So sticking our head above the parapet and asking for more across any column of our life, health, wellness, happiness, love, it sometimes feels like “Oh, am I asking for too much?” No, I say it's the age of opening the throat chakra and being very loud, very vocal about what you want. I don't care what language you use - God, universe, source - stop going to this energy with a half hearted attitude or whispering like a little beggar. That is how you can manifest the best for yourself.

The release of the book was followed by your biggest UK tour to date. What were you most excited about for this tour?

I was excited about meeting people in real life. Social media is a great vehicle, but it can never be perceived as the destination, and so I can appreciate that I've used social media to build a truly authentic and supportive audience. But nothing, absolutely nothing, beats meeting these people in real life, because they pour into me more than I think they understand I pour into them. Social media can feel very one sided at times and dependent upon where I am in my cycle. One bad comment can completely outweigh the 1000s of good comments that typically come my way. And that doesn't mean that I need to be gassed up all the time, but to see how the work that I am putting my blood, sweat and tears into is affecting positive change in real life is like the gasoline my tank needs. It really does keep me going, and it allows me to remember that there's so much more to life than just pixels and squares and engagement and numbers that can all fall by the wayside. All we're going to be left with in humanity is our books and how we made people feel, and so being in community with them in real life is really important to me. I was most excited about meeting the readers, and, of course, about getting dressed. I'm Little Miss Put That Shit On. I do not need an excuse to buck out the prettiest dresses and the highest heels, but as a two time Sunday Times bestseller, to be doing my first ever book tour, is a bit mad, and so I'm really using this as a moment to blow the dust off some fabulous outfits.

Through your work, you’ve made a significant impact on motherhood and diversity, particularly through sharing unique experiences of Black mothers. Why do you believe this topic is of such importance not only in Great Britain, but worldwide today?

I'm going to jump in and say that I don't like that question. The reason I don't like that question is I never want it to be perceived that the way I write about black motherhood means that that is the blanket for all black British mothers. I Am Not Your Baby Mother - I'm so grateful for what it's done, not just in sense of how it's comforted my audience, but that is now on the required reading list for anyone that wants to become a midwife in the UK. That is a very big deal, but that is one story out of millions. That doesn't mean that every black woman is going to have the same experiences, so I just want to pause there so that you know we can really highlight that.

Why do I need another book by a white man? Why are 15 million, 1000, 100 trillion not enough? No one asked that of a white author. I'm actually tired of answering questions like this. There needs to be millions of stories by millions of women that look like me, so we can have a clearer, fairer landscape of what it means to be black and British. When my first daughter was born, who's about to turn 10, all the material about becoming a black mother I had to get flown in from the US. Amazon was not as slick as it is now, so sometimes these books were taking six weeks to two months to arrive. And even then, there are going to be things that an African American mother experiences that I may never and so whilst I am so grateful to be the one that was able in the literary world to blow the hinges off the doors of the conversation of black British motherhood, it's so boring to keep having this conversation as if I'm the only one, as if that's the only thing. It's very boring to reiterate why I think it's important that we have equal space on the bookshelf. No one's asking white male authors why they think their work's important. They just expect and accept that it is, and it is high time that we do the same for black literary stars.

How do you use your platforms and actively publicly engage in these conversations?

I use my platforms for me now. I don't particularly use my platforms to be the town crier, or to be the one leading people to freedom. It's just too much pressure to bear. Also black Britishness, black motherhood, black womanhood is not a monolith. And so now my platforms are just about sharing my work, showing some fashion, and me slogging it out in the gym, but I no longer feel that pressure of having to use these platforms to be an archetype for change. If the work resonates with you and it encourages you to change things in your life, I love that. If you just come to see me get dressed, I love that too, but I don't think that responsibility should lie with me anymore, and I don't publicly engage with heavy conversations anymore. If you want to hear me speak about heavier things, you come and see me on tour, or you buy the books. Social media is not the stage for discussion. Anything that is deemed as prickly as a topic that could get you cancelled, everyone becomes a keyboard warrior, and they know more than you, and their opinion counts, and they can't stand you and whatever. So that's not where I have those heavier discussions anymore.. Honestly, I don't have to say too much for people to then turn and say “Oh, I knew there was something I didn't like about her". What you didn't like about me is the fact that typically women that look like me aren't given a platform, and our voices are typically put on mute. That's what you didn't like about me. And so heavier conversations now happen in a closed space where I believe the community really want to have it and it's not a one sided conversation. They really want to go back and forth on the more meatier things in life.

After the ‘Manifesto’ UK tour, what is coming up next for you? What upcoming  projects are you working on?

After the tour, I want to rest. Tours aren't easy. And this is the second tour I've pulled off in my career, and they do take a lot, in a good way. Like I said, if you're touring correctly, you are going to give the people that are spending their hard earned money on you more than what just typically pops up on their page or on their Instagram algorithm. So my tours, just by proxy of the work I write, are deeply personal and exhausting in a good way, and so I am looking forward to just having a moment of rest. And upcoming projects, none that I can think of. It's me, I am the upcoming project. I'm taking part in Hyrox, so that's my next focus. That's a very physical task that I have to show up for, and just balancing business and motherhood and being my best self.

photographer AMANDA AKOKHIA