Chidera Eggerue accuses Florence Given of ‘copying’ her book: ‘This is exactly how white supremacy works’

‘When can black women just have things without white people copying?’ says author

The influencer Chidera Eggerue, who founded the #SaggyBoobsMatter movement has openly accused fellow influencer and author, Florence Given, of imitating her work and using the ideas of black women to generate wealth for herself.

Eggerue, who goes by the moniker The Slumflower, began by comparing the pages of her most recent book, How to get over a boy, with those of Given’s debut release, Women don’t owe you pretty, on her Instagram stories on Tuesday. 

Likening the title of Given’s book with a chapter of her own, “I do not owe anybody pretty”, Eggerue said: “When can black women just have things without white people copying?”

The author went on to point out that while she had provided a testimonial for the cover of Given’s book, which referred to the illustrator as “an absolute powerhouse”, she was not giving permission to be “copied” and highlighted that both her own books were published before Given’s.

Eggerue’s debut book What a time to be alone was released in 2018, while How to get over a boy came out in February 2020, followed by Given’s offering in June. According to Octopus, the publishing group behind Given’s book, sales of Women don’t owe you pretty exceeded 100,000 copies in its first six months. Meanwhile, Eggerue’s debut book quickly became a top 10 bestseller and has sold over 50,000 copies to date.

Eggerue and Given have developed large followings in recent years for their views on body positivity, dating and feminism. They both champion self-love and acceptance while challenging conventional feminine expectations and have also published self-help books designed to give women the confidence to navigate the modern world, tapping into issues such as toxic relationships, privilege and the male gaze. But, according to Eggerue, these similarities are not a coincidence.

As her Instagram stories continued, Eggerue claimed that her books initiated a new wave of self-help literature that had never been seen before, and accused Given of copying the visual style of her book, which features bright colours, striking illustrations and large text.

She also said that while she was not encouraging people to direct abuse towards Given, she felt this was a clear example of how the work of black women has been used to line the pockets of white people.

“Black women continue to pave the way, set the trends and set the pace,” she said. “If you feel a sense of passion from this story, I want you to use this opportunity to think about and observe the ways that, especially in the publishing industry, black women rarely receive our flowers and when white people repeat what we say, or gentrify our sentiments, they receive the praise, they’re referred to as ground-breaking and extraordinary. This is exactly how white supremacy works.”

She continued: “It’s unfortunate that there are many black great people out there whose work we will never come to know because, by the time they’re ideas even reach the surface, a white person gentrified it, hogged the mic and made the narrative all about them.”

Later, Eggerue shared a video showing the “Acknowledgements” page in Given’s book, where the author cites the names of several black women who inspired her, including herself, Munroe Bergdorf and Renni Eddo-Lodge.

“I want to acknowledge that the sections in this book on my understanding of prettiness, desirability, privilege, unconscious bias and systems of oppression didn’t just fall into my head,” Given writes. “I had to listen and I had to learn, predominantly from black women. My understanding of these topics would not have been possible without the work of the following women, who I am dedicating this book to.”

Eggerue’s videos concluded with her saying she does not think Given is a “bad person” and called on the author to “redeem” herself by donating a “significant amount” of the proceeds from her book to black charities.

“This is what happens, black people’s ideas generate wealth for white people but how much of that wealth goes back into our community? That’s what I’m discussing here,” she stated. “This whole thing is redeemable. For each black woman’s name listed here, that’s a black charity to donate to.”

The activist went on to share a series of screenshots from Google search to demonstrate her point, showing that even when searching for her own name, the search engine’s algorithm automatically promotes Given’s book. “The devil works hard but white supremacy works HARDER,” Eggerue wrote. “People go looking for my book, they see her white name come up first and endorsed with five stars.”

Eggerue’s comments sparked a debate on social media, with many praising her for speaking out.

One person wrote on Twitter: “Nah I can’t even lieeeee whenever I see Florence Given’s book cover I’m always triggered by the fact that it looks like The Slumflower’s work.”

Another added: “The Slumflower was absolutely correct when she said black women’s ideas generate wealth for white people in regards to Florence Given’s book.”

However, others stated that the authors' claims were unfounded, considering the ideas each of the women discuss have been around for generations.

“You know what’s absolutely jokes about Slumflower and Florence Given battling it out right now? The fact that they’re both trying to claim that they created or perhaps on a smaller scale that they totally popularised feminist theory which was written over 40 years ago,” one person wrote.

A second agreed, writing: “The Florence Given/Slumflower drama is embarrassing. For them, yeah sure, but also for women, anyone who has ever claimed to be a feminist, or read theory, been even surface level involved in the discourse. The girls are fighting over who invented coffee table books.”

Given has not yet addressed Eggerue’s claims publicly and representatives for both authors have declined to comment.The Independent has contacted Given and Eggerue’s publishers for comment.