Janelle Oswald, Contributor 
Model Alek Wek presents a creation from the Diane Von Furstenberg Spring 2008 collection during New York Fashion Week on September 9. - Contributed
She is an international fashion icon whose striking African features redefined attitudes about how models should look. Alek Wek, who launches her autobiography this month, talks with The Voice's Janelle Oswald about the road which led her to success.
I met Alek Wek at the This Morning studios with her publicist and driver. In an instant, it's clear to see why she was scouted in Crystal Palace, south London, when she was 18.
Greeting me with her meek and mild Brooklyn twang voice, she says she has never done an interview inside a car before and she is very grateful that I didn't mind riding around with her while she attempts to complete every diary appointment.
Wek explains that her life is extremely busy at the moment, not because of her modelling career but due to the release of her book - Alek: Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel. "Yesterday," she said, "I was doing an interview at the BBC. The building is very different from when I used to work there."
Life of ironies
She explains that life is full of ironies because before all the magazine covers, flashbulbs, airport lounges and five-star swanky hotels in fashion capitals, she used to clean the Beeb's offices and toilets.
"When I cleaned toilets, I only saw it as work to give me the means to achieve my goals. Of course I hated it," the Sudanese supermodel exclaimed. "Waking up at 4 a.m. when it's freezing cold is not easy, followed by Uni, coursework and my evening baby-sitting job, but it made me disciplined and gave me a huge sense of self-appreciation."
Born the seventh of nine children Alek, meaning 'black-spotted cow' (one of Sudan's most treasured cows, which represents good luck), never dreamt of becoming a model.
Both in her motherland, where she was considered to be inferior due to her Dinka tribe (dubbed as 'zurqa', meaning dirty black) and again in Britain when she arrived in 1991, she faced hostility.
Since being scouted Wek has been in several high-profile music videos, done ads for Issey Miyake, Moschino, Victoria's Secret and Clinique, as well as strutted the runway for fashion designers John Galliano, Donna Karen, Calvin Klein and Ermanno Scervino - to name a few.
The Dinka beauty who was the first black model who didn't conform to a Caucasian aesthetic also scored an acting role in 2002, debuting in The Four Feathers as Sudanese princess Aquol.
"I have had a great time modelling and I have met some wonderful people and seen some amazing places, but at this present time, can slow things down, choose what jobs I want to do and concentrate on other areas in my life such as my book," she said.
What's the inspiration?
Which, of course prompts the question: What inspired her to write her autobiography? Wek explains that "going back to Sudan after the peace treaty took place was very emotional for my mother and I. It has been 22 years since we fled our hometown for safety."
"When I was granted permission to re-enter the country and I had the opportunity to revisit my old life, I realised that I need closure because my life has transformed so much. But with the closure I was seeking, I also realised that I had an open book to move forward. Once I returned to my new home in Brooklyn, I had a burning desire to transcribe my feelings into memoirs," she said.
Revealing her thoughts to her agent, Wek began to put her life story into words, taking three hundred and sixty-five days to the release the pain that she has had bottled up for years. "It was very hard writing my feelings down because I had to revisit memories that I had cast to the back of my mind," she said.
Remembering the pain, Wek described how she lost her neighbours one by one and how her family lived in constant fear. "Not knowing if your are going to live to see the next day is a terrible feeling. The militias used to roar through the town looting and killing people while they blasted Michael Jackson's Thriller from their speakers. Bodies lay dead on the ground rotting. I hate remembering those days."
Wek explained that after her family home was sprayed with bullets, they decided to join the line of refugees leaving town for safety. "When the police could no longer protect us, my family decided that we had to leave our belongings behind for a better life. I remember the sun coming up and my mother giving us a cup of water to start the day. We packed our things and started walking across the bush. My sweat attracted flies, which bit me, drawing blood, which attracted more flies. I was starving after walking eight or nine hours because all I had eaten was a small stew of leaves and roots," Wek said.
Appreciating the importance of food and nutrition, Wek changes her thoughts and begins to speak of her anger surrounding eating disorders within the fashion world. "There are people in the world of fashion who are nuts and if you are not careful, they too will turn you crazy," says Wek.
She tells about the time when an agent told her that she was too fat.
"Can you believe that they told me I was fat? Even in Sudan where you don't get frequent meals, I was considered too skinny," she said.
From her first runway, Wek has used her position to advocate the suffering of her people by consistently campaigning for aid agencies such as Unicef and she has founded a not-for-profit organisation educating underprivileged children.
Maintaining her Dinka traditions while living in the Big Apple, Wek always speaks to her mother in their traditional language and talks Arabic with her sisters. Wek lives with her boyfriend of four years, Riccardo Sala, an Italian who works in property but, most importantly, Wek brings her past life to the kitchen table by cooking traditional Dinka food such as okra stew and dried fish, creating aromas from her small town in Wau in her East Side, New York, kitchen.
Now 30 - despite not knowing her real birthdate, other than that it was during the rainy season - Wek is feeling maternal. "If it was up to my boyfriend or mother, I would have kids already but the more I think about it, I'm feeling more confident that I can handle motherhood."
