Africa

Materials from Africa

The Bite of the Mango

The astounding story of one girl’s journey from war victim to UNICEF Special Representative. As a child in a small rural village in Sierra Leone, Mariatu Kamara lived peacefully surrounded by family and friends. Rumors of rebel attacks were no more than a distant worry. But when 12-year-old Mariatu set out for a neighboring village, she never arrived. Heavily armed rebel soldiers, many no older than children themselves, attacked and tortured Mariatu. During this brutal act of senseless violence they cut off both her hands. Stumbling through the countryside, Mariatu miraculously survived. The sweet taste of a mango, her first food after the attack, reaffirmed her desire to live, but the challenge of clutching the fruit in her bloodied arms reinforced the grim new reality that stood before her. With no parents or living adult to support her and living in a refugee camp, she turned to begging in the streets of Freetown. In this gripping and heartbreaking true story, Mariatu shares with readers the details of the brutal attack, its aftermath and her eventual arrival in Toronto. There she began to pull together the pieces of her broken life with courage, astonishing resilience and hope.

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 3, Issue 4

Out of Shadows

A debut novel set in the early 1980s at a boy’s boarding school in the newly formed country of Zimbabwe.

Africans Thought of It

The ingenuity of African peoples from ancient times to today. Did you know that aloe vera — now found in countless products, including sunscreens and soaps — was first used by Africans? They ground it into powder and used it to treat burns and other skin conditions, and hunters used it to disguise their scent from animals. They also used the nutritious oil from the fruit of the oil palm tree in everything from cooking to medicines to wine. And the marimba, better known to us as the xylophone, is believed to have originated 700 years ago in Mali. Other unique African innovations include the technique of banana leaf art and using horns — and hairdos! — to communicate important messages. Africans Thought of It features descriptive photos and information-packed text that is divided into sections, including: Agriculture Food Medicine Music Architecture Games and Sports. This fourth book in Annick’s We Thought of It series takes readers on a fascinating journey across the world’s second largest continent to discover how aspects of its culture have spread around the globe.

My Cat Isis

Isis was one of 1500 gods and goddesses worshipped by the Ancient Egyptians. My Isis is the one and only cat in our family. Isis wore a beautiful horned headdress to show that cattle were important in Egyptian life. We make my Isis wear a harness and leash because squirrels are important in nature. Through a series of lighthearted comparisons between his beloved pet cat and the Egyptian goddess, a young boy reveals surprising and playful parallels – and differences that are often funnier between their two worlds. The most obvious similarity? Isis that cat might not be a goddess, but her people couldn’t adore her more!

Seeds of Change

A picture book biography of scientist Wangari Maathai, the first African woman and first environmentalist to win a Nobel Peace Prize (in 2004), for her work planting trees in her native Kenya.

Stones for My Father

The Boer War was disastrous for the British: 22,000 of them died. Close to 7,000 Boers died. Nobody knows how many Africans lost their lives, but the number is estimated to be around 20,000. This tragic, and little remembered, chapter in history is the backdrop for Trilby Kent’s powerful novel. Corlie Roux’s father has always told her that God gave Africa to the Boers. Her life growing up on a farm in South Africa is not easy: it is beautiful, but it is also a harsh place where the heat can be so intense that the very raindrops sizzle. When her beloved father dies, she is left in the care of a cold, stern mother who clearly favors her two younger brothers. But she finds solace with her African maitie, Sipho, and in Africa itself. Corlie’s world is about to vanish: the British are invading and driving Boers from their farms. The families who do not surrender escape in the bush to help fight off the British. When Corlie’s laager is discovered, she and the others are sent to an internment camp. Corlie is strong and can draw on her knowledge of the land she loves, but is that enough to help her survive the starvation, disease, and loss that befalls her in the camp?

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 5, Issue 2

Lost Boy, Lost Girl

One of thousands of children who fled strife in southern Sudan, John Bul Dau survived hunger, exhaustion, and violence. His wife, Martha, endured similar hardships. In this memorable book, the two convey the best of African values while relating searing accounts of famine and war. There’s warmth as well, in their humorous tales of adapting to American life. For its importance as a primary source, for its inclusion of the rarely told female perspective of Sudan’s lost children, for its celebration of human resilience, this is the perfect story to inform and inspire young readers.

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 5, Issue 2

This Thing Called the Future

Khosi lives with her beloved grandmother Gogo, her little sister Zi, and her weekend mother in a matchbox house on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. In that shantytown, it seems like somebody is dying all the time. Billboards everywhere warn of the disease of the day. Her Gogo goes to a traditional healer when there is trouble, but her mother, who works in another city and is wasting away before their eyes, refuses even to go to the doctor. She is afraid and Khosi doesn’t know what it is that makes the blood come up from her choking lungs. Witchcraft? A curse? AIDS? Can Khosi take her to the doctor? Gogo asks. No, says Mama, Khosi must stay in school. Only education will save Khosi and Zi from the poverty and ignorance of the old Zulu ways.School, though, is not bad. There is a boy her own age there, Little Man Ncobo, and she loves the color of his skin, so much darker than her own, and his blue-black lips, but he mocks her when a witch’s curse, her mother’s wasting sorrow, and a neighbor’s accusations send her and Gogo scrambling off to the sangoma’s hut in search of a healing potion.J.L. Powers holds an MA in African history from State University of New York-Albany and Stanford University. She won a Fulbright-Hays grant to study Zulu in South Africa, and served as a visiting scholar in Stanford’s African Studies Department. This is her second novel for young adults.

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 5, Issue 2 and Volume XI, Issue 3.

Waiting For The Rain (Laurel Leaf Books)

Tengo is the 10-year-old son of workers on Oom Koos’s large farm in the Transvaal. He longs to go to school like his friend Frikkie, who visits his uncle’s farm on holidays. But Tengo’s family is too poor to pay for the education that comes free to whites. He finally gets his wish at age 14. Tengo goes to live with his cousin in a squalid township outside Johannesburg and studies furiously. After three years, he is almost ready for college, but a year-long school boycott ruins his chances and he is drawn into the fight against apartheid. When he and Frikkie meet in a violent confrontation, Tengo realizes that he will carry on the struggle for freedom as a scholar, not a soldier. The writing here is powerful, evoking in minute detail daily life and the broad landscapes of the country.