Nine-year-old Rebecca and her family, living in a South African village for black people, are threatened with forced removal to a bleak, distant development, to make room for a new suburb for whites.
South Africa
Materials from South Africa
Welcome To Zanzibar Road
After moving into the house on Zanzibar Road that her neighbors helped her build, Mama Jumbo decides to share it with Little Chico.
Straw Sense
Goolam-Habib, a young boy who is new to a village surrounded by strawberry fields and who doesn’t speak, befriends an old man making a straw-filled doll, and soon the old man helps the boy find himself.
Jafta: The Homecoming
A young black South African boy describes his feelings about his father’s return from working in the city.
The Dove
A visiting dove provides the answer to Grandmother Maloko’s financial problems when floodwaters destroy her crops and she must rely on the sale of her homemade jewelry.
Journey to Jo’burg: A South African Story
When their baby sister becomes dangerously ill, thirteen-year-old Naledi and her younger brother make a journey of over 300 kilometers from their village to Johannesburg, where their mother works as a maid for a white family.
Chain Of Fire
When the villagers of Bophelong are forced to leave their homes, Naledi and her younger brother join in a school demonstration and learn that the South African government treats even children who dissent with brutality. Sequel to Journey to Jo’burg.
Somewhere in Africa
Ashraf, a South African boy who lives in a big city, dreams of the African wild.
Jamela’s Dress
Jamela gets in trouble when she takes the expensive material intended for a new dress for Mama, parades it in the street, and allows it to become dirty and torn.
What’s Cooking, Jamela?
Jamela is responsible for fattening up the chicken intended for Christmas dinner, but instead she gives it a name and makes it her friend.