Africa from a Child's POV (LeAnne Hardy)

In a previous blog I reviewed picture books for introducing children to Africa . Older children are looking for characters they can relate to, children who are like them in some way even though they may be living on the other side of the world. Well-written books, featuring children near their own age, allow readers to imagine what it would be like to grow up in a different culture.

My own book The Wooden Ox (Kregel, 2002) is about a relief and development family kidnapped by rebels during the Mozambican civil war of the 1980s. All the events happened to real people during the years that we lived in the capitol, Maputo, but they didn’t all happen to our family or even to the same people. (Basically, the good things happened to us; the bad things happened to others.) In the story thirteen-year-old Keri and seven-year-old Kurt meet a child soldier called Mfano, ‘boy,’ because his real name has been forgotten. They are befriended by an African pastor whose story of escape is based on the experience of the elderly father of a close Mozambican friend of mine.

AK by Peter Dickinson (Laurel Leaf, 1993) also tells the story of a child soldier in an African civil war, this time in a fictional West African country. Dickinson does not simplify the painful realities of African politics. He uses an interesting technique of two alternative endings that allow readers to discuss what they would like to see happen and what, unfortunately, happens all to often.

In recent years I have been writing for children affected by HIV and AIDS. Beads and Braids (Shuter and Shooter, 2007), about a little girl anticipating the death of her mother, was published as a supplementary reader with limited availability outside South Africa. (Contact me on my website if you are looking for a copy.) Deborah Ellis’ The Heaven Shop, on the other hand, is available in several editions in different countries. Binti’s father runs a brisk business selling coffins until real life catches up with him, and Binti becomes just another AIDS orphan. Ellis traces a typical scenario for one of Africa’s 12 million orphans. (She has also written about Afghanistan under the Taliban and the Pakistan refugee camps in her series beginning with The Breadwinner.)

I am disappointed that Jenny Robson’s Praise Song (Cape Town, Tafelberg, 2005) is not available on Amazon. I think the premise of a teacher being found murdered after telling local teens about AIDS would intrigue American readers. The fitting ending gives me chills. Her futuristic dystopia Savannah 2116 AD, where animal rights take precedence over human rights in an African savannah setting, is available from resellers.

Africa has a rich cultural heritage. I have long been a lover of the tales of King Arthur. Elizabeth Wein’s A Coalition of Lions (New York, Viking, 2002), second volume of a trilogy that begins with The Winter Prince, puts a twist on the traditional story and shows sixth century Ethiopia as more culturally advanced than Europe of the same period. I lived in Ethiopia in the 1970s. Ms Wein’s writing is so convincing it was hard to believe she hadn’t even visited the country until after the book was published. (Great research!)

Modern Africa embraces many cultures, including Westerners living in Africa. Shel Arensen’s Rugendo Rhinos series (Kregel, 2003) is like many series set in North America for the middle grades and “tweens.” Missionary kids in Kenya and their African friends have adventures and stop crime. Readers of this fun series will be begging their parents to move to Africa. While the Kregel edition emphasizes the North American characters, the new Kenyan edition (Word Alive, Nairobi) makes more of the African characters. Of the books I have described here, other than my own The Wooden Ox, these are the only ones with specific Christian messages.

The world has grown much smaller, and modern American young people may well have classmates who were born in Africa or elsewhere. Memories of Sun, edited by Jane Kurtz ( New York, Greenwillow, 2002) is a collection of short stories and poems by authors from both continents. Aimed at middle schoolers, it describes life in various African countries and some of the experiences and impressions of Americans in Africa and Africans in America.

There is no shortage of non-fiction books in the Africa section of your library or bookstore. Here are some of my favorites:

African Beginnings by James Haskins and Kathleen Benson, with paintings by Floyd Cooper, is the beginning of a series aimed at African Americans. This first volume describes the various cultures from which the ancestors of modern African Americans came. The text combines with gorgeous art to show the rich heritage of the continent before Europeans arrived.

When Hippo Was Hairy and other Tales from Africa by Nick Greaves (Struik, 1989) combines animal folktales with beautiful paintings and information about the animals’ habitat, breeding, diet, etc. I have seen children pick it up for the pictures, be drawn in by the stories and consume the information. Other books in the series include When Lion Could Fly, When Elephant Was King, etc.

Few people have had as great an impact on Africa as Nelson Mandela—son of a Thembu chief, lawyer, activist, political prisoner and eventually the first democratically elected president of South Africa. Floyd Cooper emphasizes Mandela’s childhood, his early training, and his commitment to stand for what he believed was right in the children’s biography, Mandela (Philomel, 1996). The format is picture book, but the content will be better understood by school-age children.  Cooper’s trademark use of light and dark in the illustrations bring to life the faces of Mandela and his colleagues.

Sadly, several of these books are out of print.  They are only available second-hand.  Well-written books about Africa for young people allow children with African ancestors to revel in their heritage. They expose children of European ancestry to the beauty of a world different from their own. They stretch all of us who don't live in Africa beyond our every-day world.

I would love to hear from you about other books about Africa you have enjoyed and recommend for young people.

Tragedy and Fiction -LeAnne Hardy

For 45 seconds the earth shakes, half a city collapses, and 200,000 people die.  If it came out of Hollywood, we would say it was one of those ridiculous Apocalyptic movies with no plot but great special effects—except that this is real.  As real as a huge wave of water overwhelming coastal communities and sweeping away life as they knew it.  As real as airplanes flying into buildings that collapse on thousands.   Even as I write we are following news of another earthquake in Chile.  Thanks to the Internet and satellite TV, these images flash around the world instantly.  They make a dramatic background for fiction. 

But do we trivialize when we base fiction on such realities?

I have been reading Scared by Tom Davis, a novel about HIV in Swaziland that I first heard about on this blog.  It’s strong stuff.  The opening scene describes a 1998 raid by rebels on a town in Congo (formerly Zaire) where they murder the men, rape and kill the women, and pile the bodies to burn, desecrating them before they do.  Gruesome stuff, but, as a foreword from the publishers warns, this is reality.  Scared also describes scenes of child rape and near-rape.  I have worked with children affected by HIV in Africa, and I assure you that Davis describes nothing that is not true to life.

We often choose Christian fiction because we are sick of secular writers using gratuitous violence and explicit sex to sell books.  We want to be protected from all that.  But is there such a thing as being too protected—so protected that we lose our passion for justice and righteousness, that we forget how evil sin is—because we have glossed over unpleasant realities? 

I have been following The Livesay [Haiti] Weblog, the account of Troy and Tara Livesay, missionaries in Haiti.  (One of his beautiful photos opens this blog.) Tara ran the Disney Marathon with my daughter two days before the earth shook although the she and my daughter never met among the thousands running through the Magic Kingdom and around the lake at Epcot.  I have never met her family.  I knew nothing of their ministry before a friend passed on the link on Facebook.  But for me, reading their blog puts humanity on the things I see on TV and places my God firmly in the midst.  As a parent, one of the most poignant entries was when they took their six younger children (three of Haitian nationality) to the American Embassy to send them off with strangers on a cargo plane to the U.S.  I felt Tara’s relief when they got the message that the children were safe with family in New Jersey.  The Livesays have now gone to Texas for a time of healing with their children, but the blog continues to give me specifics to pray that will aid not just the general population of the country, but specific people who can be touched with the love of God.

Fiction can make us identify with realistic characters and so empathize with a situation beyond our comprehension.  The Livesay’s blog is not fiction.  It is current events.  Is it appropriate to use these huge tragedies in our fiction, or are we guilty of exploiting the suffering of others to sell books?  What limitations or qualifications would you put on fiction that uses tragedies like the Haiti earthquake as background?  Or are non-fiction accounts the only appropriate way to convey what happened?  Comment below and tell us what you think. 

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LeAnne Hardy has lived in six countries on four continents. Her books for young people come out of her cross-cultural experiences and her passion to use story to convey spiritual truths in a form that will impact lives. Visit her at www.leannehardy.net .