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Fiction is a very good way of exploring reality, especially different viewpoints. I tend to do a lot of research before I create a story and characters that are fictional. So my stories are true in the sense that everything that happens could happen. That was why at the beginning of Journey to Jo’burg there are two press cuttings about real children who made incredible journeys to find their mothers. to earn money to send them to school as well as to provide food and clothes. Once, some time ago, Naledi asked why she and Tiro could not live with Mama in Johannesburg. Mama said, “The white people who make the laws don’t allow it.” Ocr tesseract 4.1.1 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 1.0000 Ocr_module_version 0.0.11 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-2000229 Openlibrary_edition The sun rose higher. On they walked. The heat sank into them and they felt the sweat on their bodies. On they walked. Alone again… My first illustrated response to Journey to Jo’burg in 1985, thanks to a schoolboy Jeffrey Cooper Some letters show strong identification, like this one from a boy who, I feared, might have got himself into deep water like Femi in Web of Lies: The similarities between the lives of Femi and myself left me wondering. Wondering how two people can be so similar, wondering about how you know so much about what young boys are going through…
Naledi had never thought about it before tonight, but never, never, had she written about wanting to be…say, a doctor. Yes, that’s what she’d like to be. Image how useful it would be if she became a doctor, especially in their own village. She could even look after her own family.” (p. 72) In a social studies or history class, Journey to Jo’Burg could be used to compare and contrast the history of South Africa with that of the U.S.A. Similar themes include class divisions by race, segregation and apartheid, police abuse and brutality, the fight for civil rights, protests, etc. It could specifically trigger a lesson on protests like the Soweto Uprising, in which students protested the structurally racist and oppressive education system and were killed. Banned by the apartheid government in South Africa, this is the story of two children’s courage and determination to find their mother and bring her home. was one of the first books to portray life as it actually was in apartheid South Africa. Both then as contemporary fiction and now as a historical novel, it tells the story of children who must show enormous courage in the face of injusticeBut those children who marched in the streets don’t want to be like us...learning in school just how to be servants. They want to change what is wrong...even if they must die!
All those lesson on writing letters…for jobs as servants…always writing how good they were at cooking, cleaning, washing, gardening…always ending with “Yours obediently.” Botswana is ”Land of the Tswana”. End of the blog post. Ah, I went to Oxfam again yesterday and got Born A Crime, Trevor Noah (3 euro, excellent condition). In reality, if you dig deeper, you will learn that this was a journey of self-discovery and awareness for them. They learned firsthand about apartheid because in Johannesburg they experienced it! They finally saw what their mother's job is like. They accidentally got on the white bus and were yelled at and were told they were stupid. They meet a girl who introduced them to the idea of freedom. They realized that there is a lot about South Africa that they don't know, which their schools are not teaching them.That night, Naledi and Tiro travel toward Grace’s home by train. At one stop, the kids are pushed off the train by the exiting crowd and are separated from Grace. On the train platform, there is a surprise pass raid by the police. Adults without passes are taken to jail. Naledi and Tiro are not arrested because they are not yet 16, the age when a pass is needed. Soon after, Grace finds them, and the three complete their journey to Soweto. Outside of the village, they meet a boy who works in an orange orchard. He lets them eat a few oranges and hides them in a shed for the night. They leave early the next morning so as not to anger the orchard’s owner. Beverley Naidoo grew up in apartheid South Africa. As a student, she protested against it and in 1965 was exiled for her participation. She came to England, her father’s home country, and decided to write Journey to Jo’burg based on the experiences she had seen and lived through. The author Beverley Naidoo has an interesting life story: born into a white family in South Africa, she took part in the anti-apartheid movement as a student, was jailed for 8 weeks, then left the country for the UK. She married a man from Indian descent: their union would have been ”a crime” under the apartheid laws (I'm guessing like Trevor Noah's parents'). Naidoo sent this book to family in South Africa, the book was forbidden (”undesirable publication”).
Beverley Naidoo (a white child) got a vaccine against diphteria, the children of the woman helping her family did not get this chance... On the way into Johannesburg, Naledi and Tiro see a large mountain of sand. They know it is a dump from the mines that surround the city. Both children are very quiet, thinking of their father, who worked in the mines until he became ill with a cough and died. Why did I choose this book? Well, I watched a reality show on Netflix called ”Jewish Matchmaking” (I'm not sure I recommend it :D) and two persons on the show where from Jo(')burg in South Africa. I stopped and went on Wikipedia (my go-to source on almost everything) to see what the deal with Jo'burg is (it is Johannesburg indeed!) and this is why this book appealed to me. Another baby has died in the village and Naledi knows that her little sister Dineo might die too. But what can she do? Their grandmother has no money and there are no doctors in their village. So Naledi makes up her mind. She will have to get Mma who works more than 300 kilometres away in Johannesburg. The only way to let her know was to get to the big road and walk. So Naledi and her brother Tiro did just that…
PS I decided to write my review under this edition, although it is marked ”ebook”, because it matches the actual cover of the book I have. My knowledge about South Africa until reading this YA book? Roger Federer has some connections with the country (wiki: his mother is from there); Nelson Mandela; Charlize Theron; 2010 FIFA World Cup (vuvuzela...); of course apartheid. But this was pretty much it. (I know of some famous writers from the country, but never read any of them. Yes.)
Nelson Mandela, 1964 and 1990 https://beverleynaidoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Beverly-Naidoo-Refugee-Council-Turning18.mp3 The next day, Naledi and Tiro travel with Mma by train to their village. At Naledi’s asking, Mma tells how hard her life is. Once in the village, Nono watches Tiro, and Mma and Naledi take Dineo to the hospital. They must wait all day to see the doctor. After Dineo is kept in the hospital for three days, Mma is able to take her home.While reading the book, I often read related stuff on Wikipedia. When I saw my husband watching a video with Trevor Noah, I casually dropped a ”he grew up in Soweto”, but this was too much of an insider knowledge (?), it did not land. :/ I found this book humbling and heartwarming. It is written from the viewpoint of two young children in South Africa who struggle to understand the injustice they and their families face. When their baby sister falls gravely ill they courageously decide to travel 300km from their small village to Johannesburg to summon their mother from work. The physical journey is symbolic of their awakening to the wider realities of apartheid; they face danger and experience prejudice, but also meet kind strangers who help to keep them safe and tell them stories about the uprising of students in Soweto. Naledi is upset by everything she has heard and seen, but she is also grateful that she is learning so much about her mother and her world. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-02-09 11:01:29 Associated-names Joyner, Jane Boxid IA40058521 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier
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