Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story

Product Information

Set in South Africa, Naledi, a thirteen year old girl and her younger brother travel from their small village 300 km to get their mother (who works in Johannesburg) because their baby sister is very ill. They get help along the way from a number of people. In the process, Naledi learns about Apartheid from first hand experiences and stories from her friends. The book ends with her determined to speak with the older children at school and learn more. I think the book was a bit unrealistic in that one would expect a thirteen year old to know a bit about Apartheid. But it seems like a good introduction for American children on the subject. 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 Published during the height of Apartheid in the mid-1980s, this book was banned in South Africa until 1990. This would be a wonderful book to use to help students think globally about issues of power and class. It could also be the basis for doing a comparison between Apartheid and segregation in the U.S.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (French former tennis player) has no apparent relation to South Africa (I think I assumed he had). 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. 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 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.” When I sent two copies of my first children’s book to nephews and nieces in South Africa in 1985, they never received the parcel. Instead, my sister-in-law received a letter telling her that the books had been seized and banned. However Journey to Jo’burg soon found its way into many different countries, in English and in translations, so that hundreds of thousands of children elsewhere were soon reading it. It was only after the release of Nelson Mandela from jail that the book was unbanned.If you have read The Help, this is an equivalent book for children. The period is South Africa's apartheid years, and while I'm rating four for writing, I'm rating another star for the depiction of tendencies towards popular activism and bringing about change. I also like that there is a simple map. 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. Why shouldn’t we use the bus? When our buses are full, their buses are half empty. Don’t you be sorry!” (p. 26).

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 injustice 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. 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).

Comments

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.

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 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.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. :/

But 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! 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 urn:lcp:journeytojoburg0000naid:epub:e62c6049-886d-406c-b0c1-e0ee7667cf32 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier journeytojoburg0000naid Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t9r312z0w Invoice 1652 Isbn 0582058295 I used this book within my Year 4 literacy lessons and I thought it was a great way to get the children aware of what was happening in South Africa in the time of the Apartheid. It opened up great discussions and the children were wanting to ask questions relating to it. We were able to complete a number of activities relating to the book such as, writing a diary entry as if they were Naledi, thinking of different items they could take on their journey and doing a conscience alley and role play by giving advice on whether Naledi and Tiro should go. 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…

The main worry of course, is whether they can find their mother; after that, can they save their sister? so simple and straightforward that it makes accessible even to quite young children the difficult and the profound.