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A review by libraryleslie
Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story by Beverley Naidoo
4.0
Naledi and Tiro run off to Johannesburg to tell their Mma their little sister is sick and needs to go to the hospital. They set off on foot to walk the 250 kilometers to find their mother. On the way their eyes are opened to the unfairness of apartheid and how awful black citizens in South Africa are treated.
Along with Naledi, my eyes were opened. Apartheid was something glossed over in school. A horrible period, but with no specifics given just that Nelson Mandela was a great man who ended it peacefully. The extreme poverty many of the black Africans were forced to live in is shown through the eyes of a child.
On their travels the children witness first hand the brutality of the police, and the inhumanity of the whites. When they reach their mother, the white woman of the household hears that the baby is dying, and she only permits her to leave the next morning because she is going to a party and needs someone to watch her children. This woman believes a party is more important than the life of her employees child!
I cannot imagine how Mma and other women like her only saw their children a few times a year, worked pretty much as slaves, for a tiny bit of money to send home so their children didn't starve.
The new edition of the book has a section about the author. A white woman growing up during this time period, who didn't notice the racial issues in her country till she was in college. After college she moved to England and mentions that under apartheid she was not able to live with her husband in South Africa because his grandparents had come to South Africa from India. I think her biography would make an interesting story, too.
Along with Naledi, my eyes were opened. Apartheid was something glossed over in school. A horrible period, but with no specifics given just that Nelson Mandela was a great man who ended it peacefully. The extreme poverty many of the black Africans were forced to live in is shown through the eyes of a child.
On their travels the children witness first hand the brutality of the police, and the inhumanity of the whites. When they reach their mother, the white woman of the household hears that the baby is dying, and she only permits her to leave the next morning because she is going to a party and needs someone to watch her children. This woman believes a party is more important than the life of her employees child!
I cannot imagine how Mma and other women like her only saw their children a few times a year, worked pretty much as slaves, for a tiny bit of money to send home so their children didn't starve.
The new edition of the book has a section about the author. A white woman growing up during this time period, who didn't notice the racial issues in her country till she was in college. After college she moved to England and mentions that under apartheid she was not able to live with her husband in South Africa because his grandparents had come to South Africa from India. I think her biography would make an interesting story, too.