Czytaj książkę: «Journey to Jo’Burg»

In memory of two small children who died far away from their mother … and to Kentse Mary Sebate, their Mma, who worked in Jo’burg.

Why You’ll Love This Book By Michael Rosen

The history of children’s books is full of wonderful and extraordinary stories, but it has to be said that a great majority of these are about one tiny, narrow band of the human race: middle-class western European and American people. Of course, our massively popular folk tales talk of peoples struggling to survive – think Hansel and Gretel, for example – but once novels for children started to be written, the authors tended to write about people like themselves. This is not a complaint – I do it myself! However, when a book comes in front of us that does that rare thing of talking of people with a way of life utterly distant from this western European type, it’s my view that we should celebrate it.

When Beverley Naidoo wrote Journey to Jo’burg, South Africa was a place that had a very special kind of political structure:it was ruled by a white elite that had its origins in two countries – Britain and Holland. So, the two languages of those who ruled were English and a form of Dutch called Afrikaans. There was also a big minority of people of Eastern European Jewish origin, they tended to speak English rather than Afrikaans. But the large majority of people living under this rule came from the many nations of Africans – people like the Tswana and the Zulus – who had been living on the continent of Africa long before the British or Dutch had come to settle and rule there. The system of rule was called Apartheid, an Afrikaans word meaning something like “separateness”. However, this makes Apartheid sound as if it was just a matter of living separately; it was far from it. It meant something much more stark and cruel: the white people of European origin were the only ones who benefited from the system. They invented hundreds of rules that tried to ensure that white people and black people were kept apart. This meant that there were many places – like the best swimming pools, shops, schools and colleges – where black people were not allowed to go. But in the end it was Apartheid itself that fell apart! Nelson Mandela who had fought against the system was released from prison and the black people of South Africa won the right to vote.

So, Journey to Jo’burg has become a different kind of book. When Beverley wrote it, it was a book that threw light on a problem that was going on at that very moment. I can remember the feeling that teachers, writers and school students had: this was a story about now, and spoke out on behalf of the people suffering in South Africa. We had read, heard or seen musicians, poets and plays that had spoken like this, but we had never thought there could be a children’s book that talked of such things. And yet here it was. For some of us who supported Nelson Mandela and what was called the “Anti-Apartheid” movement, this was very exciting.

Of course, some people said that children’s books shouldn’t be “political”, or that they shouldn’t “preach” or try to put over a “message”. Well, the only problem with this argument is that one of the most popular children’s books, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is a very political book and does put over a “message”. What’s more, all through Victorian times, many, many children’s books, comics and magazines put over strong messages about how children should behave. Indeed, lots of popular stories also spoke about how it was right and proper for British people to rule in Africa. So, in some ways, I see Beverley’s book almost as a reply to those kinds of books and magazine stories that I used to read when I was a boy, books that told me that I was civilised and sensible, and African people were dangerous or childish.

Now Journey to Jo’burg has become what we would call a “historical novel”. It’s about a time and a society that has passed away. So, why bother to read it? Hasn’t that urgency and excitement disappeared? Well, there are several answers to this. First of all, we never tire of hearing about times from the past. This comes to us in all sorts of ways – through finding out about our own families, through history programmes on the TV, books and even films set in past times like Gladiator or Beowulf. And of course we can read books or see films that were, in their day, set in their own time, but are now history – like books by Charles Dickens, plays by Shakespeare and the like. All this suggests to me that most of us like trying to feel and understand what it was like in another time, in another place. Perhaps we want to compare it to how we live now. But what is especially special about Journey to Jo’burg is that it’s not only set in a society that has changed, but that it’s about the people who were the most poor in that society. And another thing: these poor people wouldn’t be “saved” by clever, nice, rich people. They struggled to get something better by themselves.

There’s another reason why the book is worth reading. Though Apartheid is finished, there are places all over the world where something similar is going on. A group of people rule a country for their own benefit and the poor people have very few rights – there are places they are not allowed to go, or certain kinds of mixing that are not allowed. When Beverley wrote Journey to Jo’burg, no one knew if Apartheid would be defeated. When she wrote it, for all she or anyone else knew, the system might last for ten, twenty or a hundred years more. But now, we know that it was defeated, and in its own way, this book helped in that. One thing that the rulers of South Africa hated was people around the world knowing how black African people were living. The book was of course banned in South Africa itself. If anyone tried to bring copies of it into the country, customs people seized and destroyed them. That’s how dangerous it was considered to be!

So, when we read the book today, we are reminded of the struggles that people had to face in South Africa during an oppressive and unfair system, and that in the end their fight for freedom was successful. But more than that, this book can help us think about other people living in brutal and controlling conditions, and how for them too, we can hope that it won’t last much longer.

Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen is well known as a poet and broadcaster, his work has won numerous awards, including the Nestle Smarties Prize for We’re Going On a Bear Hunt. He has devoted his life to entertaining children with his writing and performances and to informing teachers, librarians, parents, publishers and government agencies of the importance of supporting children’s books. Michael’s contribution to the world of children’s books was recognised in 2007 when he was appointed the Children’s Laureate.

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Can you imagine having to live apart from your parents for most of your childhood?

In South Africa for a long time the law forced many parents and children apart. Many fathers and mothers from the countryside had to go away to towns and cities to work. Their children had to stay behind. For this was the land of apartheid – where the broken families were all black and the people who made the laws were white. We didn’t often hear about the children who were cut off from their parents. We only got a glimpse of them through a short news item now and then.

Another report told of a boy who had always lived with his mother until he was caught up in a police raid and taken hundreds of miles away.

It will take a long time to repair the damage of apartheid. Journey to Jo’burg may help you understand why. But many people have planted their hopes, like seeds. now they need to work hard at helping them grow.

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