Publisher's Synopsis
From Cricket to Madiba, from Bunny Chow to Kubu, this photographic alphabet celebrates everything we South Africans love best about our country. Set at the southern end of the African continent, this beautiful land with its many different plants, animals, people and languages was once made ugly by racism. But now our rainbow nation is strivingto make the country a fairer place for everyone.
Other books in the series:
A is for Africa, B is for Brazil, B is for Bangladesh, C is for China,
E is for Ethiopia, I is for India, J is for Jamaica, K is for Korea, M is for Mexico,
P is for Pakistan, P is for Poland, T is for Turkey
Introduction
The Republic of South Africa is a huge country at the southern end of Africa stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. Travel across it and you'll be amazed at how the land changes from golden beaches to forests, deserts to grassland, valleys to mountains. You will find many different plants, birds, animals, people, languages, religions and kinds of music. We have three capital cities: Pretoria (our government headquarters), Cape Town (our Parliament) and Bloemfontein (our Supreme Court).
When I was a child, our beautiful land was made ugly by racism. Black, brown and white people were forced apart by apartheid (separateness) laws, and children of different colours weren't allowed to go to the same schools or live next to each other.
Many brave people protested against this and went to jail.
Many sang songs about the jailed black leader, Nelson Mandela. They cried tears of joy when he came out of prison. He became South Africa's first black president in a government elected by people of all colours in 1994.
It's not easy to change a country that has been so unequal and unfair, but our "rainbow nation" children are calling for change. Yebo! Yes, we can!
Beverley Naidoo was born in South Africa on 21 May 1943 and grew up under apartheid. As a student, she began to question the apartheid regime and was later arrested for her actions as part of the resistance movement in South Africa. In 1965 she came to England and married another South African exile; they have two children.
Her books Journey to Jo'burg, Chain of Fire and Out of Bounds are set in South Africa under apartheid, while No Turning Back concerns the experiences of a boy trying to survive on the streets of Johannesburg in the immediate post-apartheid years. The Other Side of Truth and its sequel, Web of Lies, deal with the experiences of Nigerian political asylum seekers in England. Her 2007 novel Burn My Heart has an imagined point of reference in the boyhood in Kenya of a second cousin, Neil Aggett, being set in the 1950s during the Mau Mau uprising.
Beverley Naidoo has also written several picture books, featuring children from Botswana and England. In 2004, she wrote the picture book Baba's Gift, set in contemporary South Africa, with her daughter, Maya Naidoo. In The Great Tug of War and Other Stories she retells African folktales, the precursors of the Brer Rabbit tales. "I really believe that everyone should have rights, including the poor and unfortunate."
Beverley Naidoo will be in the US in October 2011 to talk to USBBY to tie in with the publication of Aesop's Fables.
