Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story

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It could be used to link to PSHE or Citizenship to address bullying and racism, History to examine the apartheid and Geography for studying Africa. The children have created stories and monologues from the perspective of the main characters and then performed these to create podcasts. Beverley Naidoo (a white child) got a vaccine against diphteria, the children of the woman helping her family did not get this chance. Naidoo has a history of standing up for equal rights and speaking out against apartheid, and that's wonderful, of course, but I still don't know how I feel about white people writing stories for PoC.

Similar themes include class divisions by race, segregation and apartheid, police abuse and brutality, the fight for civil rights, protests, etc.

Naledi had never thought about it before tonight, but never, never, had she written about wanting to be…say, a doctor.

Our topic for the term was the Apartheid, this book was great as it helped give the children a better understanding, as well as it being about young children in that time, therefore more meaningful for them. After going with a friend to a restaurant in Frankfurt, even though it was raining like crazy, it did not stop me from going to Oxfam, where I did behave: I only got this one book (1 euro). Naidoo sent this book to family in South Africa, the book was forbidden (”undesirable publication”).

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Fortunately they were ok and it was a lovely read, but it left me with a deep sense of sadness for every domestic worker in South Africa. Registered office address: Unit 34 Vulcan House Business Centre, Vulcan Road, Leicester, Leicestershire, LE5 3EF. Thirteen-year-old Naledi lives with Nono (her grandmother), Tiro (her brother), and Dineo (her baby sister) in a small South African village 300 kilometers from Johannesburg.

I think it is a great read for a KS2 class and there are many activities in which it can be used throughout literacy lessons such as looking at characters in depth, retelling a story from a character's point of view, play scripts and report writing.

When their baby sister falls seriously ill, two young South African siblings set out from home to make the 200+ mile journey to Johannesburg to find their mother, who works as a housekeeper for a rich, white family. Naledi and Tiro's family is so poor that they can't afford to go to the doctor when Dineo falls sick. It is a simple story line that has potential to open many discussions and topics for children to further explore in the classroom. But at university, Naidoo became increasingly outraged at the South African government and joined Nelson Mandela’s anti-Apartheid movement, with Beverly Naido being arrested and jailed in 1964, for anti-government activities.