Extra Credit Books and Movies for South Africa
Books
Cry, the Beloved Country - Alan Paton
Cry, the Beloved Country is a beautifully told and profoundly compassionate story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set in the troubled and changing South Africa of the 1940s. The book is written with such keen empathy and understanding that to read it is to share fully in the gravity of the characters' situations. It both touches your heart deeply and inspires a renewed faith in the dignity of mankind. Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic tale, passionately African, timeless and universal, and beyond all, selfless.
A Dry White Season - Andre Brink
André Brink's novel, A Dry White Season, is a captivating, yet realistic tale about the unfair treatment of blacks in Johannesburg, South Africa. I found it to be an excellent read because of how Brink is in touch with reality. He has his readers ponder a true-to-life question, an ongoing question about racism. Ben Du Toit, the protagonist, finds the deaths of his African-American friend, Gordon Ngubene, and Gordon's son, Jonathan, to be unusual. Both deaths appeared to be caused and covered up by the government. Ben spends his entire life in hopes of uncovering the truth behind these two mysterious deaths. Were they treated unjustly because they were black? This is the question that Ben solves throughout the novel and unfortunately, his quest draws him away from his family and friends. In the end, Ben, living in complete isolation and sadness, discovers that his country is unfair. He triumphs, however, because he is no longer ignorant of his country's behavior. This novel relates to us because we are well aware of racism and injustice. It is very true that Ben's family would leave him if he did not spend time with them. Brink did not falsify the truth with a happy ending but instead allowed the reader to feel Ben's loneliness.
Kaffir Boy - Mark Mathabane
Mark Mathabane was weaned on devastating poverty and schooled in the cruel streets of South Africa's most desperate ghetto, where bloody gang wars and midnight police raids were his rites of passage. Like every other child born in the hopelessness of apartheid, he learned to measure his life in days, not years. Yet Mark Mathabane, armed only with the courage of his family and a hard-won education, raised himself up from the squalor and humiliation to win a scholarship to an American university.
This extraordinary memoir of life under apartheid is a triumph of the human spirit over hatred and unspeakable degradation. For Mark Mathabane did what no physically and psychologically battered "Kaffir" from the rat-infested alleys of Alexandra was supposed to do -- he escaped to tell about it.
Burger’s Daughter - Nadine Gordimer
Rosa Burger grew up in a home under constant surveillance by the South African government. Her parents were detained for their political beliefs; her father died in prison, and her mother, whose health suffered from her time in jail, eventually dies. Rosa, a white South African in her early twenties, is left the only surviving member of her family. Yet even after her parents' deaths, the history of their anti-apartheid beliefs and practices have a daily impact on her life: it seems everyone has expectations of her and the government is still watching. A quiet, private person, Rosa constantly searches her memories to find herself, to grasp this heritage that weighs her down. Over a period of several years Rosa comes to understand the impact of the South African political climate on her and how she became who she is. Take time to read this novel; the political realities it describes are complicated. The narrative style varies from straightforward storytelling to Rosa's most personal thoughts. In Burger's Daughter, Nobel Prize-winner Nadine Gordimer takes a situation most read about in newspapers and makes it real, creating a memorable story of coming to terms with circumstances over which we have little control, yet which directly affect our lives.
You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town - Zoe Wicomb
Zoë Wicomb’s complex and deeply evocative fiction is among the most distinguished recent works of South African women’s literature. It is also among the only works of fiction to explore the experience of “Coloured” citizens in apartheid-era South Africa, whose mixed heritage traps them, as Bharati Mukherjee wrote in the New York Times, "in the racial crucible of their country."
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight : An African Childhood- Alexandra Fuller
In Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with candor and sensitivity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller’s endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller’s debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time.
Movies (Check with your parents, many are rated R)
Cry, the Beloved Country
This moving 1995 adaptation of Alan Paton's celebrated novel stars James Earl Jones as a beloved, rural minister in South Africa who makes his first trip to Johannesburg in search of his son. The latter's destiny has been linked with that of a doomed, young white man, whose racist father (Richard Harris) is approached by Jones's character in the spirit of mutual understanding. Directed by Darrell James Roodt (Sarafina!), the film is most powerful in those scenes featuring Harris and Jones together, though early sequences grounded in the hard life and times of Jones's community are colorful and dramatic. It's impossible not to be touched by the cautious but real connection made between the principal characters and by the moral authenticity of the actors.
A World Apart
This true story reveals the world of apartheid South Africa through the eyes of the daughter of prominent anti-apartheid activists. The film's power lies in its understatement and attention to period detail. If you want to get an authentic look at what South Africa was like in that period, on both sides of the fence, this is the film to watch. It's a touching family story, too.
Sarafina
Academy Award-winning star Whoopi Goldberg ) lights up the screen in her latest hit -- the exhilarating and entertaining SARAFINA! In a world where truth is forbidden, an inspiring teacher dares to instill in her students lessons not found in schoolbooks. In doing so, she challenges their freedom and hers. Applauded by critics and audiences everywhere, this upbeat and powerful story promises to stir your emotions and make your spirits soar!
A Dry White Season
A movie about the Soweto uprising in 1976.
Bopha
In his directorial debut, actor Morgan Freeman cast a knowing eye on the ways the racist apartheid movement in South Africa--now demolished--divided South African blacks even from each other in this story of a black policeman. Danny Glover plays the cop, who believes he's trying to help his people, even while serving as a pawn of the racist government. When his son gets involved in the antiapartheid movement, he finds himself torn between his family (including long-suffering wife Alfre Woodard) and what he believes is his duty. A sorrowful, anger-tinged film featuring a complex performance by the marvelous Glover, who seems to come apart at the seams before your very eyes
Cry Freedom
When I saw this movie I knew next to nothing about South Africa, and I'd never heard of Steven Biko. After I'd seen the movie I wanted to know anything and everything about apartheid generally and Steven Biko in particular. One of the most disturbing parts of the film came at the very end when the names of those who died from "falling" scrolled by on the screen. That list seemed to be unending, and it was difficult to shake off the feelings the film left with me when the last name appeared on the screen. It doesn't seem right to label this film as good entertainment when the subject is about something so grim, but the movie rates 5 stars because of the actors' performances and because of the conversation it is bound to generate with those who see it.
Mandela
A vibrantly presented and emotionally charged portrait of the dynamic African leader, this needed tighter narration to close informational gaps. For instance, there is very little mention of F.W. de Klerk, although as the corecipient of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize (along with Nelson Mandela), he most certainly figured greatly in the peaceful passing of the political baton. It may leave you with a few questions but otherwise captures Mandela's remarkable spirit. It follows him from his early days and tribal education through his work with the African National Congress to his election as Africa's first black president. Produced by Jonathan Demme, this wisely includes poetry of Africa, as much a part of Mandela's story as his own inner strength. Nominated for 1997 Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
African Literature Extra Credit
The following books would be appropriate to read to have a more varied view of Africa as a whole. Most deal with themes we will be discussing in our book but will help give you a view of many different authors from Africa and the diversity of the stories and storytelling. Enjoy!
Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achebe
Amazon.com
One of Chinua Achebe's many achievements in his acclaimed first novel, Things Fall Apart, is his relentlessly unsentimental rendering of Nigerian tribal life before and after the coming of colonialism. First published in 1958, just two years before Nigeria declared independence from Great Britain, the book eschews the obvious temptation of depicting pre-colonial life as a kind of Eden. Instead, Achebe sketches a world in which violence, war, and suffering exist, but are balanced by a strong sense of tradition, ritual, and social coherence. His Ibo protagonist, Okonkwo, is a self-made man. The son of a charming ne'er-do-well, he has worked all his life to overcome his father's weakness and has arrived, finally, at great prosperity and even greater reputation among his fellows in the village of Umuofia. Okonkwo is a champion wrestler, a prosperous farmer, husband to three wives and father to several children. He is also a man who exhibits flaws well-known in Greek tragedy:
Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo's fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.
And yet Achebe manages to make this cruel man deeply sympathetic. He is fond of his eldest daughter, and also of Ikemefuna, a young boy sent from another village as compensation for the wrongful death of a young woman from Umuofia. He even begins to feel pride in his eldest son, in whom he has too often seen his own father. Unfortunately, a series of tragic events tests the mettle of this strong man, and it is his fear of weakness that ultimately undoes him.
Achebe does not introduce the theme of colonialism until the last 50 pages or so. By then, Okonkwo has lost everything and been driven into exile. And yet, within the traditions of his culture, he still has hope of redemption. The arrival of missionaries in Umuofia, however, followed by representatives of the colonial government, completely disrupts Ibo culture, and in the chasm between old ways and new, Okonkwo is lost forever. Deceptively simple in its prose, Things Fall Apart packs a powerful punch as Achebe holds up the ruin of one proud man to stand for the destruction of an entire culture. --Alix Wilber
The Number One Ladies Detective Agency- Alexander Mccall Smith
Penzler Pick, July 2001: Working in a mystery tradition that will cause genre aficionados to think of such classic sleuths as Melville Davisson Post's Uncle Abner or Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee, Alexander McCall Smith creates an African detective, Precious Ramotswe, who's their full-fledged heir.
It's the detective as folk hero, solving crimes through an innate, self-possessed wisdom that, combined with an understanding of human nature, invariably penetrates into the heart of a puzzle. If Miss Marple were fat and jolly and lived in Botswana--and decided to go against any conventional notion of what an unmarried woman should do, spending the money she got from selling her late father's cattle to set up a Ladies' Detective Agency--then you have an idea of how Precious sets herself up as her country's first female detective. Once the clients start showing up on her doorstep, Precious enjoys a pleasingly successful series of cases.
But the edge of the Kalahari is not St. Mary Mead, and the sign Precious orders, painted in brilliant colors, is anything but discreet. Pointing in the direction of the small building she had purchased to house her new business, it reads "THE NO. 1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY. FOR ALL CONFIDENTIAL MATTERS AND ENQUIRIES. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED FOR ALL PARTIES. UNDER PERSONAL MANAGEMENT."
The solutions she comes up with, whether in the case of the clinic doctor with two quite different personalities (depending on the day of the week), or the man who had joined a Christian sect and seemingly vanished, or the kidnapped boy whose bones may or may not be those in a witch doctor's magic kit, are all sensible, logical, and satisfying. Smith's gently ironic tone is full of good humor towards his lively, intelligent heroine and towards her fellow Africans, who live their lives with dignity and with cautious acceptance of the confusions to which the world submits them. Precious Ramotswe is a remarkable creation, and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency well deserves the praise it received from London's Times Literary Supplement. I look forward with great eagerness to the upcoming books featuring the memorable Miss Ramotswe, Tears of the Giraffe and Morality for Beautiful Girls, soon to be available in the U.S. --Otto Penzler
The Poisonwood Bible- Barbara Kinsolver
From Publishers Weekly
In this risky but resoundingly successful novel, Kingsolver leaves the Southwest, the setting of most of her work (The Bean Trees; Animal Dreams) and follows an evangelical Baptist minister's family to the Congo in the late 1950s, entwining their fate with that of the country during three turbulent decades. Nathan Price's determination to convert the natives of the Congo to Christianity is, we gradually discover, both foolhardy and dangerous, unsanctioned by the church administration and doomed from the start by Nathan's self-righteousness. Fanatic and sanctimonious, Nathan is a domestic monster, too, a physically and emotionally abusive, misogynistic husband and father. He refuses to understand how his obsession with river baptism affronts the traditions of the villagers of Kalinga, and his stubborn concept of religious rectitude brings misery and destruction to all. Cleverly, Kingsolver never brings us inside Nathan's head but instead unfolds the tragic story of the Price family through the alternating points of view of Orleanna Price and her four daughters. Cast with her young children into primitive conditions but trained to be obedient to her husband, Orleanna is powerless to mitigate their situation. Meanwhile, each of the four Price daughters reveals herself through first-person narration, and their rich and clearly differentiated self-portraits are small triumphs. Rachel, the eldest, is a self-absorbed teenager who will never outgrow her selfish view of the world or her tendency to commit hilarious malapropisms. Twins Leah and Adah are gifted intellectually but are physically and emotionally separated by Adah's birth injury, which has rendered her hemiplagic. Leah adores her father; Adah, who does not speak, is a shrewd observer of his monumental ego. The musings of five- year-old Ruth May reflect a child's humorous misunderstanding of the exotic world to which she has been transported. By revealing the story through the female victims of Reverend Price's hubris, Kingsolver also charts their maturation as they confront or evade moral and existential issues and, at great cost, accrue wisdom in the crucible of an alien land. It is through their eyes that we come to experience the life of the villagers in an isolated community and the particular ways in which American and African cultures collide. As the girls become acquainted with the villagers, especially the young teacher Anatole, they begin to understand the political situation in the Congo: the brutality of Belgian rule, the nascent nationalism briefly fulfilled in the election of the short-lived Patrice Lumumba government, and the secret involvement of the Eisenhower administration in Lumumba's assassination and the installation of the villainous dictator Mobutu. In the end, Kingsolver delivers a compelling family saga, a sobering picture of the horrors of fanatic fundamentalism and an insightful view of an exploited country crushed by the heel of colonialism and then ruthlessly manipulated by a bastion of democracy. The book is also a marvelous mix of trenchant character portrayal, unflagging narrative thrust and authoritative background detail. The disastrous outcome of the forceful imposition of Christian theology on indigenous natural faith gives the novel its pervasive irony; but humor is pervasive, too, artfully integrated into the children's misapprehensions of their world; and suspense rises inexorably as the Price family's peril and that of the newly independent country of Zaire intersect. Kingsolver moves into new moral terrain in this powerful, convincing and emotionally resonant novel.
Petals of Blood- Ngugi wa Thiongo
This is a multilayered and fascinating book that addresses various problems in post-independence Kenya.What starts as a murder investigation with the detention of 4 people Munira,Abdullah,Karega and Wanja goes on to reveal issues such as corruption,politics,Urbanisation,social dislocation,colonialism,the emergency period and the African elite.As the novel unfolds the lives of the 3 people murdered entwines that of the detainees in numerous ways.It is also a who dunnit.The detainees are Munira- a teacher,Abdullah-an intinerant trader,Karega- a trade unionist and Wanja a scarlet lady..It is set mainly in the rustic village of Ilmorog in Kenya that later becomes a boomtown.Ngugi tells not only the story of Kenya but that of Africa and other colonised peoples worldwide.It is indeed as relevant today as it was in 1977 when published.
I Laugh So I Won't Cry: Kenya's Women Tell The Story Of Their Lives (Paperback)
I haven't read this but it might be interesting for our novel. Use parent discretion if you want to read this one.
In I Laugh So I Won’t Cry, Kenya’s women tell their stories of love, struggle, happiness, and tragedy in their own words. I Laugh strikes a balance between intimate acquaintance and a comprehensive view. In-depth portraits allow readers to know a diverse selection of women intimately. Topical chapters feature the voices of a large range of women talking about the subjects closest to their hearts. Chapters cover: marriage, childrearing, work and getting by when there is no work, women’s self-help groups, genital cutting, ethnic tensions, and the new government that has promised huge reforms. I Laugh shows the full panorama of women’s struggles in sub-Saharan Africa without sacrificing the vivid details of individual lives. Subsistence farmers, herders, beggars, sex workers, office workers, hawkers, business executives and a few friends who stopped an ethnic war all speak in I Laugh So I Won’t Cry. I Laugh will interest readers who seek to understand the multiple realities of contemporary Africa. Excerpts from I Laugh So I Won’t Cry: On Husbands “You know, men don't like laughing with their wives. Other men will say, ‘Don't laugh with her. You are showing her that you love her too much. She will shame you. She will make you serve tea.’ So they just sit stony-faced.” “A man wouldn't like the woman to know how much money he has. If a wife asks her husband to buy something that is needed, like soap or tea, he will ask himself, ‘Now, how did she know that I have money in my pocket?’” On Education “Women who have been educated are respected. A husband knows that she is also an independent person and can do things on her own. The man is scared. He thinks maybe that if he hits her she is free to leave, but an uneducated lady is just forced to stay even if she gets problems in her marriage.” On Female Genital Cutting “Our mothers live with us. They will say it must be done. I can't disagree with my mother regarding my daughter. But for my daughter's daughter, it will change.” “There's the social pressure, even when they are very young. Because it is being done to all her friends in school, she would feel that you are denying her right. “
by Helena Halperin
Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achebe
Amazon.com
One of Chinua Achebe's many achievements in his acclaimed first novel, Things Fall Apart, is his relentlessly unsentimental rendering of Nigerian tribal life before and after the coming of colonialism. First published in 1958, just two years before Nigeria declared independence from Great Britain, the book eschews the obvious temptation of depicting pre-colonial life as a kind of Eden. Instead, Achebe sketches a world in which violence, war, and suffering exist, but are balanced by a strong sense of tradition, ritual, and social coherence. His Ibo protagonist, Okonkwo, is a self-made man. The son of a charming ne'er-do-well, he has worked all his life to overcome his father's weakness and has arrived, finally, at great prosperity and even greater reputation among his fellows in the village of Umuofia. Okonkwo is a champion wrestler, a prosperous farmer, husband to three wives and father to several children. He is also a man who exhibits flaws well-known in Greek tragedy:
Okonkwo ruled his household with a heavy hand. His wives, especially the youngest, lived in perpetual fear of his fiery temper, and so did his little children. Perhaps down in his heart Okonkwo was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness. It was deeper and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkwo's fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself. It was the fear of himself, lest he should be found to resemble his father.
And yet Achebe manages to make this cruel man deeply sympathetic. He is fond of his eldest daughter, and also of Ikemefuna, a young boy sent from another village as compensation for the wrongful death of a young woman from Umuofia. He even begins to feel pride in his eldest son, in whom he has too often seen his own father. Unfortunately, a series of tragic events tests the mettle of this strong man, and it is his fear of weakness that ultimately undoes him.
Achebe does not introduce the theme of colonialism until the last 50 pages or so. By then, Okonkwo has lost everything and been driven into exile. And yet, within the traditions of his culture, he still has hope of redemption. The arrival of missionaries in Umuofia, however, followed by representatives of the colonial government, completely disrupts Ibo culture, and in the chasm between old ways and new, Okonkwo is lost forever. Deceptively simple in its prose, Things Fall Apart packs a powerful punch as Achebe holds up the ruin of one proud man to stand for the destruction of an entire culture. --Alix Wilber
The Number One Ladies Detective Agency- Alexander Mccall Smith
Penzler Pick, July 2001: Working in a mystery tradition that will cause genre aficionados to think of such classic sleuths as Melville Davisson Post's Uncle Abner or Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee, Alexander McCall Smith creates an African detective, Precious Ramotswe, who's their full-fledged heir.
It's the detective as folk hero, solving crimes through an innate, self-possessed wisdom that, combined with an understanding of human nature, invariably penetrates into the heart of a puzzle. If Miss Marple were fat and jolly and lived in Botswana--and decided to go against any conventional notion of what an unmarried woman should do, spending the money she got from selling her late father's cattle to set up a Ladies' Detective Agency--then you have an idea of how Precious sets herself up as her country's first female detective. Once the clients start showing up on her doorstep, Precious enjoys a pleasingly successful series of cases.
But the edge of the Kalahari is not St. Mary Mead, and the sign Precious orders, painted in brilliant colors, is anything but discreet. Pointing in the direction of the small building she had purchased to house her new business, it reads "THE NO. 1 LADIES DETECTIVE AGENCY. FOR ALL CONFIDENTIAL MATTERS AND ENQUIRIES. SATISFACTION GUARANTEED FOR ALL PARTIES. UNDER PERSONAL MANAGEMENT."
The solutions she comes up with, whether in the case of the clinic doctor with two quite different personalities (depending on the day of the week), or the man who had joined a Christian sect and seemingly vanished, or the kidnapped boy whose bones may or may not be those in a witch doctor's magic kit, are all sensible, logical, and satisfying. Smith's gently ironic tone is full of good humor towards his lively, intelligent heroine and towards her fellow Africans, who live their lives with dignity and with cautious acceptance of the confusions to which the world submits them. Precious Ramotswe is a remarkable creation, and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency well deserves the praise it received from London's Times Literary Supplement. I look forward with great eagerness to the upcoming books featuring the memorable Miss Ramotswe, Tears of the Giraffe and Morality for Beautiful Girls, soon to be available in the U.S. --Otto Penzler
The Poisonwood Bible- Barbara Kinsolver
From Publishers Weekly
In this risky but resoundingly successful novel, Kingsolver leaves the Southwest, the setting of most of her work (The Bean Trees; Animal Dreams) and follows an evangelical Baptist minister's family to the Congo in the late 1950s, entwining their fate with that of the country during three turbulent decades. Nathan Price's determination to convert the natives of the Congo to Christianity is, we gradually discover, both foolhardy and dangerous, unsanctioned by the church administration and doomed from the start by Nathan's self-righteousness. Fanatic and sanctimonious, Nathan is a domestic monster, too, a physically and emotionally abusive, misogynistic husband and father. He refuses to understand how his obsession with river baptism affronts the traditions of the villagers of Kalinga, and his stubborn concept of religious rectitude brings misery and destruction to all. Cleverly, Kingsolver never brings us inside Nathan's head but instead unfolds the tragic story of the Price family through the alternating points of view of Orleanna Price and her four daughters. Cast with her young children into primitive conditions but trained to be obedient to her husband, Orleanna is powerless to mitigate their situation. Meanwhile, each of the four Price daughters reveals herself through first-person narration, and their rich and clearly differentiated self-portraits are small triumphs. Rachel, the eldest, is a self-absorbed teenager who will never outgrow her selfish view of the world or her tendency to commit hilarious malapropisms. Twins Leah and Adah are gifted intellectually but are physically and emotionally separated by Adah's birth injury, which has rendered her hemiplagic. Leah adores her father; Adah, who does not speak, is a shrewd observer of his monumental ego. The musings of five- year-old Ruth May reflect a child's humorous misunderstanding of the exotic world to which she has been transported. By revealing the story through the female victims of Reverend Price's hubris, Kingsolver also charts their maturation as they confront or evade moral and existential issues and, at great cost, accrue wisdom in the crucible of an alien land. It is through their eyes that we come to experience the life of the villagers in an isolated community and the particular ways in which American and African cultures collide. As the girls become acquainted with the villagers, especially the young teacher Anatole, they begin to understand the political situation in the Congo: the brutality of Belgian rule, the nascent nationalism briefly fulfilled in the election of the short-lived Patrice Lumumba government, and the secret involvement of the Eisenhower administration in Lumumba's assassination and the installation of the villainous dictator Mobutu. In the end, Kingsolver delivers a compelling family saga, a sobering picture of the horrors of fanatic fundamentalism and an insightful view of an exploited country crushed by the heel of colonialism and then ruthlessly manipulated by a bastion of democracy. The book is also a marvelous mix of trenchant character portrayal, unflagging narrative thrust and authoritative background detail. The disastrous outcome of the forceful imposition of Christian theology on indigenous natural faith gives the novel its pervasive irony; but humor is pervasive, too, artfully integrated into the children's misapprehensions of their world; and suspense rises inexorably as the Price family's peril and that of the newly independent country of Zaire intersect. Kingsolver moves into new moral terrain in this powerful, convincing and emotionally resonant novel.
Petals of Blood- Ngugi wa Thiongo
This is a multilayered and fascinating book that addresses various problems in post-independence Kenya.What starts as a murder investigation with the detention of 4 people Munira,Abdullah,Karega and Wanja goes on to reveal issues such as corruption,politics,Urbanisation,social dislocation,colonialism,the emergency period and the African elite.As the novel unfolds the lives of the 3 people murdered entwines that of the detainees in numerous ways.It is also a who dunnit.The detainees are Munira- a teacher,Abdullah-an intinerant trader,Karega- a trade unionist and Wanja a scarlet lady..It is set mainly in the rustic village of Ilmorog in Kenya that later becomes a boomtown.Ngugi tells not only the story of Kenya but that of Africa and other colonised peoples worldwide.It is indeed as relevant today as it was in 1977 when published.
I Laugh So I Won't Cry: Kenya's Women Tell The Story Of Their Lives (Paperback)
I haven't read this but it might be interesting for our novel. Use parent discretion if you want to read this one.
In I Laugh So I Won’t Cry, Kenya’s women tell their stories of love, struggle, happiness, and tragedy in their own words. I Laugh strikes a balance between intimate acquaintance and a comprehensive view. In-depth portraits allow readers to know a diverse selection of women intimately. Topical chapters feature the voices of a large range of women talking about the subjects closest to their hearts. Chapters cover: marriage, childrearing, work and getting by when there is no work, women’s self-help groups, genital cutting, ethnic tensions, and the new government that has promised huge reforms. I Laugh shows the full panorama of women’s struggles in sub-Saharan Africa without sacrificing the vivid details of individual lives. Subsistence farmers, herders, beggars, sex workers, office workers, hawkers, business executives and a few friends who stopped an ethnic war all speak in I Laugh So I Won’t Cry. I Laugh will interest readers who seek to understand the multiple realities of contemporary Africa. Excerpts from I Laugh So I Won’t Cry: On Husbands “You know, men don't like laughing with their wives. Other men will say, ‘Don't laugh with her. You are showing her that you love her too much. She will shame you. She will make you serve tea.’ So they just sit stony-faced.” “A man wouldn't like the woman to know how much money he has. If a wife asks her husband to buy something that is needed, like soap or tea, he will ask himself, ‘Now, how did she know that I have money in my pocket?’” On Education “Women who have been educated are respected. A husband knows that she is also an independent person and can do things on her own. The man is scared. He thinks maybe that if he hits her she is free to leave, but an uneducated lady is just forced to stay even if she gets problems in her marriage.” On Female Genital Cutting “Our mothers live with us. They will say it must be done. I can't disagree with my mother regarding my daughter. But for my daughter's daughter, it will change.” “There's the social pressure, even when they are very young. Because it is being done to all her friends in school, she would feel that you are denying her right. “
by Helena Halperin
Friday, January 15, 2010
Extra Credit books for the Holocaust
The Holocaust: Fiction and Memoirs
Appleman-Jurman, Alicia. Alicia: My Story. New York: Bantam Books, 1988
ß Abstract: Alicia was thirteen when she escaped alone from a firing squad, and while hiding from the Nazis and collaborators, began saving he lives of strangers. She states, “I believe that the book will teach young people what enormous reserves of strength they possess within themselves.”
Bierman, John. The Story of Raoul Wallenberg, Missing Hero of the Holocaust. New York, Viking Press, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the story of one of the most famous rescuers, Raoul Wallenberg, whose fate remains a mystery to this day. He is credited with saving the lives of close to 100,000 Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.
Boas, Jacob. We Were Witnesses. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.
ß Abstract: A touching diary of five teenage victims of the Holocaust.
Borowski, Tadeusz. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. New York: Penguin 1976.
ß Abstract: Stories of daily life in Auschwitz describe the relations among the inmates, their various duties within the camp, and the hardships they endured.
De Loo, Tessa. The Twins.
Fink, Ina. A Scrap of Time. New York: Schocken, 1989.
ß Abstract: This collection of short stores describes people that are placed in a variety of normal human situations that have been distorted by war.
Friedman, Carl. Nightfather
Friedman, Carl. The Shovel and the Loom
Friedman, Carl. Their Brothers’ Keepers. New York: Crown, 1957.
ß Abstract: The classic volume contains the first documented evidence of the Christian aid to the Jews during the Holocaust. Friedman has collected eyewitness accounts, personal letters, and diaries as source material. He also conducted interviews across Europe to discover and record stories of rescue.
Gies, Miep and Allison L. Gold. Anne Frank Remembered. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
ß Abstract: Miep Gies, along with her husband, were among those who helped the Frank family while they were in hiding. Her story is an important supplement to Anne Frank’s diary as it adds historical background as well as an outside perspective to Anne’s story. Gies enables the reader to understand what was happening both inside and outside the Annex.
Hersey, John. The Wall. New York: Knopf, 1950.
ß Abstract: This fiction describes the creation of the Warshaw Ghetto, the building of the “Wall” around it, and the uprising and eventual destruction of the ghetto.
Kahane, David. Lvov Ghetto Diary. Amherst: Univ. Of Massachusetts Press, 1990.
ß Abstract: This rabbi’s memoir sheds light on the relatively unknown ghetto Lvov. Kahane also investigates a still disputed Holocaust theme: the attitudes of Ukrainians towards European Jews.
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler’s List. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.
ß Abstract: Thomas Kenally’s famous novel tells the story of a remarkable man, Oskar Schinder, who saved the lives of thousands of Jews by harboring them in his factory during the Holocaust.
Klein, Gerda Weissmann. All But My Life. New York: Hill and Wang, 1971.
ß Abstract: A true story that tells about Gerda’s experience as one of only 120 women who survieved a three-hundred-mile march from a labor camp in western Germany to Czechoslovakia.
Leitner, Isabella. Fragments o f Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz. New York: Dell, 1983.
ß Abstract: A survivor of Auschwitz recounts the ordeal of holding her family together after her mother is killed in the camp.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Collier, 1973.
ß Abstract: This memoir of a young Italian chemist describes life inside Auschwitz in a direct yet sophisticated manner.
Meed, Vladka. On Both Sides of the Wall. New York: Holocaust Publications, 1979.
ß Abstract: A young smuggler from the Warsaw ghetto maintains contact between the ghetto and the Aryan side of the city.
Miller, Arthur. Playing for Time. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the dramatic version of Fania Fenelon’s story of her days as a musician at Auschwitz.
Ozick , Cynthia. The Shawl. New York: Random House, 1990.
ß Abstract: A book of short stories. The title story tells of a mother witnessing her baby’s death at the hands of camp guards. Another story, “Rose,” that same mother thirty years later, still haunted by the event.
Sender, Ruth M. The Cage. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
ß Abstract: This novel begins just before the Nazi invasion of Poland and continues through life in the Lodz ghetto and finally, at Auschwitz.
Siegal, Aranka. Upon the Head of a Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-44. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1981
ß Abstract: In this award-winning book, Aranka Siegal tells the story of her family and her life in Hungary as a child. In 1944 she and her family were taken to Auschwitz.
Steiner, Jean-Francois. Treblinka. New York: Brad/Avon, 1975.
ß Abstract: A powerful novel about the Treblinka extermination camp and a revolt by the prisoners there.
Wiesel, Elie. The Gates of the Forest. New York: Schocken, 1982.
ß A young Hungarian Jew escapes to the forest during the Nazi occupation, and assumes various roles in order to stay alive. He later joins a partisan group who fight against the Nazis.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam, 1982.
ß Abstract: Wiesel, one of the most eloquent writers of the Holocaust, is known best for this novel. A compelling narrative, Night describes Wiesel’s own experiences in Auschwitz.
Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower.
Zar, Rose. In the Mouth of the Wolf. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 1983.
ß Abstract: A young girl in Poland during the Holocaust secures a job working in the household of an SS officer and his wife, using her false papers.
Appleman-Jurman, Alicia. Alicia: My Story. New York: Bantam Books, 1988
ß Abstract: Alicia was thirteen when she escaped alone from a firing squad, and while hiding from the Nazis and collaborators, began saving he lives of strangers. She states, “I believe that the book will teach young people what enormous reserves of strength they possess within themselves.”
Bierman, John. The Story of Raoul Wallenberg, Missing Hero of the Holocaust. New York, Viking Press, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the story of one of the most famous rescuers, Raoul Wallenberg, whose fate remains a mystery to this day. He is credited with saving the lives of close to 100,000 Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.
Boas, Jacob. We Were Witnesses. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.
ß Abstract: A touching diary of five teenage victims of the Holocaust.
Borowski, Tadeusz. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. New York: Penguin 1976.
ß Abstract: Stories of daily life in Auschwitz describe the relations among the inmates, their various duties within the camp, and the hardships they endured.
De Loo, Tessa. The Twins.
Fink, Ina. A Scrap of Time. New York: Schocken, 1989.
ß Abstract: This collection of short stores describes people that are placed in a variety of normal human situations that have been distorted by war.
Friedman, Carl. Nightfather
Friedman, Carl. The Shovel and the Loom
Friedman, Carl. Their Brothers’ Keepers. New York: Crown, 1957.
ß Abstract: The classic volume contains the first documented evidence of the Christian aid to the Jews during the Holocaust. Friedman has collected eyewitness accounts, personal letters, and diaries as source material. He also conducted interviews across Europe to discover and record stories of rescue.
Gies, Miep and Allison L. Gold. Anne Frank Remembered. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
ß Abstract: Miep Gies, along with her husband, were among those who helped the Frank family while they were in hiding. Her story is an important supplement to Anne Frank’s diary as it adds historical background as well as an outside perspective to Anne’s story. Gies enables the reader to understand what was happening both inside and outside the Annex.
Hersey, John. The Wall. New York: Knopf, 1950.
ß Abstract: This fiction describes the creation of the Warshaw Ghetto, the building of the “Wall” around it, and the uprising and eventual destruction of the ghetto.
Kahane, David. Lvov Ghetto Diary. Amherst: Univ. Of Massachusetts Press, 1990.
ß Abstract: This rabbi’s memoir sheds light on the relatively unknown ghetto Lvov. Kahane also investigates a still disputed Holocaust theme: the attitudes of Ukrainians towards European Jews.
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler’s List. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.
ß Abstract: Thomas Kenally’s famous novel tells the story of a remarkable man, Oskar Schinder, who saved the lives of thousands of Jews by harboring them in his factory during the Holocaust.
Klein, Gerda Weissmann. All But My Life. New York: Hill and Wang, 1971.
ß Abstract: A true story that tells about Gerda’s experience as one of only 120 women who survieved a three-hundred-mile march from a labor camp in western Germany to Czechoslovakia.
Leitner, Isabella. Fragments o f Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz. New York: Dell, 1983.
ß Abstract: A survivor of Auschwitz recounts the ordeal of holding her family together after her mother is killed in the camp.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Collier, 1973.
ß Abstract: This memoir of a young Italian chemist describes life inside Auschwitz in a direct yet sophisticated manner.
Meed, Vladka. On Both Sides of the Wall. New York: Holocaust Publications, 1979.
ß Abstract: A young smuggler from the Warsaw ghetto maintains contact between the ghetto and the Aryan side of the city.
Miller, Arthur. Playing for Time. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the dramatic version of Fania Fenelon’s story of her days as a musician at Auschwitz.
Ozick , Cynthia. The Shawl. New York: Random House, 1990.
ß Abstract: A book of short stories. The title story tells of a mother witnessing her baby’s death at the hands of camp guards. Another story, “Rose,” that same mother thirty years later, still haunted by the event.
Sender, Ruth M. The Cage. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
ß Abstract: This novel begins just before the Nazi invasion of Poland and continues through life in the Lodz ghetto and finally, at Auschwitz.
Siegal, Aranka. Upon the Head of a Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-44. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1981
ß Abstract: In this award-winning book, Aranka Siegal tells the story of her family and her life in Hungary as a child. In 1944 she and her family were taken to Auschwitz.
Steiner, Jean-Francois. Treblinka. New York: Brad/Avon, 1975.
ß Abstract: A powerful novel about the Treblinka extermination camp and a revolt by the prisoners there.
Wiesel, Elie. The Gates of the Forest. New York: Schocken, 1982.
ß A young Hungarian Jew escapes to the forest during the Nazi occupation, and assumes various roles in order to stay alive. He later joins a partisan group who fight against the Nazis.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam, 1982.
ß Abstract: Wiesel, one of the most eloquent writers of the Holocaust, is known best for this novel. A compelling narrative, Night describes Wiesel’s own experiences in Auschwitz.
Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower.
Zar, Rose. In the Mouth of the Wolf. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 1983.
ß Abstract: A young girl in Poland during the Holocaust secures a job working in the household of an SS officer and his wife, using her false papers.
Extra Credit films and websites to further your study
The Holocaust: Fiction and Memoirs
Appleman-Jurman, Alicia. Alicia: My Story. New York: Bantam Books, 1988
ß Abstract: Alicia was thirteen when she escaped alone from a firing squad, and while hiding from the Nazis and collaborators, began saving he lives of strangers. She states, “I believe that the book will teach young people what enormous reserves of strength they possess within themselves.”
Bierman, John. The Story of Raoul Wallenberg, Missing Hero of the Holocaust. New York, Viking Press, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the story of one of the most famous rescuers, Raoul Wallenberg, whose fate remains a mystery to this day. He is credited with saving the lives of close to 100,000 Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.
Boas, Jacob. We Were Witnesses. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.
ß Abstract: A touching diary of five teenage victims of the Holocaust.
Borowski, Tadeusz. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. New York: Penguin 1976.
ß Abstract: Stories of daily life in Auschwitz describe the relations among the inmates, their various duties within the camp, and the hardships they endured.
De Loo, Tessa. The Twins.
Fink, Ina. A Scrap of Time. New York: Schocken, 1989.
ß Abstract: This collection of short stores describes people that are placed in a variety of normal human situations that have been distorted by war.
Friedman, Carl. Nightfather
Friedman, Carl. The Shovel and the Loom
Friedman, Carl. Their Brothers’ Keepers. New York: Crown, 1957.
ß Abstract: The classic volume contains the first documented evidence of the Christian aid to the Jews during the Holocaust. Friedman has collected eyewitness accounts, personal letters, and diaries as source material. He also conducted interviews across Europe to discover and record stories of rescue.
Gies, Miep and Allison L. Gold. Anne Frank Remembered. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
ß Abstract: Miep Gies, along with her husband, were among those who helped the Frank family while they were in hiding. Her story is an important supplement to Anne Frank’s diary as it adds historical background as well as an outside perspective to Anne’s story. Gies enables the reader to understand what was happening both inside and outside the Annex.
Hersey, John. The Wall. New York: Knopf, 1950.
ß Abstract: This fiction describes the creation of the Warshaw Ghetto, the building of the “Wall” around it, and the uprising and eventual destruction of the ghetto.
Kahane, David. Lvov Ghetto Diary. Amherst: Univ. Of Massachusetts Press, 1990.
ß Abstract: This rabbi’s memoir sheds light on the relatively unknown ghetto Lvov. Kahane also investigates a still disputed Holocaust theme: the attitudes of Ukrainians towards European Jews.
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler’s List. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.
ß Abstract: Thomas Kenally’s famous novel tells the story of a remarkable man, Oskar Schinder, who saved the lives of thousands of Jews by harboring them in his factory during the Holocaust.
Klein, Gerda Weissmann. All But My Life. New York: Hill and Wang, 1971.
ß Abstract: A true story that tells about Gerda’s experience as one of only 120 women who survieved a three-hundred-mile march from a labor camp in western Germany to Czechoslovakia.
Leitner, Isabella. Fragments o f Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz. New York: Dell, 1983.
ß Abstract: A survivor of Auschwitz recounts the ordeal of holding her family together after her mother is killed in the camp.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Collier, 1973.
ß Abstract: This memoir of a young Italian chemist describes life inside Auschwitz in a direct yet sophisticated manner.
Meed, Vladka. On Both Sides of the Wall. New York: Holocaust Publications, 1979.
ß Abstract: A young smuggler from the Warsaw ghetto maintains contact between the ghetto and the Aryan side of the city.
Miller, Arthur. Playing for Time. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the dramatic version of Fania Fenelon’s story of her days as a musician at Auschwitz.
Ozick , Cynthia. The Shawl. New York: Random House, 1990.
ß Abstract: A book of short stories. The title story tells of a mother witnessing her baby’s death at the hands of camp guards. Another story, “Rose,” that same mother thirty years later, still haunted by the event.
Sender, Ruth M. The Cage. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
ß Abstract: This novel begins just before the Nazi invasion of Poland and continues through life in the Lodz ghetto and finally, at Auschwitz.
Siegal, Aranka. Upon the Head of a Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-44. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1981
ß Abstract: In this award-winning book, Aranka Siegal tells the story of her family and her life in Hungary as a child. In 1944 she and her family were taken to Auschwitz.
Steiner, Jean-Francois. Treblinka. New York: Brad/Avon, 1975.
ß Abstract: A powerful novel about the Treblinka extermination camp and a revolt by the prisoners there.
Wiesel, Elie. The Gates of the Forest. New York: Schocken, 1982.
ß A young Hungarian Jew escapes to the forest during the Nazi occupation, and assumes various roles in order to stay alive. He later joins a partisan group who fight against the Nazis.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam, 1982.
ß Abstract: Wiesel, one of the most eloquent writers of the Holocaust, is known best for this novel. A compelling narrative, Night describes Wiesel’s own experiences in Auschwitz.
Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower.
Zar, Rose. In the Mouth of the Wolf. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 1983.
ß Abstract: A young girl in Poland during the Holocaust secures a job working in the household of an SS officer and his wife, using her false papers.
Appleman-Jurman, Alicia. Alicia: My Story. New York: Bantam Books, 1988
ß Abstract: Alicia was thirteen when she escaped alone from a firing squad, and while hiding from the Nazis and collaborators, began saving he lives of strangers. She states, “I believe that the book will teach young people what enormous reserves of strength they possess within themselves.”
Bierman, John. The Story of Raoul Wallenberg, Missing Hero of the Holocaust. New York, Viking Press, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the story of one of the most famous rescuers, Raoul Wallenberg, whose fate remains a mystery to this day. He is credited with saving the lives of close to 100,000 Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.
Boas, Jacob. We Were Witnesses. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.
ß Abstract: A touching diary of five teenage victims of the Holocaust.
Borowski, Tadeusz. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen. New York: Penguin 1976.
ß Abstract: Stories of daily life in Auschwitz describe the relations among the inmates, their various duties within the camp, and the hardships they endured.
De Loo, Tessa. The Twins.
Fink, Ina. A Scrap of Time. New York: Schocken, 1989.
ß Abstract: This collection of short stores describes people that are placed in a variety of normal human situations that have been distorted by war.
Friedman, Carl. Nightfather
Friedman, Carl. The Shovel and the Loom
Friedman, Carl. Their Brothers’ Keepers. New York: Crown, 1957.
ß Abstract: The classic volume contains the first documented evidence of the Christian aid to the Jews during the Holocaust. Friedman has collected eyewitness accounts, personal letters, and diaries as source material. He also conducted interviews across Europe to discover and record stories of rescue.
Gies, Miep and Allison L. Gold. Anne Frank Remembered. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
ß Abstract: Miep Gies, along with her husband, were among those who helped the Frank family while they were in hiding. Her story is an important supplement to Anne Frank’s diary as it adds historical background as well as an outside perspective to Anne’s story. Gies enables the reader to understand what was happening both inside and outside the Annex.
Hersey, John. The Wall. New York: Knopf, 1950.
ß Abstract: This fiction describes the creation of the Warshaw Ghetto, the building of the “Wall” around it, and the uprising and eventual destruction of the ghetto.
Kahane, David. Lvov Ghetto Diary. Amherst: Univ. Of Massachusetts Press, 1990.
ß Abstract: This rabbi’s memoir sheds light on the relatively unknown ghetto Lvov. Kahane also investigates a still disputed Holocaust theme: the attitudes of Ukrainians towards European Jews.
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler’s List. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.
ß Abstract: Thomas Kenally’s famous novel tells the story of a remarkable man, Oskar Schinder, who saved the lives of thousands of Jews by harboring them in his factory during the Holocaust.
Klein, Gerda Weissmann. All But My Life. New York: Hill and Wang, 1971.
ß Abstract: A true story that tells about Gerda’s experience as one of only 120 women who survieved a three-hundred-mile march from a labor camp in western Germany to Czechoslovakia.
Leitner, Isabella. Fragments o f Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz. New York: Dell, 1983.
ß Abstract: A survivor of Auschwitz recounts the ordeal of holding her family together after her mother is killed in the camp.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Collier, 1973.
ß Abstract: This memoir of a young Italian chemist describes life inside Auschwitz in a direct yet sophisticated manner.
Meed, Vladka. On Both Sides of the Wall. New York: Holocaust Publications, 1979.
ß Abstract: A young smuggler from the Warsaw ghetto maintains contact between the ghetto and the Aryan side of the city.
Miller, Arthur. Playing for Time. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.
ß Abstract: This is the dramatic version of Fania Fenelon’s story of her days as a musician at Auschwitz.
Ozick , Cynthia. The Shawl. New York: Random House, 1990.
ß Abstract: A book of short stories. The title story tells of a mother witnessing her baby’s death at the hands of camp guards. Another story, “Rose,” that same mother thirty years later, still haunted by the event.
Sender, Ruth M. The Cage. New York: Macmillan, 1986.
ß Abstract: This novel begins just before the Nazi invasion of Poland and continues through life in the Lodz ghetto and finally, at Auschwitz.
Siegal, Aranka. Upon the Head of a Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-44. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1981
ß Abstract: In this award-winning book, Aranka Siegal tells the story of her family and her life in Hungary as a child. In 1944 she and her family were taken to Auschwitz.
Steiner, Jean-Francois. Treblinka. New York: Brad/Avon, 1975.
ß Abstract: A powerful novel about the Treblinka extermination camp and a revolt by the prisoners there.
Wiesel, Elie. The Gates of the Forest. New York: Schocken, 1982.
ß A young Hungarian Jew escapes to the forest during the Nazi occupation, and assumes various roles in order to stay alive. He later joins a partisan group who fight against the Nazis.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam, 1982.
ß Abstract: Wiesel, one of the most eloquent writers of the Holocaust, is known best for this novel. A compelling narrative, Night describes Wiesel’s own experiences in Auschwitz.
Wiesenthal, Simon. The Sunflower.
Zar, Rose. In the Mouth of the Wolf. Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society, 1983.
ß Abstract: A young girl in Poland during the Holocaust secures a job working in the household of an SS officer and his wife, using her false papers.
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