Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story

Product Information

Naledi (”Morning star” in the native language Tswana) and Tiro (”Hard work”) go on an adventure of about 300 km, a race against time and obstacles, during which they walk, hide, make friends, find their mom and go back home with her by train. So the pair bravely decide to walk to their mother who works as a housekeeper and nanny in the big city, Johannesburg. Through meeting Grace they learn about the struggle against the unfair system of the apartheid and the uprising of students against the treatment of black people.

I will recommend this book to any young reader and not forgetting older ones who would be able to learn about hardships non whites were facing. I loved this story and read it to my children who now understand a bit more of SA history through a lived personal story they can identify with. After accidentally trying to board a whites-only bus, the siblings find the right bus and meet a young woman named Grace. The story begins in a small, unnamed village where Naledi and Tiro, a girl and her younger brother, live with their little sister, Dineo, their grandma, and their aunt.

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.

A gripping, heartfelt journey of two siblings desperate to find their mother in Joberg, set off on foot to bring their mother back to save their I'll baby sister. This edition of Beverley Naidoo’s classic story includes a special 'Why You’ll Love This Book' introduction by Michael Rosen, former Children’s Laureate. Banned by the apartheid government in South Africa, this is the story of two children’s courage and determination to find their mother and bring her home. 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.Certain that their sister needs a doctor, they decide to disobey their grandmother’s wishes and leave their small town to journey to Johannesburg where their mother works as a servant to get her help. The author wanted to teach young children about the unacceptable policy of Apartheit that separated Africans from Caucasians purely by colour.

As well as inspiring powerful writing on characters from a different era, it has helped to draw discussions with some of today’s issue as we have made comparisons with the student uprising ‘Times of Fire’ described in the novel and the riots that took place in London in 2011. The wealth was all in the hands of the 'Whites', while the labour was done by the 'Blacks' who worked long hours for little pay and lived under apalling conditions. Fortunately, they come across an orange orchard, and a boy who works there gives them food and shelter for the night. The author was a white girl who knew she would have suffered under Nazi Germany, but just did not realise how her black servants had to live.

There is really nice character development and vivid imagery which lends itself to readers creating drawings or paintings, allowing them to interpret their own parts of the book. For example, at the very beginning of the story, Naledi and Tiro decide that because they would get in trouble for asking for money to pay for a telegram, they should walk to Johannesburg, a city over 300 kilometers away. This would be a wonderful book to use to help students think globally about issues of power and class. 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. It is a simple storyline however so much discussion can be held in the classroom, including the different relationships between the characters and life in South Africa.

This book also helps readers to learn more about history as it is told through the characters' story.In Beverley Naidoo's 1986 (and thus of course before the official end of Apartheid) South-African themed middle grade novel Journey to Jo'burg, when their baby sister Dineo becomes very ill with a dangerous fever (and might perhaps even be dying), thirteen-year old Naledi and her younger brother Tiro decide that they must go and get their mother, but unfortunately Mma is being forced by financial necessity to live and work in the big city, in far-away Johannesburg. Growing awareness of the sufferings of South Africa’s black children brings renewed point to Beverley Naidoo’s Journey to Joburg, a story for young readers, the more searing for its gentleness, that makes them ask questions we must learn to answer.