Issues for Nov. 1957- include section: Accessions. Aanwinste, Sept. 1957-

Sargrenti is the name by which Major General Sir Garnet Wolseley, KCMG (1833 – 1913) is still known in the West African state of Ghana. Kofi Gyan, the 15-year old boy who spits in Sargrenti’s eye, is the nephew of the chief of Elmina, a town on the Atlantic coast of Ghana. On Christmas Day, 1871, Kofi’s godfather gives him a diary as a Christmas present and charges him with the task of keeping a personal record of the momentous events through which they are living. This novel is a transcription of Kofi’s diary. Elmina town has a long-standing relationship with the Castelo de São Jorge da Mina, known today as Elmina Castle, built by the Portuguese in 1482 and captured from them by the Dutch in 1637. In April, 1872, the Dutch hand over the unprofitable castle to the British. The people of Elmina have not been consulted and resist the change. On June 13, 1873 British forces punish them by bombarding the town and destroying it. (It has never been rebuilt. The flat open ground where it once stood serves as a constant reminder of the savage power of Imperial Britain.) After the destruction of Elmina, Kofi moves to his mother’s family home in nearby Cape Coast, seat of the British colonial government, where Sargrenti is preparing to march inland and attack the independent Asante state. There, Melton Prior, war artist of the London weekly news magazine, The Illustrated London News, offers Kofi a job as his assistant. This gives the lad an opportunity to observe at close quarters not only Prior but also the other war correspondents, Henry Morton Stanley and G. A. Henty. Kofi witnesses and experiences the trauma of a brutal war, a run-up to the formal colonialism which would be realized ten years later at the 1885 Berlin conference, where European powers drew lines on the map of Africa, dividing the territory up amongst themselves. On February 6, 1874, Sargrenti’s troops loot the palace of the Asante king, Kofi Karikari, and then blow up the stone building and set the city of Kumase on fire, razing it to the ground. Kofi’s story culminates in his angry response to the British auction of their loot in Cape Coast Castle. The loot includes the solid gold mask shown on the front cover of the novel. That mask continues to reside in the Wallace Collection in London. The invasion of Asante met with the enthusiastic approval of the British public, which elevated Wolseley to the status of a national hero. All the war correspondents and several military officers hastened to cash in on public sentiment by publishing books telling the story of their victory. In all of these, without exception, the coastal Fante feature as feckless and cowardly and the Asante as ruthless savages. The Boy who Spat in Sargrenti’s Eye tells the story of these momentous events for the first time from an African point of view. It is told with irony and with occasional flashes of humor. The novel is illustrated with scans of seventy engravings first published in The Illustrated London News. This book won a Burt Award for African Literature which included the donation by the Ghana Book Trust of 3000 copies to school libraries in Ghana. In 2016, at the annual conference of the African Literature Association held in Atlanta, GA, it received the ALA’s Creative Book of the Year Award. Manu Herbstein has done what the best cultural historians of Africa should do: that is, read between the lines of the colonial archives to imagine what it was like to be an African alive at that time, witnessing and interpreting events. Prof. Stephanie Newell, Yale University Manu Herbstein’s The Boy who Spat in Sargrenti’s Eye is a masterwork of historical fiction. Trevor R. Getz, Ph.D. San Francisco State University

Mhlophe tells stories from African folklore.

Based on a true story from Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s childhood in South Africa, Desmond and the Very Mean Word reveals the power of words and the secret of forgiveness. Features an audio read-along read by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. When Desmond takes his new bicycle out for a ride through his neighborhood, his pride and joy turn to hurt and anger when a group of boys shout a very mean word at him. He first responds by shouting an insult, but soon discovers that fighting back with mean words doesn’t make him feel any better. With the help of kindly Father Trevor, Desmond comes to understand his conflicted feelings and see that all people deserve compassion, whether or not they say they are sorry. Brought to vivid life in A. G. Ford’s energetic illustrations, this heartfelt, relatable story conveys timeless wisdom about how to handle bullying and angry feelings, while seeing the good in everyone.

Our Story Magic is a collection of enchanting and compelling tales written by Gcina Mhlophe, South Africa’s most popular performance storyteller. The illustrations are by artists from Mhlophe’s home province of Kwa-Zulu Natal. Read and share these eleven stories with the love that went into creating them.

When the village girls cruelly trick the daughter of their king, he will forgive them only if they kill Nabulela, a treacherous white-skinned monster.

Due to popular demand for the first edition, Mark Batty Publisher proudly announces a reissue of this title in paperback. Because the book sets the record straight about how colonial powers suppressed the rich cultural and artistic histories of Afrikan alphabets, this title should appeal to individual readers as well as schools and universities. Both entertaining and anecdotal, Afrikan Alphabets presents a wealth of highly graphical, attractive and inspiring illustrations. Writing systems across the Afrikan continent and the Diaspora are analyzed and illustrated; syllabaries, paintings, pictographs, ideographs and symbols are compared and contrasted. This colourful, extensively illustrated and informative visual journey will be of interest to everyone seeking inspiration from, or more information about, Afrikan culture and art.

Here are sixty stories, selected and retold by fairy-tale lover Linda Rode. Smaller folks, who have the stories read to them, as well as self-readers, will derive an equal amount of pleasure from this book. It is a comprehensive collection that will open up the wide, wide world of fairy tales and other folklore to children. A short annotation at the end of each story points out the land of origin and puts the stories from Africa, Europe, the East and other parts of the world in context with one another. Fiona Moodie’s evocative illustrations are drypoint etches printed by hand and painted afterwards – an intricate process that took more than two years to complete. The enchanting results make this book an art treasure for everyone privileged enough to receive it.