RETOLD BY CLARE WEST ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Jackee Budesta Batanda- she was born in Uganda, and lives in Kampala. At the age of fourteen she decided to be a writer. She said that Remember Atita, a story about the suffering of the people of Gulu, was one of the hardest stories she had written. She hopes the Bookworms version of her story will be read around the world, and people will know and remember about a people in a country far away from their home that lived bravely. Jack Cope-Robert Knox Cope (1913.-1991.), known as Jack, was born in Natal, South Africa. he became a journalist in Durban and then in London, but in 1940 returned to South Africa to farm, go shark fishing, and write fiction. Alan Paton, another South African writer, says that Cope's stories give us in a few words the scents and sounds and colours of our country. Mandla Langa-he was born in Durban (1950.) and studied English and Philosophy at the University of Fort Hare. His three the most popular novels are Tenderness of Blood, Rainbow on a Paper Sky and The Memory of Stones. He is a well-known figure in journalism, the media, and the arts, and lives in Johannesburg. M. G. Vassanji- he was born in Nairobi, Kenya, to an Indian family, and brought up in Tanzania. He now lives in Toronto, Canada, and he often visits Africa and India. He says: Once I went to the US, suddenly the Indian connection became very important; the sense of origins, trying to understand the roots of India that we had inside us.
Type of book: Stories from Africa- World Stories
SOUTH AFRICA- EKATERINA- Jack Cope SHORT CONTENT: A South African man was coming back home from another country. His flight stoped in Athens and he was thinking it was a beautiful place to stay because of the ancient culture. In the airport he met a poor young Greek girl called Ekaterina. They sat together in the plane and she started speaking in Greek, but he didn't understand her. He was understand her by the look on her face. She was engaged to a rich Greek man who lives in Johannesburg but they haven't met yet. He tried to say to her that she should coming back and just continued her own life, but she told him that she couldn't. When she arrived there she must married with that man. FIGURES: -Ekaterina, Italian passenger, Loraine, men in poor best clothes, man who had a cheap suitcase, Ekaterina's husband.
TANZANIA- BREAKING LOOSE-M.G.VASSANJI
SHORT CONTENT: An African man called Daniel Akoto was a singer. There was a girl called Yasmin and she was there with her friends on a concert. Daniel came down from the stage and he met Yasmin. She was thinking that she mustn't dancing with strangers but she did it. He was a professor at the university where she was studying Literature. They felt in love. Her mother was against to their relationship, but her father approve this. Soon then Yasmin's father died and she had to be strong. Her mother condemned Daniel for dead of her husband. But Yasmin was still loving him. FIGURES: -Yasmin, Daniel, Mrs Rajan, Yasmin's friends, Daniel's friends, Yasmin's father.
UGANDA-REMEMBER ATITA-JACKEE BUDESTA
BATANDA SHORT CONTENT: Atita was a young African girl who came back home to tried to found her friends. She has got a photo in which they were sitting on a wall, smiling at the camera when they were little girls. While she was looking for them, she met a boy who slept in the streets since his family fear for his life because military men killed people in their homes at night. Atita slept next to him. After 3 days she found one of her friends. That girl called Laker and she was in hospital and she couldn't recognized Atita, but Atita was visiting her every day. A month later Laker remember last thing that she saw and that was one of the soldiers shooting her friend and that was the reason because she couldn't talk. But now she was happy because Atita was there. FIGURES: -Atita, Laker, boy who slept on the street.
SOUTH AFRICA-A GATHERING OF BALD MEN-
MANDLA LANGA SHORT CONTENT: There was a man called Caleb Zungu. On Monday he woke up, brushed his teeth and than he saw a bald patch on top of his head, and he was very miserable about it. Than came his wife who told him that how strong and sexy was he. Then his wife remembered that some people kill bald people. A man came in and told him he knew about his thoughts. He said that he was blind but he wanted to drive his car. He did it and the police stopped them. They knew this crazy man-who wasn't blind- and decided to let them go. The new friends opened an agency where they worked like that they told people that to be a bald man wasn't a misfortune and they got lots of money. FIGURES: -Caleb Zungu, Busi, Khwezi, Nothando, Ranger, Marcia, a policeman, JM.