Azzi in Between

"To me, these books offer ways of seeing and understanding some of the frightening things happening in the world today. For me, having been brought up under apartheid where access to ways of seeing reality were actually closed down to me – because of my experience I am in favour of allowing young people to see the world – not telling them how to see it, absolutely not – but of encouraging them to look and ask questions. “In my whites-only school in apartheid South Africa, I would say that I was ‘schooled’, certainly not educated” In my whites-only school in apartheid South Africa , I would say that I was ‘schooled’, not educated. ‘Education’ means to open out, to lead outwards. Most of white society around me as a child was similarly blinkered, bringing up white children to ignore the experience of black people under apartheid. I would say that this was not just in South Africa, but typical of the experience of most white colonial children, as well as in the mother Britain. This is something I explore in my novel Burn My Heart set in Kenya in the early 1950s, through the eyes of two boys, so close and yet so far apart. I preface the novel with an old Gikuyu saying ‘Nobody walks with another person’s gait.’ How very true… and yet we have the gift of imagination. Can we not use it? My novel The Other Side of Truth is also full of questions. After being detained by South Africa’s security police under the 90 Day Act , I came to Britain and exile in the 1960s. Yet no-one here referred to me as a refugee although I was seeking refuge. Had I been a black South African, I expect that would have been different. By 21, I had made my own decisions about resisting apartheid that led to my detention and exile. I would not have changed those decisions. However, in The Other Side of Truth , my two children inherit the consequences of their journalist father’s decision to challenge the military dictatorship in Nigeria in 1995, by speaking truth to power. “Fairy tales and stories of courage and survival can help children feel that injustice cannot be ignored” There are no easy answers and there is a lot of tragedy in the world and always has been. I think fairy tales and stories of courage and survival can help children feel less alone, and that injustice cannot be ignored. And show that is there a way in which they can make a difference, however small. One of the ways I would suggest is to be kind. Kindness must be a start. And this comes through very clearly in Azzi In Between . It’s very touching – we know the family has to flee, and we know the journey will be dangerous. The story shows how the war gradually seeps into their lives and how the the acts of kindness they receive – and how kind they are to each other – is how they are able to keep hope alive and face new beginnings. Sarah Garland’s touching illustrations play an important part in vividly conveying the range of emotions experienced by Azzi and her family."