Journey to Jo

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Journey to Joburg

• By
• Beverley Naidoo

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• This book was written by a South African who, as
  a child, lived in Joburg (Johannesburg)

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Who is Beverley Naidoo?
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• The South Africa that Beverley Naidoo was born
  into was a country that divided people into
  racial groups

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and forced them to carry pass books
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and restricted where they could go
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• As a white South African Beverley Naidoo was
  brought up in a very European way.

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• The books she read were by Europeans.

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• These books often made black people look like
  savages or comic figures.

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• Or
• humanised the animals she knew

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• The first book that Beverley Naidoo read that had
  a real impact on her was the Diary of Anne Frank.

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• As she read about Annes life, it dawned on her
  that if her family had not left Europe for South
  Africa they would have suffered the same fate as
  Anne.
• Beverleys mother was Jewish.

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• Beverley was amazed that there was an outcry
  about the treatment of Anne Frank
• but
• there was little opposition to the similar racism
  that was taking place in South Africa.

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• By the time Beverely Naidoo was in her 20s she
  was involved in the political movement against
  racial classification in South Africa.

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Why did Beverley Naidoo start to write books?
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• Beverely Naidoo believes that books invite the
  reader into a different world and

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• allows us to become involved in situations very
  different from our own.

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• Books, she believes, should not be propaganda
• Instead

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• they should get you to think about a situation
  and
• make up your own mind.

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What is Journey to Joburg about?
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• In Journey to Joburg Beverley Naidoo writes by
  imaging a childhood very different from the one
  she had.

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• The book is dedicated to the maid who brought her
  up.

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• Beverley Naidoo remembers her maids two children
  died when they were being looked after by an 11
  year old sister.

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• The same age that Beverley was at the time.
• Beverley, like all white South Africans, was
  being looked after by someone elses mother.

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How did the South Africans react to Journey to
Joburg
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• The book was banned in South Africa so not even
  Beverleys family could read her work.

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• When Beverely sent two copies of her first book
  to her sister-in-law in South Africa she never
  received them.

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• Instead she got a letter saying that the book was
  an undesirable publication and had been
  confiscated by the authorities.

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• It was not until 1991 that those living in her
  native South Africa could read Beverley Naidoos
  books.