Beverley Naidoo’s backgroundis a fascinating one. Growingup in South Africa she went

to a Catholic convent school andlooking back felt that she lived ina ‘European bubble’. When shewanted to join the Johannesburgpublic library, it never occurred toher then, that this privilege wasonly accessible to her because shewas white and was listed asEuropean in the RACE column onher birth certificate. She feels herschool didn’t educate her, justschooled her. The SharpevilleMassacre happened in her finalyear at school but she wasn’taware of it at all and the story OneDay Lily, One Day in Out of Boundswas based on her school.

It was when she went to university and began to interactwith black and white students, who were part of a politicalfriendship group, that she feels her education really began andher European bubble was burst. She attended a lecture byHelen Joseph, whose five-year house arrest ban had justended, but who was immediately re-banned the day after. This

made her realise that silencing people’s voices was a tactic ofoppression, preventing freedom to listen, to hear and to thinkand it was in this context she became an activist. For Beverley,writing is about a voice and once she began to see, she beganto read and remembers the impact of reading Down SecondAvenue by Es’kia Mphahlele and Tell Freedom by PeterAbrahams (o/p) both about growing up and sufferingdiscrimination in South Africa. She found books like thesechallenged her thinking and perception and said “My journeyas a writer began as a reader.” It was her realisation of theimpact of colonialism that was part of her lesson for writingBurn My Heart.

We talked about the culture shock of coming to live in theUK. Her brother was still imprisoned in South Africa. She hadbeen released and her parents persuaded her to come to theUK to study. Her intentions were to go back to South Africabut she wasn’t allowed. She went to York University to readEnglish and Education and said that reading books such asRoaring Boys by Edward Blishen (o/p) and The African Child byCamara Laye (o/p) made her realise that education could beabout culture and class, and was different from the schoolingthat she had experienced. After finishing her PGCE, sheplanned to teach in a school in Nigeria, but ended up meetingher husband and deciding to stay and teach in London. At thattime, children from the Caribbean were coming to the UK,having been uprooted, many leaving family at home and,

Beverley NaidooOne s t o r y , many v o i c e s

Above: Beverley Naidoo with MarjanVafaeian. Below: spread fromCinderella of the Nile.

23 Carousel No.69 Autumn/Winter 2018

although bright, were often put into the remedial class atschool. These experiences fed into her writing of The Other Sideof Truth and Web of Lies telling the story of Sade and Feme’sjourney from South Africa to live in England. Their storyresonates with the situation that many unaccompanied childrefugees face now and Beverley’s books have themes that arestill so relevant for today’s children and schools.

It was quite a few years later that she began towrite. She had joined an anti-apartheid group, witha number of teachers in it and the subject came upof what was published about South Africa. It led toa campaign to raise awareness, a conference forteachers and librarians and the publication ofCensoring Reality: An examination of books on SouthAfrica, available as a download from Beverley’swebsite http://www.beverleynaidoo.com/nonfiction.htm

Following this the group felt they needed tofocus on fiction, because, “Fiction speaks to theheart and if you reach the heart with a good story,the head will follow.” Beverley had the idea for astory and when she told the group about it, she waspersuaded to write it up and Journey to Jo’burg wasborn. It was the first time anyone had written aboutapartheid and it won The Other Award, althoughit was banned in South Africa for many years.When she was told she had won the CarnegieMedal for The Other Side of Truth, she didn’t believeit, but remembers it being magical and openingdoors for her. It meant a great deal to her becauseit was chosen by librarians and was the first bookto win it, that had African characters in.

We talked about the publishing situation andshe wondered if in the culture of celebrity andsales-driven marketing, whether people like herwould have been published today. She feelsstrongly that we need more BAME authors.Children need greater cultural access through thebooks they read and to hear a greater range ofdiverse voices. I asked her if she thought that theconclusions she came to in her 1992 publishedresearch study Through Whose Eyes – Exploring Racism: reader,text and context (o/p) would be different today. She believesthat the importance of the teaching style, the teacher and thecontext of the classroom is as crucial now as it was then.Children need the experiences of reading books that take theminto new worlds and cultures. They need to free their minds,to challenge themselves in their reading and to broaden theirideas and perspectives, because this enriches their lives. Aswell as her children’s picture books, folk tales and fiction, shehas also written plays and a powerful adult non-fictionbiography Death of An Idealist: In Search of Neil Aggett whichtraces the life and impact of the first white man to die indetention in a South African jail.

Her glorious new picture book, Cinderella of the Nile, has beenillustrated by Iranian illustrator Marjan Vafaeian. Beverley saidthat working with Tiny Owl, an independent publisher, had

been a wonderful experience as she had felt much closer to thewhole process. She was interested in the Egyptian Cinderellalegend of Rhodopis, wanting to explore the history of the girlbefore her capture into slavery and to imagine what it wouldhave been like. She also wanted to explore what a wise, olderslave could pass on to a girl to help her understand her situation

and felt that the Oak and the Reed fable wasperfect. She feels Aesop’s fables and his wisdomare constantly cautionary, often with theunderpinning message of keeping your headdown and survival. It is a universal question, howdo you manage to survive with your dignity andhumanity intact when you are oppressed and yourlife is a daily struggle? The fact that people do is atestament to them and she wanted that to comeacross through the story. She also felt it wasimportant to have a black pharaoh as so many ofthe books she read as a child depicted Egypt asEuropean and she wanted in her own way toredress this. It’s a captivating and different re-telling of the Cinderella story and MarjanVafaeian’s exquisite illustrations work perfectlywith Beverley’s text and demonstrate the closeintegration of the words and pictures to tell thestory. The context of the book and the power ofstory is beautifully explained in Beverley’sintroduction and the whole thing is a joy to readand to share.

Her top tips for would-be writers are read aswidely as possible, keep a notebook and alwaysbelieve in the power of words. When children readher books, she hopes they are encouraged to think,to imagine for themselves and to make their ownjourneys of the mind. I asked her what she wascurrently working on, she told me it was still underwraps, that she was on a new journey andchallenging herself, so watch this space! Shebelieves, “Stories are windows to other worlds. Agood story doesn’t tell you what to think. But if Ican hook you in, maybe you’ll find yourself

compelled to think, feel, imagine … and to begin a new journeyof your own.” Interviewing Beverley was a pleasure, I cameaway armed with a list of books that I wanted to read, the feelingthat I had travelled with her on a journey, and the knowledgethat the many voices of her story had touched me deeply.

Annie Everall

Bibliography:

Journey to Jo’burg HarperCollins £5.99 ISBN: 978-0007263509

The Other Side of Truth Puffin £6.99 ISBN: 978-0141377353

Burn My Heart Puffin £6.99 ISBN: 978-0141321240

Cinderella of the Nile (ill: Marjan Vafaeian) Tiny Owl £12.99ISBN: 978-1910328293

Out of Bounds Puffin £6.99 ISBN: 978-0141309699