Aesop, that fabulous teller of ancient tales such as The Tortoise and the Hare, was Greek. Right?
Not so fast. He was actually born, most probably in Ethiopia and as African as they come, until enslaved by a man called Iadmon and taken to Samos in Greece, where he spent the rest of his short life. As for his world-famous fables, which we probably heard first as children and have become one of the bedrocks of western literature, they came from the storytelling traditions of Africa, a continent of so many different peoples and cultures.
This is both the surprise and the joy of this superb non-fiction book, which focuses on 10 African kings, queens, scholars and visionaries who changed our world thousands of years ago, long before colonial times and the plague of slavery.
And how little we know of any of them, except perhaps Hannibal, whose unsurpassed military strategy has been studied down the ages and still is. As for Terence the playwright, Mansa Musa, the richest man of all time, or Merneith, a queen erased from history, who among us has even heard of them? Yet, here they are, ready for the discovery.
Author Tracey Baptiste was born in Trinidad, moved to Brooklyn when she was 15 and became an elementary school teacher and then a textbook editor. She lives in New Jersey and is a member of the faculty of Lesley University.
African Icons is targeted at pre-teens, yet these stories are so beautifully written and informative that this book, once opened, is very hard to put down by young and old readers. And for anyone wanting to learn more, comprehensive source notes are supplied for each chapter as well as a select bibliography and index. Even designer Sara Yonas explains how she worked to enrich the author’s words and illustrator Hillary D Wilson’s images with a truly stunning Afrocentric design concept.
African Icons by Tracey Baptiste was published in Canada by Groundwood Books, House of Anansi, 2022.
It is thanks to writers like Tracey Baptiste who are helping peel back the layers of war, conquest and arbitrary division on the African continent to reveal its legion of pre-colonial scientific and artistic achievements. A highly appropriate read in celebration of Black History Month And while we are on the subject, when you have a spare moment, get your hands on a copy of:
Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged by Jody Nyasha Warner and Richard Rudnicki
It is also published by Groundwood Books in 2010 Non-fiction picture book.
By now, most of us will have noticed the lady on our present $10 note, and, no, it is not the late Queen. The lady in question is Nova Scotian Viola Desmond, who in 1946 refused to budge from her movie seat on the main floor to one in the balcony simply because she was black What better month to reread her story in this colourful re-creation of Viola’s first but the not only battle to end racial segregation here in Canada In 2018 Viola became the first African Canadian to be commemorated on a Canadian bank note The book was a finalist for the Norma Fleck Award for Children’s Non-Fiction in 2011.