The Wanderer and the Golden Paperknife , livre ebook

227

pages

English

Ebooks

2024

Écrit par
Elias Mutani

Publié par
Readit Books Ltd

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227

pages

English

Ebooks

2024

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

Readit Books Ltd

Date de parution

17 juillet 2024

EAN13

9789912982833

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

32 Mo

The Ruvu River has without any reasonable explanation become poisonous. Virunga villagers now have to travel long distances to fetch usable water. Liam, a Canadian teenager on holiday in Virunga, joins up with Fanaka and Heri, from the village, in trying to solve the mystery of why and who is responsible for poisoning the river.
"The story is full of suspense surrounding Roki hills bordering the poisonous Ruvu River. It is interesting and I learned a lot about Tanzanian culture. This story unfolds very methodically as the author does a superb job of predicting the reader's responses and bringing things full circle, which makes for a very satisfying read ...-"
Summer Edward

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Publié par

Readit Books Ltd

Date de parution

17 juillet 2024

EAN13

9789912982833

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

32 Mo

THEWANDERERAND THEGOLDENPAPERKNIFE

Elias Mutani Readit Books Ltd Dar es salaam

Readit Books Ltd. P. O. Box 20986 Dar es Salaam

©Elias Mutani Cover Design: Abdul Gugu Revised Edition 2023

ISBN978 9912 9828 3 3

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Readit Books Ltd.

Acknowledgment

In 2008, CODE established the Burt Award for African Young Adult Literature with the generous support of Canadian philanthropist William (Bill) Burt and the Literary Prizes Foundation. The CODE Burt Award is an annual literary prize that recognizes excellence in young adult fiction from four African countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania), ensures the free distribution of books to schools and libraries, and supports the writing and publication of high quality, culturally relevant books that young people want to read. The CODE Burt Award program is part of the ongoing literacy programs of the Children’s Book Project and of CODE, a Canadian NGO supporting development through education for 59 years. The CODE Burt Award program is designed to champion literacy; to build language skills; to encourage local writers and publishers to produce young adult literature; and to foster the love and habit of reading.

iii

Foreword Since 2008, the Children’s Book Project for Tanzania (CBP) has been supporting novel writing and publishing in English with the aim of promoting the learning of English for the youth in upper primary and secondary schools. In a country like Tanzania where English is not widely used outside the classroom, concerted efforts need to be in place to support its acquisition through intensive and extensive reading.

The Burt Award for African Literature aims at producing books which show the local situation, depicting familiar environments in order to arouse the interest and enthusiasm of the reader. Consequently, students can develop the habit of reading and enjoying interesting stories while improving their English skills and, ultimately their ability to learn other subjects taught in English. It is indeed the expectation of the project that the Burt Award for African Literature will be a catalyst for success in other subjects.

CBP wishes to thank the panel of judges for their dedication and integrity, and both CODE and Mr. Burt for broaching and supporting the project and all our stakeholders, including writers, publishers, librarians, teachers and students. It is their collective participation in various ways that has made the project a success.

Pilli Dumea

Executive Secretary

Children’s Book Project for Tanzania

It’s gonna take a lot to drag me away from you There’s nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do I bless the rains down in Africa Gonna take some time to do the things we never had. David Paich (1982)

Chapter One The Golden Paperknife

It was not a bomb, or a bullet, but a buffalo. The man my parents had hired to guard me had disappeared in the bushes and no one had taught me before how to escape a charging buffalo in the wilderness of Africa. “Duck and cover, duck and cover!” My school safety master’s shout echoed in my ears.How about run and

hide?I thought. Lying down on my stomach would be a sure way to die. This was not school safety drill. The dangers of the jungle required mastery of the jungle itself, and help, maybe from heaven. My tongue felt the cold steel of my golden paperknife which I held tightly between my teeth, and the spirit within me said, ‘You are not going to die.’ The paperknife once belonged to an old wise Catholic priest who boarded a ship to run away from a great famine in Ireland many years ago. Before he passed away, he bestowed it to a young man on the ship when they anchored on the shores of Canada. It looked like a very small sword. Engraved on one side of its handle was a dove, its wings spread out, and a lamb on the other side. No one knows for sure why the priest trusted the young man with real gold, but one legend tells of how the young man fought with a bull’s strength to help elders board the vessel, as the young and the

strong rushed ahead, leaving behind the old and sick to starve and die. I like the version of the story that told of how the young man

saved the old man’s life during a shipwreck, when the crew abandoned the ship leaving the migrants to save themselves. That young man was the great-great-grandfather of Mila, my mother.

I had seen paintings of that great man with his diamond-shaped face, long wavy hair and stern look. Everyone in mom’s family said I looked like him, except for the beard and furrows on his forehead.

My tallness, boldness, and even the lightness of my eyes, were all passed down from him. Maybe that is why I had been entrusted with the old man’s paperknife. Uncle Pete said he had kept the

paperknife until he was eighteen before returning it to mom. He had lost faith in it, but I had found faith when it was given to me. I had heard tales about the paperknife and its powers since I

was old enough to understand things. Mom had given me the knife with its blunt blade as a birthday present, the day I turned six. I was small, but I remember how I had stood, still and speechless,

holding the mighty paperknife. It had felt like being in the middle of a fire but not getting burnt. Although I had taken it from mom’s hands, it was as if I had received it from my great-great-great

grandfather himself. I had had a dream, some years after, in which I saw the great old man giving me his golden paperknife. Strangely, that same

night, dad had dreamt that mom lost it. I was little, but I remember that day well because, later in the afternoon, mom had

broken her ankle while skiing. I also remember that, the day before, dad had asked mom to get rid of the paperknife, saying it possessed some kind of occult powers. Mom had refused, saying it was part of

her family heritage. That’s why when they had given it to me, they had warned against giving it away. My golden treasure was, at all times, hidden in my bum-bag. It may sound queer, but I knew for sure that my paperknife fetched me good luck whenever I needed it. My great-great-great grandfather’s name was inscribed on its blade in letters so tiny I needed a magnifying glass to read it. We shared the same name: Liam. One day, dad caught me holding the paperknife up to the sunlight, and kissing the spot on its shining surface where I knew my name was written, although I couldn’t see it. “That’s sinful,” said dad. “It isn’t,” mom defended me. “Kissing images of people or animals is idol worship and very wrong.” “Then you married the wrong person,” said mom, laughing. My father, whom everyone called Reverend Cannan, preached at a born-again church. His church members were the type of sanctimonious Christians who felt themselves entitled to speak on

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