19.
THE POLITICS OF AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE
IN AMERICAN CHILDREN'S BOOKS
by Nancy J. Schmidt
(Dr. Schmidt is Librarian at Tozzer Library, Peabodl Musewn of Archaeologyf and Ethnology, Harvard University. Her latest book, Children's Fiction about Africa in English was recently published by Conch. This article originally appeared in Africa Today Vol. 27, No. 3 (7980), and is reprinted here with permission.)
During the last twenty years both scholarly and popular literature
about African politics has increased in geometric proportions, as has literature about Africa in general. Political scientists have been developing new theories about political process, as well as about political structure to deal with political behavior in Africa and other "emerging" nations. Africanist scholars have broadened the framework for the discussion of African politics through historical research and field studies which aim to learn about African perspectives of political events and behavior. The mass media have discovered political crises in Africa, which are typically reported without background and are rarely followed through with regular coverage until their conclusion.
What has happened to the presentation of African politics in American children's books since the beginning of the era of independence more than two decades ago? What perspective of African politics will American children obtain from reading books? Does this perspective reinforce that presented by the mass media, or that presented in scholarly materials? These questions will be addressed in this essay through a brief survey of the kinds of children's books available and specific examples that illustrate how African politics are presented. Most of the books discussed are works of non-fiction. However, a few works of fiction will be mentioned for the topics about which they have been written.1
Social Science Surveys
The most common form in which American children are introduced to African politics is in social studies surveys of African nations or geographical regions. Almost all of these surveys appear in social studies series such as Enchantment of Africa (Children's Press), Finding Out About Geography (Day), First Book (Watts), Getting to Know (Coward McCann), Portraits of Nations (Lippencott), and Understanding Your World (Laidlaw). Typically one or two of eight to twelve chapters in a book of approximately sixty to one hundred pages is devoted to a topic such as independence, government, or the future.
The conceptual framework for all of these series, including Enchantment of Africa,2 is Euroamerican. At least half of the series have a tourist orientation, in the sense that young readers are introduced to "highlights" of the country through the eyes of an American traveler. In books in these series