22.
final chapter that raises questions about tyranny in South Africa and its implications for the future. Most children's books that deal with African politics conclude either with a myopic statement about the great promise of the future or a statement of the "things fall apart" variety indicating that political stability has not followed independence instaneously.
The only preindependence African political leaderwho is the subject of a book-length biography written for American children is Chaka.5 However, Chaka is not presented as a nationalist leader by either Daniel Cohen in Shaka, King of the Zulus (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973) or Bern Keating in Chaka, King of the Zulus (New York: Putnams, 1968). Chaka's relationships with Europeans are both presented and evaluated from the perspective of South African whites. Chaka's political activities are presented almost in a vacuum in which Europeans are of no consequence. The overhwelming focus of both biographies, as is all children's fiction about Chaka, is on warfare and its brutal aspects. Nevertheless, some aspects of political process are mentioned in this context, since Chaka is considered a military genius and numerous details are given of military organization and reorganization during the years of Chaka's leadership. As in most biographies of contemporary African political leaders, the biographies of Chaka ignore his relationships with other African leaders and with his religious and political officials who helped him achieve his political goals.6
Although more can be learned about politics in Africa from biographies of political leaders than from social studies surveys, social studies surveys are far more numerous than are biographies. In addition, almost all biographies are written for high school students, whereas social studies surveys are written for upper elementary school children, as well as for children in junior and senior high school.
Books on African Nationalism
Most of the children's books on African nationalism were written in the 1960s, as were most other children's books dealing with the politics of African independence. There is only one book which attempts to p:ovide historical background for the independence of African nations that began in the late 1950s, Robin McKown, The Colonial Conquest of t 'rica (yfhw Yok, 1971).7 Because it attempts to cover the entire continent in eighty-eight pages no details of either political structure or political process are included. However, there is-an enumeration of political events, primarily in the nineteenth century, within a context that emphasizes the brevity of European control in terms of African history and the exploitive nature of colonialism.
Most books that deal with nationalism in the mid-twentieth century are equally superficial and restricted in scope. For example, in the sixty-three pages of Leslie A. Lacy, Black Africa on the Move (New York: Watts, 1969), there are one and a third pages on colonialism and two pages on independence movements, with the space devoted to such topics as freedom fighters and problems in South Africa being measured in paragraphs rather than pages. Almost all of the specific examples are from West Africa, an area with which the author is personally familiar. Sydney Lens, Africa--Awakening Giant (New York: Putnams, 1962) is nearly three times as long as Lacy's book and thus can discuss more