Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:23:22.941Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Writer as Teacher: A Comparison of the African Adventure Stories of G.A. Henty, Rene Guillot, and Barbara Kimenye

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Nancy J. Schmidt
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Adventure stories are favorites among children in many parts of the world. Africa has been the locale of hundreds of children's adventure stories written by African and non-African authors for over a century. These adventure stories, along with other fiction, are just as powerful teachers about Africa as are professional educators.

This essay will compare the adventure stories of three wellknown and popular authors (as judged by literary critics and child readers) who based their stories on extensive firsthand experience in Africa. The writers belong to three different generations, and their adventure stories are typical of those of many other writers of their time. Representing the Victorian Age is George Alfred Henty, whose name is “probably identified above all others with the Victorian adventure story” (Townsend, 1975: 63) and whose books were so popular with children that in 1894 some British teachers limited the number that students could read (Welsch, n.d.). The early twentieth century is represented by Rene Guillot, the initiator of the exotic novel for children (Jan and Patte, 1973: 360) and winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Prize of the International Board on Books for Young People—a prize which has been awarded only three times since 1958. Although Guillot wrote all of his children's books in French, almost all of them have been translated into English. Barbara Kimenye (a journalist from Uganda, short story writer, and one of East Africa's most prolific children's writers) represents the mid-twentieth century. She writes about ordinary people “who live outside the pale of ordinary society” and makes their lives interesting (Nazareth, 1974: 167).

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , September 1976 , pp. 69 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1976

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Broderick, Dorothy M. (1973) Image of the Black in Children's Fiction. New York: Bowker.Google Scholar
Correspondent. (1957) “Chez les betes.” Times Literary Supplement 2907 (November 15): xx.Google Scholar
Fenn, G. Manville. (1970) George Alfred Henty. London: Blackie.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1933) Contes d'Afrique. Goree: Imp. Gouvernement Generale.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1944) Atonement in the Sun. London: Staples.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1946) Contes et Legendes d'Afrique Noire. Paris: Societe d'Editions Geographiques, Maritimes et Coloniales.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1957a) The Animal Kingdom. London: Oxford.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1957b) Tom-toms in Kotokro. New York: Criterion.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1959a) Sirga. New York: Criterion.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1959b) The White Shadow. London: Oxford.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1960) Elephant Road. New York: Criterion.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1961a) Beyond the Bambassu. London: Harrap.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1961b) Mokokamba, The Lost Land. New York: Criterion.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1961c) Riders of the Wind. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1961d) Sama. New York: Criterion.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1962) Fofana. New York. Criterion.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1963) The Fantastic Brother. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1965a) Guillot's African Folk Tales. New York: Watts.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1965b) Pascal and the Lionness. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1966) Fonabio and the Lion. New York: Watts.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1967) Kpo the Leopard. London: Oxford.Google Scholar
Guillot, Rene. (1970) Fodai and the Leopard Man. New York: Funk and Wagnalls.Google Scholar
Hammond, Dorothy and Jablow, Alta. (1970) The Africa that Never Was. New York: Twayne.Google Scholar
Henty, G.A. (1868) March to Magdala. London: Tinsley.Google Scholar
Henty, G.A. (1874) The March to Coomassie. London: Tinsley.Google Scholar
Henty, G.A. (1884) By Sheer Pluck, A Tale of the Ashanti War. London: Blackie.Google Scholar
Henty, G.A. (1892) A Dash for Khartoum, A Tale of the Nile Expedition. London: Blackie.Google Scholar
Henty, G.A. (1898) The Young Colonists, A Tale of the Zulu and Boer Wars. London: Blackie.Google Scholar
Henty, G.A. (1901) With Buller in Natal, or, A Born Leader. London: Blackie.Google Scholar
Henty, G.A. (1902) With Roberts to Pretoria, A Tale of the South African War. London: Blackie.Google Scholar
Jan, Isabelle and Patte, Genevieve. (1973) “Children's Literature in France,” in Haviland, Virginia (ed.), Children and Literature. Glenview, Illinois: Scott Foresman.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara. (1965) Kalasanda. London: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara. (1966) The Smugglers. London: Nelson.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara.(1967a) Moses. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara.(1967b) Moses and Mildred. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara.(1968a) Moses and the Kidnappers. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara.(1968b) Moses in Trouble. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara.(1969) The Winged Adventure. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara.(1970) Moses in a Muddle. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara. (1971a) Moses and the Ghost. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara.(1971b) Paulo's Strange Adventures. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara.(1972a) Moses on the Move. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara. (1972b) Sarah and the Boy. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara. (1973a) Martha and the Millipede. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara.(1973b) Moses and the Penpal. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara. (1973c) Moses and the Camper. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Kimenye, Barbara. (1973d) The Runaways. Nairobi: Oxford.Google Scholar
Ludwin, Vivien Rose. (1970) Children's Books by Rene Guillot. Johannesburg: University of Witwatersrand, Department of Bibliography, Librarianship, and Typography.Google Scholar
Nazareth, Peter. (1974) An African View of Literature. Evanston: Northwestern.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Nancy J. (1975) Children's Books on Africa and their Authors: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Africana.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Nancy J.. (1976) “Fiction about African Children for African Children.” Bulletin of the Southern Association of Africanists (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Townsend, John Rowe. (1975) Written for Children. Philadelphia: Lippincott.Google Scholar
Welsch, Erwin K. (n.d.) “G.A. Henty and the Imperial Ideal.” Bloomington, Indiana: mimeographed.Google Scholar