The extraordinary children of Africa

‘Taking long distance water’ or ‘Boy reaping the wind’ is a story about children trying to overcome adversity in African lands, inspiring millions of people around the world.
In the midst of Africa rife with war, poverty, and disease, the children in the following books have survived, growing extraordinary to develop their homeland.

“Take long distance water” – survive where there is no water

Every day 11-year-old Nya has to walk barefoot to get some standing water from a shallow lake a half-day walk from her home. Go then go, go and go. Almost all day walking. I have been walking like that for 7 months a year.

But even if she walked this far, the amount of water Nya took back was not much. It was also very hard to get water. Nya had to dig a small hole in the shallow bed of the lake, pick up each handful of soil so that the little remaining water would flow and that hole. I have to wait a long time to scoop a bucket of water into the can. But the water is cool, leaving the water to settle for a long time still does not get rid of the dirt.

The book Taking Long Distance is based on the true story of Salve Dut. Photo: Pham Thuy.

Salva was only 11 years old when she had to flee the war and lost her family. From Sudan, I joined a group of refugees heading east, back to Ethiopia. On the way, they experienced many dangers, from lions to catch people, to groups of robbers along the way.

But there is nothing more terrible than not having water. They crossed the hot desert with little water in hand. A lot of people did not make it out of the desert. The remainder of those who reach a refugee camp in Ethiopia cannot stay there forever as the refugee camp will be closed. Salva is one of the rare children raised in a refugee camp and adopted by an American family.

Take long distance water is a book written on the true story of Salva Dut, one of hundreds of children lost in the Second Sudanese Civil War that broke out in 1983. After 15 years of living in America, Salva returned to her homeland and began drilling wells throughout the villages bringing water back to the people, for kids like Nya who no longer have to walk long distances to get water.

“The boy reap the wind” – survives where there is no electricity

In 2000, there was no electricity in the place where William Kamkwamba lived. It’s a tiny African country called Malawi, where electricity is not easily accessible because the price is too expensive and difficult to get in.

Because there is no electricity, the daily activities must be done early and they go to bed at 7pm. In the dark, William could not study, could not read, even went to the toilet and could not see anything.

William Kamkwamba’s book The Boy Windbreaker documents the electric journey back to the village. Photo: Thien Ai.

But refusing to accept fate, William fumbles himself to generate electricity … a homemade windmill. This mill was made from discarded materials in a junkyard near William’s house. Those were broken plastic pipes, discarded sheet metal, battery out of battery, and most importantly, his father’s old bicycle.

William’s dream is not merely to create a windmill, but to further bring electricity to his villagers and change his country.

Book The boy reaped the wind He has recorded his journey from a naive young William just playing to becoming a TED speaker telling his story to many people, graduating from Dartmouth College and returning to build his homeland.

“Little homeland” – survived in a violent war

Born and raised in Burundi, a small country in Central Africa, Gaby thought he would have a peaceful childhood, just going to bathe in the river and steal mango all day. But where Gaby lived, the two main ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi, had a great deal of hatred.

Hutu people make up the majority of this land, although their bodies are small, they have a very large nose. The Tutsi, on the other hand, was tall, thin with a delicate nose. And war broke out between the Hutu and the Tutsi, they fought because their noses were not the same.

The Little Homeland book reveals the curtain of genocide in Africa. Photo: Young Publishing House.

That was the beginning of the horrific genocide that took place in Burundi and neighboring Rwanda, which took place 100 days in 1994. Gaby was built on the author Gaël Faye himself, who witnessed the violent war. then he was forced to leave his homeland.

The genocide in 1994 was a bloody event in Africa that no one wanted to talk about in the world. And to break the fog that envelops that truth, in 2013, Gaël Faye returned home, composing music and writing books about the event.

Book Small homeland He won the 2016 Teen Goncourt Award, which is translated into 36 languages ​​and shows the world the best of what happened to the children of Africa.