journey to jo'burg writing ideas

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Journey to jo'burg by beverley naidoo 9-11.

Journey to Jo'burg gives the reader a glimpse into the life of a young black girl in South Africa under Apartheid.  The book follows siblings, Naledi and her younger brother, Tiro on a journey to try and save their family.  Their journey opens their eyes to the world around them. 

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Journey to Jo’burg

Section 1: Chapters 1-3

• blunt : having a thick edge or point, not sharp; saying or expressing something in a very direct way that may upset some people
• kilometer : a unit of length equal to 1,000 meters
• reassure : to make someone feel less afraid, upset, or doubtful
• retort : to answer an argument by a counter argument; to answer back sharply
• tap : a plug for a hole; a device consisting or a spout and valve attached to the end of a pipe to control the flow of a fluid, a faucet
• term : a word or phrase that has an exact meaning; the length of time during which a person has an official or political office

Vocabulary Sentences

• While driving around Ireland, we saw a sign indicating that the historic church was 30 kilometers away.
• The President of the United States decided to campaign for a second term in office.
• The school teacher smiled and reassured the students that there would be no pop quiz this week.
• Jan seemed to frequently have a retort when her mother asked her to wash the dishes.
• The tap water left a bad taste in my mouth.

Comprehension Questions

• Granny says the hospital is too far away and they don’t have money to pay a doctor. (pg. 1)
• Naledi and Tiro walk to the village with empty buckets to buy water every day. (pg. 2)
• The children try to avoid looking at the place of graves on their way to the village. (pg. 2)
• Naledi plans to walk to Johannesburg to ask their mother for helpg. (pg. 2)
• The walk to Johannesburg is 300 kilometers. (pg. 2)
• Naledi and Tiro want to avoid the police because they didn’t have a pass. (pg. 8)
• Naledi and Tiro could have been shot by the farmer if he had caught them taking the orange. (pg. 11)
• A boy from the farm takes the children to a shed to sleep in and also gives them some food. (pg. 14)
• Naledi and Tiro bury the orange peels in the dirt in order to hide the fact that they have eaten oranges. (pg. 14)
• The boys give Naledi and Tiro a little pap to eat. (pg.14)
• “Sala sentle” means stay well, and “Tsamaya settle” means go well. Both are expressions of farewell in the Tswana language. (pg. 77)

Section 2: Chapters 4-7

• heave : to lift, pull, or throw something with effort; to breathe in and out in a slow or loud way
• inconvenient : causing trouble or problems; not convenient
• lorry : a large, heavy motor vehicle for transporting goods or troops; a truck
• pavement : the hard surface of a road, driveway, etc.
• steer : an ox less than four years old; to be moved or guided in a particular direction or along a particular course
• windscreen : a screen that protects against the wind; British term for windshield
• Marty heaved a sigh of relief after reading the acceptance letter from the university.
• It was inconvenient for Amy to take her sister to school, since she was already late for her dental appointment.
• Mia’s feet burned as she ran across the hot pavement .
• The lorry broke down in the middle of the road and caused a huge traffic jam.
• The dirty windscreen made it difficult to see the road clearly.
• Naledi and Tiro have their first ride in a truck on the second day of their journey. (pg. 19)
• As the children get closer to Joannesburg, the land is no longer flat but has mountains with steep rocks and crags. (pg. 19-20)
• The children hope to find their Mma in Parktown. (pg. 20)
• Mma works so far from home so that she can pay to send them to school. (pg. 20)
• The children act oddly because their father worked in a mine, got a coughing sickness, and then died there. (pg. 22)
• The truck driver gives them money and shows them where to catch the bus. (pg. 23)
• The children make the mistake of trying to get on a bus that is only for white people. (pg. 25-26)
• The children have not thought about their little sister all day because so much had happened all day. (pg. 28)
• Mma can’t leave for home immediately because she needs to stay with Belinda so Madam and the Master can go to a dinner party. (pg. 30-32)
• Naledi notices Mama uses tin plates and mugs for them to use, instead of the glistening plates and delicate glasses. (pg. 32-33)
• The Madam says the children can’t spend the night in Parktown because the police won’t like it. (pg. 33)

Section 3: Chapters 8-11

• carriage : a large vehicle with four wheels that is pulled by a horse and also carries people; a separate section of a train
• dustbin : a can for trash or garbage
• freedom : the quality or state of being free; liberation from slavery or restraint from the power of another
• hurl : to throw something with force; to say or should an insult in a loud and forceful way
• rubbish : things that are no longer useful or wanted and have been thrown out; words or ideas that are foolish or untrue; something that is worthless, unimportant, or of poor quality
• surge : to move very quickly and suddenly in a particular direction
• Ivan loved to hurl snowballs at his big brother.
• Jade was thrilled to find her lost earring after mistakenly sweeping it into the dustbin.
• William thought his essay was rubbish since he did not get the top grade in the class.
• The American flag is a beautiful symbol of freedom.
• Lola felt a surge of excitement and fear as she waited in line for the giant roller coaster.
• The children become separated from Grace when they are pushed out by a crowd of people getting off the train. (pg. 36)
• There is a pass raid by the police and people begin running away from the police. (pg. 37)
• The children go to the man’s house and his son runs to take the pass to him. (pg. 39-40)
• The boy threatens to burn the pass one day. (pg. 40)
• Jonas and Paul are curious about where Naledi and Tiro are from because they have never been anywhere except Johannesburg. (pg. 43)
• Grace’s older brother Dumi was picked up by the police in 1976, when students were marching and the place was on fire. (pg. 44)
• Grace called the student demonstration a “time of fire.” (pg. 45)
• The police began shooting and killing whoever was in their way. (pg. 46)
• Dumi was studying in another country and he was planning to come back in order to fight for freedom. (pg. 46-48)
• Naledi and Tiro hope to see the orange farm where they had spent the night. (pg. 51)
• Mma becomes quiet and is thinking about how to respond to Naledi’s question about the student demonstration in Soweto. (pg. 52)

Section 4: Chapters 12-15

• anxious : causing or showing fear or nervousness
• banknote : a promissory note issued by a bank payable to bearer on demand without interest and acceptable as money
• cluster : a group of similar things or people positioned or occurring closely together; to be or come into a cluster or close group; congregate
• corridor : a long passage in a building from which doors lead into rooms
• queue : a line or sequence of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed
• vague : not clearly expressed; stated in indefinite terms
• veranda : a roofed platform along the outside of a house, level with the ground floor; a porch
• Omar began to feel anxious about the spelling test since he had not taken much time to study for it.
• Ellie enjoyed sitting on the veranda with her grandmother, just chatting and sipping ice tea.
• George gave his mother a vague response when she asked how his day at school went.
• A cluster of homes had been severely damaged by the horrific storm.
• Jill walked down the long hospital corridor before meeting her new baby sister.
• Naledi assumes her mother has borrowed money when she sees the banknotes in her hand. (pg. 56)
• When Mma and Naledi arrive at the hospital, they see people sitting and lying around the buildings, and a queue of patients lined up to see a woman at the desk. (pg. 58)
• Naledi realizes that there are even more people waiting for help inside the hospital. (pg. 59)
• Mma and the young mother think their babies need more milk. (pg. 60)
• Mma and Naledi share their food with the young mother. (pg. 63)
• Naledi witnesses the young mother sobbing because her baby had died. (pg. 63)
• Naledi encourages her mother by linking arms with her, letting her know that at least they have each other. (pg. 64)
• In normal circumstances, a visit from Mma was filled with hugs, presents, and Mma helping Nono and listening to the children’s stories. (pg. 66-67)
• Mma has to return to the city as soon as Dineo is home from the hospital because she is losing pay. (pg. 70)
• Naledi can’t imagine Grace crying, and also remembers that Grace has to look after her younger brothers and the house by herself most of the time. (pg. 71)
• Naledi realizes that all her school lessons have been about how to be a good servant, but she wants to become a doctor. (pg. 72)

For more questions – some very probing – read my interview with  Write Away.

Why have you set so many novels and short stories in South Africa?

It is where I spent my childhood. For a long time South Africa was a very sick society. No justice, no equality, no democracy. Only white people had power and they made everything depend on skin colour. My father migrated from Cornwall in England when the tin mines were closing and gold was discovered in South Africa in the 1880s. My mother’s family fled from the pogroms against Jews in Russia to England from where her parents migrated to South Africa. All my grandparents immediately had more rights than black people whose ancestors had been living there for generations. I was brought up accepting the way things were. As a child I never questioned why I could live with my parents in a comfortable home, go to school, play in the park and do all sorts of things black children were not free to do. My upbringing led me to believe that white people were superior and it was natural for them to have the best of everything. But when I realised how false this was, I became very angry at all the injustice around me – and how I was part of it. I had been brought up with blinkers. Later, when I began to write, I wanted to write stories that would challenge narrow ways of seeing.

What made you change your own ways of seeing?

Luckily when I went to university, I met people who challenged me to open my eyes. It was the early 1960s when the African National Congress was banned and Nelson Mandela went ‘underground’ before he was captured. I became involved in resistance to apartheid which taught me a lot. Eight weeks of solitary confinement in jail, when I was twenty one, gave me a sense of how the country was a giant jail for most of its people. I was still a very ‘small fish’ at the time of my arrest. But I was very aware of the enormous commitment of many people who risked long sentences and even death for their beliefs.

I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve but if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. – Nelson Mandela, 1964 and 1990

Hear me talk about the year I turned 18 and ‘opened my eyes’.

What gave you the idea for the storyline of  Journey to Jo’burg ?

As a white child in South Africa I had, as it were, two mothers. My second mother was a black cook-nanny who saw that I was washed and fed and was always around to talk with me when my own mother was busy. Yet I was brought up to see her as a servant and to call her ‘Mary’. While all white adults had to be addressed as either ‘Mr’ or Mrs’ or ‘Aunty’ or ‘Uncle’, I was brought up calling all black adults by their first names, which was extremely rude.

Traditionally in African society respect is also conveyed through language. That is why, in Journey to Jo’burg Naledi and Tiro call anyone older ‘Mma’ or ‘Rra’. As a child I also simply accepted that the person who looked after me ate her food off a tin plate and that her own three children lived far away. I never really thought what it must be like for them to be without their mother. One day she got a telegram and collapsed in front of me. Two of her small daughters had got diphtheria and died. I remember being sad and shocked – but I still didn’t ask WHY? I could not have caught diphtheria because as a white child I had been inoculated.

It was only some years later that I began to ask the important questions. Journey to Jo’burg is dedicated to the memory of those two young children and their mother. When I was writing, I wanted to explore for myself what it would be like to be separated from your mother when you most needed her. I also wanted to feel in touch with the courage of young black people in South Africa who were determined not to put up with racism and apartheid any longer.

Also, see this  Video clip  (©Pelican Post)

Why was Journey to Jo’burg banned in South Africa?

I can only guess because the government didn’t give any reasons. One likely reason was that half of the book’s royalties were going to a banned organisation, the British Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa, that was helping the families of political prisoners.

Perhaps another reason was that the apartheid government thought it would encourage readers to ask challenging questions – especially young white South Africans who were being brought up to think that racism and discrimination were normal.

I was very excited that South Africa would get rid of the old racist laws and that Nelson Mandela would be the first democratic President. But getting equality and justice is much harder than changing the laws and there are still enormous differences between rich and poor. In No Turning Back I wrote about a twelve year old boy who runs away to the dangerous streets of Jo’burg where he joins the malunde – streetchildren who live rough and survive, if they are lucky, by their wits. Sipho’s stepfather is unemployed, drinks and is violent. I wanted to show that there are no magic wands.

I am interested in children who struggle against injustice and other difficulties wherever they are. Over the years I have learned about Nigeria through friends and some very fine writers. However the soldiers who stole power for many years destroyed much that was good, including people who spoke out against them. After they executed the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, I began to think about a story which involved the children of an outspoken journalist. I wanted to explore how these children would cope with being thrown from a comfortable family in Lagos to becoming – overnight – refugees alone in London.

Fiction is a very good way of exploring reality, especially different viewpoints. I tend to do a lot of research before I create a story and characters that are fictional. So my stories are true in the sense that everything that happens could happen. That was why at the beginning of Journey to Jo’burg  there are two press cuttings about real children who made incredible journeys to find their mothers.

At the end of  Out of Bounds  (where each story is set in a different decade) there is a factual time line giving real events and an interested reader can explore connections.

I love it. I often feel that I am being a detective following clues! It is also very challenging for me as new information, ideas, feelings and points of view are revealed. When I was writing  Chain of Fire I was not allowed to go to South Africa, so I had to do that research in England. It was as if I was writing a historical novel. In fact a lot of my material had been secretly smuggled out of the country. But later on, I was able to research No Turning Back  in the country. I spent six weeks with a theatre director colleague and friend Olusola Oyeleye doing drama and writing workshops in the summer of 1993. We worked with streetchildren as well as young people who were not streetchildren to get a sense of their different lives, experiences and views. I was also helped to think about the mothers of children who run away by a wonderful educator Martha Mokgoko. She ran research workshops with her Speak Barefoot Teachers group in Alexandra, the place near Johannesburg from which my character Sipho runs away. For The Other Side of Truth I carried out most of my research in England by spending a few months finding out about the experiences of refugee children in London.

I start with writing notes on scraps of paper as well as beginning a notebook. This is my ‘first ideas’ stage. When researching, I talk to people, visit places, take photographs, read and so on.  Burn My Heart , for instance, came out of two visits to Kenya. The seeds of the novel began to emerge during my first visit.  By my second visit, I was much more focused, wanting to see particular landscapes, places and people. By this stage I was already thinking about my plot. Although my plot may change a bit as I write, it is important for me to have a sense of the shape of the whole story and how I intend to tell it. Afterwards comes the actual writing – usually draft after draft! Then editing – by myself and with my editor. I often ask a few people to whom I have spoken while researching if they will read my story and comment. This helps me get a bit of distance from what I’ve written. Altogether, it’s a long slow process – but very satisfying in the end.

What kinds of responses have you had to your work?

Sometimes there are letters from whole classes and sometimes from individuals who want to tell me about what they have thought or felt while reading. Most exciting for me is when I feel my writing has really touched a nerve – as with an eleven year old who wrote a long letter full of questions about injustice and children. She was indignant that a book like Journey to Jo’burg could be banned:

Why shouldn’t young people learn what is really happening on Earth? The quicker we learn the more intelligent and strong willing we shall become. That way we can make peace.

The similarities between the lives of Femi and myself left me wondering. Wondering how two people can be so similar, wondering about how you know so much about what young boys are going through…

I like to hear from adults too and was heartened when a Kenyan writer told me how he had been gripped by  Burn My Heart :

… read it in one sitting, so suspenseful was it. I particularly lauded and applauded the way you seemed to make mirror images of conflicting viewpoints on BOTH sides of the divide.

I shouldn’t tell you this but our teacher had to stop reading to hold in tears.

• Children of the Stone City
• Journey to Jo’Burg
• Chain of Fire
• No Turning Back
• The Other Side of Truth
• Web of Lies
• Burn My Heart
• Cinderella of the Nile
• Who is King?
• Aesop’s Fables
• S is for South Africa
• Baba’s Gift
• The Letang and Julie series
• Where is Zami?
• Out of Bounds
• Call of the Deep
• The Great Tug of War
• Global Tales
• Free as I know
• Death of an Idealist: In Search of Neil Aggett
• Through Whose Eyes?
• Censoring Reality
• Articles & papers
• Contributions
• The Playground
• blog archive
• Awards and Special Recognition
• Visits & events

Resources you can trust

Chapters 1 to 3

A handy one page worksheet with summary activities on Chapters 1-3 of Journey to Jo'burg  by Beverley Naidoo.  Tasks on Chapters 1 and 2 have sentence starters provided before students write their own summary for Chapter 3.

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Journey to Jo'burg - Learning Sequence

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Reading Skills (6 lessons) KS2- Journey to Jo'Burg

Subject: English

Age range: 7-11

Resource type: Worksheet/Activity

Last updated

31 May 2019

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This is a series of six lessons (including PP and worksheets) on Journey to Jo’Burg by Beverley Naidoo that focuses on different areas of the UKS2 N.C for Reading following CPD training on how to teach the N.C objectives whilst promoting a love reading. The N.C focus areas are:

• To make predictions from details that have been stated and implied
• To make inferences from a text
• To summarise the main ideas from a text
• To give the meaning of words in context
• To show understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action
• To make comparisons within a text

This series includes extracts from Journey to Jo’Burg as well as samples from other books such as Wolf Brother, A Spoonful of Murder, The Wolf Wilder, The Chocolate Factory Ghost and Shadow for children to enjoy.

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Journey to Jo’burg

Beverley Naidoo • Cinquain The Arrow is the monthly digital product that features copywork and dictation passages from a specific read aloud novel (you purchase or obtain the novels yourself). It’s geared toward children ages 8-11 and is an indispensable tool for parents who want to teach language arts in a natural, literature-bathed context.

This guide contains the following features:

• 4 Passages (one per week) for copywork/dictation
• Notes about punctuation, spelling, vocabulary, and literary elements
• 3 Grammar Lessons
• Literary element: Cinquain
• Writing activity: Write your own cinquain poem
• 9 discussion questions
• Book Club Party ideas
• Original Publication Date: November 2006
• Updated: November 2018

All products are digital and downloadable. All sales are FINAL. No refunds.

About the book

If only Mma was here, Naledi wished over and over. . .

Mma lives and works in Johannesburg, far from the village thirteen-year-old Naledi and her younger brother, Tiro, call home. When their baby sister suddenly becomes very sick, Naledi and Tiro know, deep down, that only one person can save her.

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