It was a great reminder of how moving the story can be with one of Team Creative explaining to us that the session left him feeling sad and angry that people aren't treated equally. Seven Stories was able to support the acquisition of the Beverley Naidoo collection through support from a Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Collecting Cultures’ grant.

Journey to Jo’burg by Beverley Naidoo is a fantastic, thought-provoking story about diversity, equality and acceptance. Notes by Beverley Naidoo for Journey to Jo'burg which outlines the exact journey Tiro and Naledi take to find their mother.Naidoo doesn't explainthe issues of South Africa but portrays them in a way that encourages us to ask questions.

But apartheid South Africa is not a good place for two young black children to venture out alone, and they learn that life is much crueller in the city than in the small village they are used to. This is the story of love, commitment and the flowering of the human spirit against the background of South Africa's apartheid. The draft material also gives us an interesting insight into Beverley's intentions and some of the choices she made whilst drafting. A South African Story) however, this is a full draft of the story, the earlier draft is in bullet-point form.Thousands of children were reading the book around the world but the apartheid government refused to let South African children read it until 1991, the year after Nelson Mandela was released from jail. Banned by the apartheid government in South Africa, this is the story of two children’s courage and determination to find their mother and bring her home. To give more background on South African history, you may also want to download our The Life Story of Nelson Mandela PowerPoint. Naidoo's collection covers a large proportion of her career and includes her PhD thesis, novels, short stories, picture books, professional and personal correspondence. so simple and straightforward that it makes accessible even to quite young children the difficult and the profound.

These newspaper reports are very similar to the story of Tiro and Naledi - they are the seed of truth from which her fiction grows. Although many of her books are set in South Africa, she also focusses on refugees and immigration in her latest stories. Following Nelson Mandela’s prison release in 1991, the ban on the book was finally lifted in South Africa. Journey to Jo'burg gives the reader a glimpse into the life of a young black girl in South Africa under Apartheid. Newspaper articles from Beverley's collection with a copy of Journey to Jo'burgwhich includes two real newspaper articles at the beginning of the story.This is the notice sent to Beverley's sister-in-law from the Doeane en Aksyns Customs and Excise to inform of the seizure of prohibited material. Knowing that only their mother will be able to help her, Naledi and Tiro travel to Johannesburg to find her. The book follows siblings, Naledi and her younger brother, Tiro on a journey to try and save their family.