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THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION CARNEGIE MEDAL WINNER
BACKGROUND ON BEVERLEY NAIDOO AND THE OTHER SIDE OF TRUTH

Beverley Naidoo is energetic and focused. Winning the Carnegie Medal comes in the middle of a hectic summer schedule which includes research for her next book, a packed schedule of school visits and publication of her first book of short stories for children Out of Bounds - stories of conflict and hope.

"Winning the Carnegie is particularly special to me because it is recognition from librarians and their decision comes out of many discussions with young people and each other," says Beverley. "Young people's librarians, along with teachers, work extremely hard to support children in exercising their critical faculty - a faculty that can make all the difference to their perception of themselves and their relationships with others in the world."

Beverley's focus is on challenging perceptions, crossing boundaries and exploring our common humanity through her writing. She believes it is vital to stimulate children to ask their own questions and to engage critically with 'big' issues.

Background

Born in South Africa in 1943, Beverley grew up as a white child under apartheid. At that time there were no books that stimulated children to question the system. She was moved by The Diary of Anne Frank, knowing that if she and her brother had been born in Europe, they would very likely have suffered the same fate with their Jewish mother. Yet she registered none of the terrible reality of racism immediately around her.

She was in her last year at school when the Sharpeville massacre took place. Through a group of committed fellow students at university she became involved with the growing political resistance against apartheid.

She became increasingly active which led to her arrest under the notorious Ninety Days law; she was detained for eight weeks in solitary confinement, uncharged. She was still a 'small fish' but many other activists were charged and imprisoned for years, including her journalist brother. Beverley came to England in 1965 and into exile. She was awarded a United Nations Bursary and went to York University to study English and Education and completed her PGCE teaching qualification.

At that time her ambition was to teach in Nigeria. While earning the money for her fare, she met her husband, another South African exile, and decided instead to teach in England. She began writing when her own children were young. Censoring Reality, Beverley's analysis of non-fiction books about South Africa for children, published in 1985, revealed that most books covered the country's 20th century history with virtually no mention of apartheid.

Beverley became an Adviser for English and Cultural Diversity in Dorset. For her Ph.D, she actively researched the responses of 13 year olds to literature that challenged their perceptions. She wrote about this year in a literature classroom in Through Whose Eyes? (1992).

Her first two children's novels were set against the backdrop of apartheid South Africa. Journey to Jo'burg (1985) won awards in both the UK and USA but was banned in South Africa until 1991. While researching and writing Chain of Fire (1989), she was not allowed to return to South Africa and had to rely on materials smuggled out of the country. By the time she was writing her third novel, No Turning Back (1995), Mandela had been released and she was able to return freely to South Africa to conduct first hand research in the tense lead-up to the country's first democratic elections. Her stories in Out of Bounds (Foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu) are about young people's choices in a beautiful country made ugly by injustice, with one story per decade across the apartheid era and into 'post-apartheid.'

The Other Side of Truth

With this novel Beverley has moved to new territory. There were three key things she wanted to speak about: the price that sometimes has to be paid for standing up to tyranny, in this case the military dictatorship in Nigeria; the impact of politics on children; and the fact that there is injustice and abuse of human rights in this country as well as abroad.

When Beverley first came to England, Nigerian friends hoped that their newly-independent country would help challenge the apartheid regime in South Africa. Instead their country fell under military rule and as South Africa finally moved towards democracy, Nigeria was suffering under its most oppressive military regime - the severity of which was highlighted by the execution of the internationally-known writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and fellow Ogoni activists in 1995.

She wanted to explore the impact on children of actively political parents who are prepared to speak out against abuse of human rights and corruption, in particular the children of an outspoken journalist.

She also felt that young people in this country who read her novels about South Africa have tended to see these issues as being 'over there'. Beverley wanted to reveal that the issues of injustice and abuse of human rights are ever present in this country too.

By using the contentious, highly political and topical issue of asylum seeking as the backdrop for the novel, Beverley has brought all these issues right home to Britain. She is challenging today's young people to ask the questions and to explore all the issues of truth, injustice, racism and oppression as they unfold in their own country.

Beverley wrote the story from 12 year old Sade's perspective which enabled her to explore imaginatively how young people cope with life's darker side. In Sade she has created a character that young readers can get right alongside - imagining how they might feel in her place. Sade has also inherited her parents' strong moral sense and desire for truth. But, overnight, she and her brother become 'illegal' refugees and very scared about revealing the truth. The bullying she experiences in the British school parallels the injustice she has witnessed at home, but like her father she does not become cynical - she has clearly inherited her parents' sense of humanity.

The dedication in the first edition reads: "To all young people who wish to know more." More poignantly, the dedication in the latest edition reads: "In memory of Damilola Taylor and to other young people and their families who seek new lives in new countries."

"The things that are currently being said about asylum seekers and refugees are reminiscent of those said about immigrants thirty years ago," comments Beverley. "We are witnessing unprecedented global upheaval and insecurity. Instead of trying to understand and address root political and economic causes, people lash out at refugees who are the victims. Yet across the ages, the knowledge and talents of refugees and migrants have enriched this society."

Beverley has two grown up children and lives with her husband in Dorset.

July 2001

Further information

Louisa Myatt /The Library Association Marketing Department
Tel: 020 7255 0650 Textphone: 020 7255 0505 Fax: 020 7255 0501
E-mail: louisa.myatt@la-hq.org.uk