DANCING WITH STRANGERS

STORIES FROM AFRICA

RETOLD BY CLARE WEST
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Jackee Budesta Batanda- she was born in Uganda,
and lives in Kampala. At the age of fourteen she
decided to be a writer. She said that Remember Atita, a
story about the suffering of the people of Gulu, was one
of the hardest stories she had written. She hopes the
Bookworms version of her story will be read around the
world, and people will know and remember about a
people in a country far away from their home that lived
bravely.
Jack Cope-Robert Knox Cope (1913.-1991.), known as
Jack, was born in Natal, South Africa. he became a
journalist in Durban and then in London, but in 1940
returned to South Africa to farm, go shark fishing, and
write fiction. Alan Paton, another South African writer,
says that Cope's stories give us in a few words the
scents and sounds and colours of our country.
Mandla Langa-he was born in Durban (1950.) and
studied English and Philosophy at the University of Fort
Hare. His three the most popular novels are Tenderness
of Blood, Rainbow on a Paper Sky and The Memory of
Stones. He is a well-known figure in journalism, the
media, and the arts, and lives in Johannesburg.
M. G. Vassanji- he was born in Nairobi, Kenya, to an
Indian family, and brought up in Tanzania. He now lives
in Toronto, Canada, and he often visits Africa and India.
He says: Once I went to the US, suddenly the Indian
connection became very important; the sense of
origins, trying to understand the roots of India that we
had inside us.

Type of book: Stories from Africa- World Stories

SOUTH AFRICA- EKATERINA- Jack Cope
SHORT CONTENT: A South African man was coming
back home from another country. His flight stoped in
Athens and he was thinking it was a beautiful place to
stay because of the ancient culture. In the airport he
met a poor young Greek girl called Ekaterina. They sat
together in the plane and she started speaking in
Greek, but he didn't understand her. He was understand
her by the look on her face. She was engaged to a rich
Greek man who lives in Johannesburg but they haven't
met yet. He tried to say to her that she should coming
back and just continued her own life, but she told him
that she couldn't. When she arrived there she must
married with that man.
FIGURES: -Ekaterina, Italian passenger, Loraine, men
in poor best clothes, man who had a cheap suitcase,
Ekaterina's husband.

TANZANIA- BREAKING LOOSE-M.G.VASSANJI

SHORT CONTENT: An African man called Daniel Akoto
was a singer. There was a girl called Yasmin and she
was there with her friends on a concert. Daniel came
down from the stage and he met Yasmin. She was
thinking that she mustn't dancing with strangers but
she did it. He was a professor at the university where
she was studying Literature. They felt in love. Her
mother was against to their relationship, but her father
approve this. Soon then Yasmin's father died and she
had to be strong. Her mother condemned Daniel for
dead of her husband. But Yasmin was still loving him.
FIGURES: -Yasmin, Daniel, Mrs Rajan, Yasmin's friends,
Daniel's friends, Yasmin's father.

UGANDA-REMEMBER ATITA-JACKEE BUDESTA

BATANDA
SHORT CONTENT: Atita was a young African girl who
came back home to tried to found her friends. She has
got a photo in which they were sitting on a wall, smiling
at the camera when they were little girls. While she was
looking for them, she met a boy who slept in the streets
since his family fear for his life because military men
killed people in their homes at night. Atita slept next to
him. After 3 days she found one of her friends. That girl
called Laker and she was in hospital and she couldn't
recognized Atita, but Atita was visiting her every day. A
month later Laker remember last thing that she saw
and that was one of the soldiers shooting her friend and
that was the reason because she couldn't talk. But now
she was happy because Atita was there.
FIGURES: -Atita, Laker, boy who slept on the street.

SOUTH AFRICA-A GATHERING OF BALD MEN-

MANDLA LANGA
SHORT CONTENT: There was a man called Caleb
Zungu. On Monday he woke up, brushed his teeth and
than he saw a bald patch on top of his head, and he
was very miserable about it. Than came his wife who
told him that how strong and sexy was he. Then his wife
remembered that some people kill bald people. A man
came in and told him he knew about his thoughts. He
said that he was blind but he wanted to drive his car.
He did it and the police stopped them. They knew this
crazy man-who wasn't blind- and decided to let them
go. The new friends opened an agency where they
worked like that they told people that to be a bald man
wasn't a misfortune and they got lots of money.
FIGURES: -Caleb Zungu, Busi, Khwezi, Nothando,
Ranger, Marcia, a policeman, JM.