A. Bibliography:Lester,Julius. 2001. The Old African. Ill. by Jerry Pinkney. New York,NY: Walker and Company. ISBN: 0803725647
B.Plot Summary
After living through the horrors of slavery for many years, a wise slave with strange powers leads his people on an unusual march to freedom.
C. Critical Analysis (with cultural markers.)
The Old African is a harrowing read that depicts the suffering of slaves in a realistic and genuine fashion. Specifically, the suffering and life story of Jaja, an Ybo man from Africa is shown with great sensitivity and attention to historical detail. Pinkney expertly draws the clothes, while Lester includes a few words of the Ybo language and shows the strength of their religious beliefs.
Pinkney also shows the rich skin tone , muscular body type of the able-bodied slaves, and their unshorn hair that is later shaven. What is most vividly and realistically presented, however, is the horror, stench, disease and death of the middle passage.
The middle passage is only part of the Old African,Jaja's suffering. As a young man,he witnessed his friends and family being shot by the slave traders or The Lords of the Dead. After his arrival to the United States, he witnesses more horrors. Riley and other slave owners tortured and beat their slaves mercilessly. In the end, Jaja must depend on his long dormant, but very effective supernatural powers to seek freedom and lead others home.
Jerry Pinkney's art work for the book, originally created with graphite,gouache,pastel and watercolor on paper, vividly portrays the terror experienced by the kidnapped Africans in swirling, teeming panels. Later, as the slaves seek freedom, the sea turns a welcoming aqua blue and the skies seems spacious, golden welcoming and open.
In the end,Pinkney and Lester have created a story that is at the outset very disturbing. (As it should be.) However, by the glorious and triumphant end, several important values have been reaffirmed. Readers also see the resilience and courage of the African slaves. The ultimate triumph of the slaves, even if it is through the use of magical realism, provides a meaningful story with material that is self-affirming and positive.
D. Review Excerpts
School Library Journal:Lester and Pinkney combine their talents here to create an unusual, complex, and thought-provoking offering in which the Old African is the keeper of a power that brings comfort and, ultimately, salvation to his people
Booklist:Complemented by Pinkney's powerful illustrations, this picture book presents an unflinching account of the brutal history and of personal courage, told with a lyrical magic realism that draws on slave legend and the dream of freedom.
E. Connections
Older kids may want to research the history of the Old African's tribe, the Ybo people. Others may want to read copies of the WPA slave narratives recorded in the 1930's.
Other books that deal with escape from slavery and African-American history.
Raven, Margot Theis. 2006. Nightboat to freedom. ISBN: 0374312664
Woods, Brenda. 2006. Sally Little Song. ISBN: 0399243127
Woodson, Jaqueline. 2005. Show way.ISBN:9780399237492
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