Paloma loves visiting her relatives in Trinidad. She loves the feel of the sun on her skin, the fresh fruit on the trees that go on for miles and so much more. However, her cousins don’t want to play with her, they tell her that she doesn’t talk like them and that she’s not family!
Distraught, she asks her Tante Janet to help explain. She lets her in to a big secret… Paloma is part of the oldest family in the world!
Stories are told in every family. From generation to generation, everything from what our ancestors did thousands of years ago, all the way to what our families do today. Traditions, knowing where we come from and how we fit into the world, all matter.
Paloma uses a special comb for her hair, perhaps thousands of years ago Queen Amanirenis used something similar too after she’d fought the Romans? If we don’t remind ourselves about our peoples past, we might forget! For centuries, people used many different methods of recording what life was like back then. Stone carvings, painted caves, parchments – all helped people tell their stories, just like Tante Janet shares her history with Paloma.
Traders sailed across the lands for centuries, bartering their goods as they went. Everything from cocoa to diamonds. Rulers became rich which made other leaders jealous. Precious things were stolen as greed and envy took over. From gold and silver to actual people. It took hundreds of years to end slavery and then Africa was split up into chunks, changing many peoples lives and homes forever. Lives were re-started in the new world and people learned to live together again.
As Paloma and Tante Janet say ‘we are all family and our story starts in Africa’.
Patrice Lawrence’s thought-provoking words alongside Jeanetta Gonzales’s bright and beautiful illustrations bring the story of Africa to life as its history is explored on every page. Join Paloma as she learns more about herself, her family and those who walked this earth long before her. A factual/fictional picture book addressing many historical events in an inclusive way for younger readers to learn from and understand.
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