The Exhilarating World of African Books By George Rampai
By George Rampai (George Rampai is the author of the absorbing novel, From Where I Stand) Growing up in the dusty streets of Manyetseng, Ladybrand in the then Orange Free State Province (South Africa) wasn't easy. As expected, we grew up without electricity and other basic necessities, and initially without the library and other recreational facilities, just a few open fields where we would hone our football skills late in the afternoon. (That's all we could do as there were no other facilities) As Africans, storytelling has always been part of our culture, during the night; we would sit outside around the cackling woodfire and listen to our maternal grandmother narrating folktales to us. This became a norm to us as there was nothing else to do, as households with Television sets were so few in those days. When I grew older, my mother managed to buy a small radio that worked on batteries. We would sit around the table in a dim candle lit room and listen to the stories on t...