A question raised at the book launch of Skin we are in, written by authors Sindiwe Magona and Nina Jablonski, at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS) during a panel discussion about the book, sparked thought about whether it was a children’s book or not.
“In a children’s book, and this is a children’s book, one does not have the scope to go into analysis. That’s the job of the parent, if the parent is aware. That’s the job of the teacher if the teacher is in-tune with what is happening in the world,” says Magona.
Barry Firth, a history teacher on the panel says, “I don’t think it is a children’s book because time and time again I hear both of you say how it is aimed at scaffolding the teacher, or the adult, who is this intermediary where the learners find themselves, and a destination we do not want them to reach.”
Nina Jablonski and Sindiwe Magona. PHOTO: Facebook
“You are asking the teachers who are products of a society where colour matters, you’ve got a person in a position who knows that colour matters.
“Why would they [teachers], who themselves are wounded individuals, choose this book?” asks Firth.
“The book will begin to make us uncomfortable enough to know that we have a job to do…everybody in South Africa if you grew up here, has been touched by apartheid, and for healing to happen we need to come together and read books such as these,” says Magona.
“I am the reader, I am an adult, and you also just mentioned that the conversation was between me and the book, and what I get out of the book as an adult. At the same time, there is a conversation happening between the book and the child. So it is a book for everyone,” says Merunisa Mohamed, education lecturer at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).
Sindiwe Magona and Nina Jablonski during the panel discussion. PHOTO: Bonita Williams
“The children are uncomfortable and it is our role to help,” says Magona.
Magona is a renowned South African children’s book author and Jablonski is an American anthropologist, interested in how skin and colour have evolved and influenced human life and societies.
Other panelists included Chitra Solanki, lecturer of English at CPUT, Ruth Versfeld, educator and author, and Eric Atmore, Associate Professor of Social Development.
By Bonita Williams and Stacey Titus