Title: The Brave Little African Girl
Author: Thabitha Mathabatha
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
ISBN: 978-1-7283-5186-5
Genre: Non-Fiction Children’s Story
Pages: 48
Reviewed by: Beth Adams

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There are so many experiences which go into the making of a person, yet some are so extraordinary that they seem guided by a divine spirit. What happened in author Thabitha Mathabatha’s book, The Brave Little African Girl, is on the fringe of being unimaginable, yet true to this young girl, Fofo, and an epic event for those in her family and from her village.

When Fofo was a young girl living in an African village on the outskirts of the jungle, one day she ventured off by herself into the forest to bathe in a pond. She knew she should not go alone, but something inside of her prompted her to be brave and not to fear. Upon reaching the watering pond, she undressed and immersed herself into the cool water to wash her body. She felt a silky-smooth object under her feet, below the algae covered water, wondered what it was, and left the pond. Then, once dressed, she heard a strange cry of an animal from beyond the trees. Upon wandering towards the sound, she came across a female lion, seemingly dead as the flies were hovering around her head and tail. Then the strangest event occurred. She noticed the sound was coming from a lion cub gasping for air with its head protruding out of the mother’s
womb. She instinctually reached in, gently grabbing the cub with her hands, and helped deliver the cub out of a desperate situation. Then, taking off her shirt, she covered the newborn cub and held it gently in her arms; she went back to her home. She called the lion cub Angel.

This sequence of events brought all of her family and neighbors together, as well as the local authorities. Having her mother come back from her job in Johannesburg on a long journey as ordered by the local police, made her mom very apprehensive about what has happened, as she was only told to go home immediately. Upon seeing her children well, hugging and kissing them, she then learns of the event of Fofo, and saw the newborn lion cub Angel.

As it turns out, that silky-smooth feeling under Fofo’s feet in the pond was a dangerous water snake, which could have killed her. Plus, she knew she was wrong to go into the jungle alone, without her brothers being with her. She was told by the authorities she had to give up Angel to be raised by professionals. All of this upset Fofo so much, her grades in school dropped and her mind wandered, dreaming about what was happening to Angel.
There is an amazing ending to the book. The power and strength of Fofo turns out to be a true-to-life event of the author herself. This gave Thabitha Mathabatha an inner- strength of a warrior, a person with unstoppable drive and ambition, capable of achieving anything she wanted to pursue in life; as exemplified by her accomplishments articulated in the book’s forward.

Interspersed with many African words and customs, along with some artfully drawn illustrations, this book is more than a bedtime read for youngsters. It is a lesson of life to be told and understood by all children. Ending with a powerful poem and most impressively a photograph of the author, the book closes with the theme resonating in the readers’ minds about being able to do anything they want, as was demonstrated by these true events in The Brave Little African Girl.