For You Are a Kenyan Child by Kelly Cunnane
May 15th, 2010 by softie 
2 Comments 
Kelly Cunnane, a former Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, tells the charming story of a little boy who is supposed to be tending his grandfather’s cows when… well, there are so many other interesting things to do! You’ll follow him on his adventures and find out what happens when the cows come home. The colorful illustrations by Ana Juan are perfect for the story. I would definitely recommend this as a fun way to broaden a child’s horizons.
I’d like to commend her for writing a book about a Kenyan village and to state that the illustrations are quite good. I am sure she had the purest of intentions when writing it.
However, it has glaring mistakes in its use of Kiswahili. It is unfortunate that there are thousands of children out there reading incorrect Swahili. It is bad that she has placed the wrong meaning of Swahili words in the English context and she ought to have consulted a Swahili scholar or native speaker (a Tanzanian/Kenyan) so as to write the language correctly. No book would be published in English with incorrect spellings and context and we hope that measures will be taken to correct these errors.
We also believe that the publisher has an obligation to ensure that the books they sell which are geared to millions of people/children are correctly edited by native speakers/scholars of the respective foreign languages.
Some mistakes found in the book include:
- Una taka chepati? = Unataka Chapati?
- Chapati is not a pancake, it is a type of flat-round-bread with its origin in India
- Jambo, Mzee – Mzee means an old man/elder not exactly respected one as stated
- Mheshimiwa means respected one
- Una taka shika rungu (fly-whisk)? = Unataka kushika rungu?
- A rungu is a club, not a fly-whisk
- Una taka maziwa lala? = Unataka kunywa maziwa lala?
- Maziwa lala is not sleeping milk but cultured milk/Natural yogurt
- Una taka ndudu? = Unataka mdudu/dudu?
- Una taka cheza? = Unataka kucheza?
- Kabisa means completely/totally but not `of course’ as implied
Once again, we are grateful that such a book exists but hope that the errors will be corrected.
This book won The Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award.
Tags: -ve, Funny, Good Illustrations
Posted under: Children, Fiction
The comment about For You Are A Kenyan Child was replied to by both me and my editor at Simon & Schuster. The book was not intended to be a language primer but an exhuberant invitation to language and culture for play and global community and lifelong learning. The Swahili is playfully and artistically translated with keen attention to how the people in the story (all true people from the Kalenjin tribe) used the various words, Swahili being this village’s third or fourth language, hence the casual, very informal rendering of the language for rhythm and for the verve and spark of how wonderfully musical and fun Swahili is. To translate mid text the long winded formal dictionary definitions the complaint seems to desire would have produced an entirely different book. The pictures are whimsical and too the language, and not intended to violate the culture or the language but to simply, like kids, have fun and feel interested and curious and happy to open up to the world.
Such a lovely book for the little ones aged 13 and under!