The Pond That Lies in My Village

by Sauda S. Kilumanga

A gem of a story told in rhyming verse, using repetitions to construct lengthening stanzas around a single idea. It is ideal for developing children's reading skills or reading out-loud and the story is firmly rooted in a rural African setting: 'These are the baskets all woven and pretty/That mother will sell somewhere in the city/Woven by the fingers clever and strong/Using in and out patterns all day long/From the reeds that were dipped in the dye/That left out to dry/Not far from the barrels/With berries all squeezed/And colours that please/Those berries/Ripe berries/Ripe juicy and bright/Like beads that shine in the warm sunlight/Plucked by the hands/That work on the land/That pull out the reeds/That grow by the weeds/In the pond that lie in my village.' An English-Swahili glossary of vocabulary is provided.

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