Benin
(French)
107
Akligo, Joseph [et al.]
Mon livre. Huit histoires pour grandir (My book. Eight stories for growing up]
Cotonou: Star Ed., 2008. – 130 p.
ISBN 978-999-1966-20-5
Africa – Girl – Sex education – Children’s rights
Eight topics about which many girls in Africa have thought and must think
about over the course of their lives are translated here by eight authors
into stories. The goals of this collection of illustrated narratives, which
came about in collaboration with a Belgian author and illustrator and a
commission from the government of the Belgian region of Wallonia, are to
broach urgent questions, as well as to free important, indeed vitally
important, issues from taboos and to convey them in a manner suitable for
children. How the body changes in puberty, how twins are made, how important
it is for girls and women to educate themselves, or how one can defend
oneself from harass-ment, are topics all dealt with alongside issues such as
forced marriage and genital circumcision. The story about children’s rights,
supplemented by excerpts from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
is also meant to be disabusing,. In straightforward language, which does not
shy away from concrete statements and knows no false shame, the book
supplies answers that
can help young girls in their coming of age. (8+)