Song of Be

by Lesley Beake

Be, a young Bushman woman searching in the desert for the peace she remembers from her childhood, realizes that she and her people must reconcile new personal and political realities with ancient traditions

Genres: Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Africa, Childrens, Fiction

112 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Lesley Beake has been involved with writing and editing children’s stories for twenty years now and has published nearly seventy books. All her stories are set in Africa and are rich in African imagery and landscape. They vary from picture books for the very young, to novels for teenagers, with a good spread of stories for all ages in between.

Much of her work involves writing for readers who are reading in English as their second, third, or even fourth language. The challenge of corresponding a reading level with an interest level is helped by her background in primary school teaching and in teaching English as a Foreign Language in the Middle East for the British Council.

Lesley also has a wide portfolio of travel writing, radio broadcasting and website work. She was editor of two major South African travel publications and of the Air Malawi in-flight magazine and currently manages and edits a website for San communities at www.kalaharipeoples.net.

Her books have been translated into numerous languages, worldwide and in Africa, and she has received many awards for her books. But the greatest satisfaction comes with meeting the young people who actually read her books – and in typing the last word of the manuscript in hand!

Reviews

[Leajk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really mixed feelings about this book. As I pointed out in my comments while reading, the foreword was weird... and made me distrust the author and her intent in writing this book. But the actual book and the story was fine for what it was: a young-adult book about a Ju/'hoan girl named Be.

Let's back up a bit. Author Lesley Beake seems to have put a lot of effort into this book. During five years she has visited the Ju/'hoan people and done various research about their culture. The result is a story set in the late 1980s when the conditions for them started to change due to a UN resolution which would lead to the free Namibia where the Ju/'hoan people were to take an equal part alongside with all the other people living there. Through the stories of Be's mother and grandfather we also learn of the history: how the Ju/'hoan used to live in their own areas, n!ores, where they hunted. Then came reservations or even refugee camps were they were forced by the South African government, to live "for their own good". They were supposed to farm or work, but of course conditions were miserable and many turned to alcohol or simply fled. Some had already been captured and taken to farms for forced labor. This part of Beake's effort is laudable. I've truly learned a lot about the Ju/'hoan.

Then for some reason Beake write this in her foreword:

"Many know them as the Bush people, while others call them San. The Ju/’hoan people themselves have no name that includes the entire language group, but they don’t like these names as they are often used in a negative way.
I have chosen to call them Bush people because that’s the name that is most known the world over, and because a new name does not change the prejudices amongst those that use the old in a condescending way."

I’m very surprised that anyone who have spent so much time with these people will not have asked them if there is any term that they might prefer and use that as her guide? Rather than just shrugging and going, well bigots are going to be bigots so lets keep on using whatever slurs that already exists.

All in all I'd which this book was written by someone actually came from the Ju/'hoan people.

Some side notes:
The main part at the farm Ontevrede reminded me a bit of Lessing's The Grass is Sining. Most likely because they both feature a white woman on a poor African farm spoiler (and their descent into madness).

Everyone in this book always have a 'vacant stare' or a 'distant stare' when talking about the past.

The author makes a big deal about the cover photos used in the various editions in different countries, apparently Be is shown with both a sword and a sheherd's staff, something that would never happen according to the author.

It’s slightly amusing that the farmers name is Mr. Coetzee.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review below written when I was in college (2008)

This short novel follows the life of Be, a member of the Ju/’hoan tribe of Namibia, as she learns that during her childhood she has been protected from the realities of life by her family and that the truth may be too much for her to bear. Be’s people are known as “Bushmen” by outsiders and are considered to be uncivilized, however they have a culture as complex as any other. They are struggling to stay true to their traditions while adjusting to a world in which one must work for money rather than hunt to support themselves.

A central historical component to this book is the success of a new government for Namibia. The concerns of the Ju/’hoan people, who have never before had a voice in the government, are heard in-person by the new president himself. Be’s own self-discovery mirrors the changes in her country’s government. As the people in her country are beginning to open their eyes to the positive benefits of diversity, Be is opening her eyes to the possibility of living in the world which has begun to seem so cruel to her.

The author, Lesley Beake, was born in Scotland, lives in South Africa, and has traveled extensively in Africa, spending a great deal of time interviewing and living with the Ju’hoan people. The character of Be is modeled after several Ju/’hoan women which Beake met on her journeys in Namibia.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

So... Before beginning this book I knew I had to keep an open mind because it’s a book from 1993, it’s a children’s book, and I have actually read an ethnography about a woman named Nisa from the Kung! so my expectations were really low. After reading the introduction, though, the author clarifies that this is a work of fiction and that she has done her research, and I’m not claiming to know a vast amount on the hunter-gatherer life, but she seems to follow her research and my past reading relatively well. Please,
correct me if I’m wrong!!
Anyways, this is my roommate Samantha’s book that she recommended to me and it was a fun, quick read! But the ending?? I realize this is a children’s book, but huh? I feel like I am missing something... But the author handled all the themes of the book rather well!
Samantha told me I would cry, but I did not cry...

[Anetq · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the genre (YA) it's probably good (not my genre)! It's an inside view af the Bushmen (actually the Ju/'hoan)'s lives and how their circumstances change by UN resolution in the late 80s in Namibia(after a history of forced labour, camps and a constant longing for the life of hunting in their own n!ores before).
So: It's very educational, but it also feels just that.

[BradMD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Touching fiction about life in Namibia, Africa. Lyrical writing and excellent beginning and ending that bookmarks the story.

[Latesha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish the story had been a little longer, but a good read.

[Erin Reilly-Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings on Song of Be. The way the story unfolds through the juxtaposition of Be’s present moment waiting for poison to take her and the tale of how she came to that point is very clever and certainly pulls the reader into the story and keeps them going. However, I also felt sort of let down when I got to the end that the story was sad but not that horrible and also, in a perverse way, that she ended up not dying, although I did really like Be’s character and was glad to have a happy ending for her. I guess maybe I’ve become inured to the awful stories of rape and genocide that global fiction often encompasses. On the other hand, Chimamanda Adichie’s TED talk, The Danger of a Single Story, warns against telling such horrific tales that we see other places we are unfamiliar with as limited to living that reality or story regardless of the multiplicity of experience in the real world. I guess I was just expecting her to be raped or someone to be murdered horrifically since she hadn’t shown signs of depression that I had noticed earlier in the story to suggest that her suicide was caused by mental illness, like Min’s, rather than circumstances. The story is sad, but perhaps because the story is so short that the circumstances don’t seem to be very graphic that the sadness does not touch me in a way that contributes to the believability of the plot arc. For example, Aia’s relationship with Mr. Coetzee seems odd, given that she had chosen to come to the farm to flee a relationship and thus seems to have the power of choice. My favourite parts were really about the Bushmen and Namibia, although I still felt distanced from the socio-political reality of the time and place despite the excellent author’s note which prefaced the narrative. I think I would have liked a map and some images to help make further connections. I think the reason why I do feel so vague about the time, place, and people is that the other stories that I have to connect this with from diverse areas of Africa, which really shouldn’t be lumped together despite the American inclination to do so, don’t really connect well. I also think that somehow I missed the date as around 1990 which made it confusing due to the variety of lifestyles presented that contain different amounts of what we would consider to be modernity. For me, my journey in finding out more about what actual life in Uganda is like today- no running water or electricity in rural areas but certainly present in urban areas- has helped me to understand more, but it’s also starting to feel like I’m running into a brick wall in understanding without being able to see and understand these things through seeing them myself.
(Journal Entry written for a class on Global Children's Lit)

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just a little surprised that this is considered a book appropriate for young students. Although the information is great and it provides a great understanding of the problems in Namibia, some of the details were a bit "adult" for the younger students.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! There's a lot in this little book, and it's engaging as well as educational. Coming of age, Bushmen, political turmoil, cultures, family dynamics, human dependence on the environment ... a worthy read for people of all ages.

[Hilary · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was good in the middle, but the beginning and end--eh. The narration is mostly a flashback, and it sorts of takes away from the story, but the writing is well done.

[Rosemary]

lol