From the Foreword by Marian Wright EdelmanAfrica’s Child is an unforgettable and searingly personal book….In the face of repeated obstacles and injustices, Nhambu continued to analyze the world around her with wit and a sharp sense of humor. Above all, as a very young child she decided one day that even if there was no other person in the world who loved and wanted her, she was going to love and … to love and care for herself—and that decision changed the course of her life.
Africa’s Child is the story of a mixed-race girl growing up in the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania, East Africa. Raised in an orphanage with no knowledge of her origins or family, she endured abandonment, hardships, severe illnesses, and bullying. Her experiences as a child and teenager included physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, social stigma, and racial discrimination.
Yet Nhambu tells her inspiring story with warmth and humor. Her questioning mind probes the African tribal realities and multi-cultural complexities that impacted her life both at the orphanage and schools run by German nuns as well as at an African high school with American nuns.
Nhambu not only survived her childhood but triumphed. Her faith and resilience, along with a belief in learning and her tenacious pursuit of an education, sustained her through many challenges. Dance, especially African tribal dance, became the way she healed and nourished her spirit.
Through the love and commitment of an American teacher she met in Africa, Nhambu was able to pursue her dream of education and a new life for herself. The first book in her three-part memoir ends as she is leaving Africa for university studies in America on a full scholarship.
Maria Nhambu is the creator of Aerobics With Soul®, a fitness workout based on African dance.
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This is the hauntingly beautiful memoir of the first 19 years of Mary, who was raised in Kifungilo orphanage in in the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania. The orphanage was specifically set up to take in mixed-race children because they were not accepted by the Tanzanian tribes. The German order of nuns running the orphanage ruled with an austerity and brutality in some cases but also with genuine love in others. The orphanage was run so that it was fully self-sufficient, growing their own fruit and vegetables as well as keeping livestock. Most of the daily chores fell to the children.
Mary, born in 1944, recounts her life from her earliest memories, a child whose soft hair was enviable but was called ‘Fat Mary’ for most of her childhood. Not all children at the orphanage were without parents. Many had parents who would visit them occasionally and they were seen as the lucky ones. Mary didn’t have parents and her way of coping with the appalling treatment at the hands of the nuns and the brutality of the bullying by the older children, who are supposed to care for them, is inventive and exudes inner strength.
Africa’s Child (Dancing Soul Trilogy Book1) by Maria Nhambu is a riveting memoir written by a formidable survivor. A captivating and well written account of her early life, the author has a way of making a difficult childhood, without a home but an orphanage, something to overcome in an amazingly positive way. She has thrived and become a force to be reckoned with. Her surroundings in the orphanage were incongruous to the world outside her door, her heritage seemingly hidden from view. An amazing story that is recalled through recollections, interviews, and journals, this book will hit you with its emotional force and depth. The author’s story reveals itself as one of resilience and power over circumstances. This book is a powerful journey that will resonate with anyone who has felt left out, cast aside, or neglected. Great reading, with a positive message about one woman’s survival and ability to thrive in spite of negative and difficult times.
I’m Africa’s Child, Maria Nhambu describes her life in Africa and the people she met. Maria gives a very visual description of everything that happened so that the reader can picture what is happening while reading. From the German nuns who raised her to the big girls who beat her to illness nearly leading to death to her going to a new school, you learn just how different life in Africa is compared to the United States. You can literally feel the emotions that Mary goes through each time she is teased, sick, beaten, and the excitement she feels when finding out she gets to come to the United States and is no longer an orphan.
Maria Nhambu, I salute you! This was singlehandedly one of the most fascinating stories I have ever read. I laughed until I cried, I cried until my heart ached, I jumped up and down, I screamed at the pages of the book as if I were speaking to real life people! This narrative is fascinating and extraordinary, it provides a very vivid account of the life of an abandoned mixed-race child in an orphanage in Tanzania. I don’t like to compare authors because I think they are all unique in their own right. However, my all-time favourite author is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and the way Maria writes reminds me of her, she has the same ability to arouse emotions in you that you did not know existed. This book is part one of a forthcoming trilogy and I look forward to reading the other two books. Blessings to you Maria Nhambu, this is a true masterpiece.
This book has been out for a few years and this author has some other books out there that are definitely going to end up on my short list, even though memoirs are not normally my go-to for light reading. The way that Nhambu manages to write about all of her struggles and feelings of social isolation/hardship while still embracing the fact that it made her who she is and gave her the life she has is absolutely awe-inspiring.
The fact that she persists in the positive way she does is one thing, but the way she’s compiled her memoir just shows that her creativity also remained in tact. I think the best chapter, that embodies the spirit and positivity of Nhambu best is the one on adoption (chapter 8). This shows perfectly how the nastiness of the world around her cannot bring her down, no matter how hard it tries.
Africa’s Child by Maria Nhambu
Starts with praise for the book and a bit about the book and how a child comes of age in Africa.
Frightening and terrifying moments as the child grows up guided by the German nuns. She is able to form some relationships with other girls and she has a special friend.
She learns many things about becoming a woman and she fears she will never have a child because she thinks nuns sewed her up. Moments of learning other intimate details are described.
Hate the bullying and all the diseases she gets in her childhood. Some things I can relate to but growing up in the US is so different. She goes through things I will never have to endure. She is so strong and brave.
Love how she thinks she was born along with other orphans. She hopes one day to meet up with her mother…
She really wants to continue her schooling so she can become a teacher herself.
Love choices she is given and the understanding of the ones not chosen. Like hearing of her other works after this book took place and about the author is also included at the end.
Very touching emotional story. Love how music and dance plays a huge part to her success.
I received this review copy from the author via the publisher and this is my honest opinion.
Wow! This is a book that everyone should read. Even if you don’t initially relate to it, then you will appreciate the human nature involved, and perhaps you will appreciate your own up-bringing that little bit more. Maria Nhambu is an absolute inspiration to women worldwide by sharing her story. I found this at times difficult to read, no young woman, or child should have to endure what she did. Ultimately I am so in awe that someone can re-count such ordeal, and remain so incredibly strong to bring forth a book to encourage young women that they are not alone. I am so glad that she has decided to make this a trilogy as I could feel as I was reading that Nhambu had more to say. Thank you.
Beautiful Maria Nhambu initiates her three-part autobiography trilogy with AFRICA’S CHILD – an extraordinarily superb book that opens the celebration of her passion for Africa, her birthplace, African culture, and her passion for dance. Maria has created Aerobics With Soul, a fitness program that marries dance with enhancing movement and health.
Memoirs such as this are rare: the sharing of a problematic childhood that eventually blossoms into a celebration of those very beginnings that seemed dire into eventually becoming a path to self acceptance and understanding that would influence and benefit generations. Maria was born in Tanzania, East Africa, raised in an orphanage as a child who
did not know her parents, tended by both German and American nuns, and experiencing not only physical and mental abuse, but also racial discrimination. But as she matured into a teenager she grew with her faith and resilience, becoming self reliant and independent, embraced education and her passion for African tribal dance to the point when she won scholarships to follow her destiny to America and university education.
One of the many reasons this book is so worth of wide attention is the manner in which Maria relates her story. Her prose is polished, enhancing even the most negative aspects with a sure sense of humor. In her Prologue Maria opens the portal for this life: ‘In the piercing cold and windy afternoon of January 4, 1944, a brown Bedford box-body car crawled and bumped along a rough, dusty road high in the Usambara Mountains of Tanganyika, East Africa. Hesitantly it reached its destination: Kifungilo—“gusts of wind” in Kisambaa, the language of the local African tribe. Kifungilo was the home of the Don Bosco Orphanage and School for mixed race, halfcaste, unwanted and orphaned children run by German Catholic Sisters of the Precious Blood Order.’ And later she continues, ‘As a child I prayed often and I prayed hard. Like all children of the orphanage and boarding school at Kifungilo, I was required to say many prayers in Latin when we went to church every day. But I often stayed after services to pray in Swahili for my one great longing—to find my mother. I liked the prayers I made up best.’
Sensitive, insightful, and wonderfully endearing, this I a book with so many important messages that it deserves the attention of all readers – a fine instrument to understanding racial equality and perseverance. Recommended.
Africa’s Child s is an exciting, captivating, and inspiring personal story. It explores gender and mixed race issues. Maria Nhambu talks about her world in a great sense of humor despite the many injustices and obstacles she goes through.
Africa’s Child is a story of a mixed-race girl Nhambu who grows up in an orphanage in Tanzania. Without any family ties, the child goes through a lot of hardships, including sexual, emotional, and physical abuse, and racial discrimination. Nhambu tells her story from birth, growing up in an orphanage run by German nuns and finally moving out of her home country to America. The story continues of her life in America as an adoptive mother.
Through faith and resilience, she triumphs over many challenges. She pursues her love for education with immense success. Her journey is an inspiration to the readers. She experiences some of the harshest encounters, yet she was able to make something good out of it. It is a true motivation that you will want to read again and again.
This book is the powerful autobiography of Maria Nhambu. She recounts her painful childhood growing up in an orphanage in the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania, East Africa. The story is incredibly inspiring, as even through all of the hardships faced, her resilience and determination are strong, and she comes through. The story is painful to read at times because of the harsh subjects discussed in the book, including abuse, discrimination, and sexual abuse. Even so, Nhambu tells this story with humor, hope, faith, and beautiful language. Reading this story pulled me deep into the tale and made me cry and hope right along with her. I was astounded by this book from beginning to end. This book is the first book in a three-part trilogy about Nhambu’s life, and I look forward to continuing my journey with her.
This is a personal story that proves one more time, women can do it all even if the circumstances are against them. This is the amazing journey of Maria Nhambu, how her entire life became this hard reality and constant fight; but determined to survive in a world of cruelty, racisms and abuse; she tells her story so beautifully that there is no space for hatred towards her circumstances. Instead you find yourself amazed by her strength.
Maria Nhambu was raised in East Africa, in an orphanage run by German nuns. Her way of building her own strength and spirit was through dance, African tribal dance. Even if her whole life was meet with challenges, she finds herself becoming even stronger and finds a way to a new life. This book is inspiring, emotional, and truly amazing.
It’s hard to comprehend how a person can go through so much hardship, abandonment, neglect and abuse throughout their childhood and still become such a strong, determined, positive and inspirational champion of life. Maria’s journey is shocking and hard to take but is also filled with so much light. The resilience is awe inspiring and empowering and damn right unbelievable. An incredible story.
Africa’s Child by Maria Nhambu is a fascinating memoir of a young girl who grows up in an orphanage designed to care for and educate the mixed children of Tanzania, Africa. The story begins when Maria was about five. Often call “Fat Mary”; she struggled with abandonment when all the other children had a family. Being alone taught Mary many things, but the one thing that changed her life was when she decided she would love herself when no one else would. Her invisible friend became a buffer from the trying times she had yet to face.
I found Maria Nhambu an exceptional storyteller as she recalls her younger years in the orphanage. Africa’s Child is an amazing book that will mesmerize the reader as you read of her misfortune that she turns around for good. Nhambu never comes across as a victim, but always victorious of the trials and hardships that come her way. You finish this book feeling you have a bond with the author as you view into her life.
“Fat” Mary is a very positive, non-white, but not entirely black African girl who lives in the German Catholic orphanage Kinfungilo, in colonial Tanganyika in 1944 (now Tanzania, West Africa). Rejected at birth, all she wants is to belong and to find a mother who loves her. When she discovers that this will not be the case, and that not even her beloved baby Jesus can change that situation, she creates an unconditional imaginary double, fully capable of giving her the love and support that she so badly needs.
Written through the eyes of a girl who yearns for love and still has faith in miracles, this novel deals with contemporary issues such as freedom, race, gender, abuse, power relations, history and culture, African communities, the Catholic religion, education and orphans in the African society, resilience in a cruel world, perseverance of dreams and the triumph of the person in the face of adversity.
This first part of the Dancing Soul trilogy of personal memories, which tells the childhood of Maria Nhambu and her youth until the age of 19, is inspiring, captivating, sometimes very funny and other times planily sad. In it there are memorable characters like Mary herself, Sisters Silvestris, Clotilde, Theonesta and Rufina, and her companions: Elizabeth, Paulina, Rosa, and the cruel Zami. If you like the autobiographical genre and are excited about the idea of reading the memoirs of an African girl / teenager with high aspirations and a desire to never get stuck, this may be the perfect book for you.
This was such a heartbreaking story I can’t imagine how a child could survive the things Maria Nhambu has. Facing institutional abuse, bullying and brutality on a daily basis as well as dealing with abandonment by her family. This is such a powerful story and really emotional. Such a worthwhile read to appreciate the strength and courage this woman has.