Ethiopian Goatherd
Illustration © D. Yael Bernhard
Back in the 90s, I illustrated a picture book version of an Eritrean folktale that was retold by author Jane Kurtz under the title “Trouble” (Harcourt Brace, 1997). The story told of a young goatherd named Tekleh who was sent off by his father to take the family goats out to pasture for the day. Knowing both young boys and curious goats tend to get into trouble, he gives his son a gebeta board – the board game known here as Mancala, which originally comes from Africa. “A gebeta board always keeps a young boy out of trouble,” the father proclaims with a smile.
Well, not really. This gebeta board does the opposite, immediately attracting trouble, and is quickly burned in a fire – but after a serious of circuitous and unexpected events, Tekleh and the goats land on their feet, and the story has a happy ending. His father does not even notice that Tekleh arrives home with a different gebeta board.
What a treat to illustrate this story! My immersion in West African culture gave me an advantage. Having walked the African earth and visited rural villages, I sensed a certain continuity between east and west. I’ve never been to northeast Africa, but the author grew up there. Jane helped me with my research. She sent me a netela, the ubiquitous white cloth that is worn as a wrap by women all over Ethiopia and Eritrea. I tried wrapping one on myself in order to figure out how to draw it. It wasn’t easy. The people of northeast Africa are tall, slender, and stately, with fine features and a unique ethnic look that combines sub-Saharan and Middle Eastern characteristics. Most of all I loved painting the landscape – bold and irregular, a pastoral blend of burnt orange, soft mauve, and dusty green.
Some years after Trouble was published, Jane helped launch an Ethiopian literacy program called Open Hearts, Big Dreams. She asked if I would donate the rights to the illustrations so that Trouble could be republished as a bilingual paperback in English and Amharic, and distributed to children in Ethiopia. I immediately agreed. Trouble became part of OHBD’s first series of picture books. Since then, the company has grown tremendously, with over 160 titles in 20 languages. Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa, with approximately 13 million children under the age of 5. It’s a rich and diverse culture with ancient roots – and delicious cuisine. To add some spice to my illustrations, I was inspired to learn how to make berbere, the classic Ethiopian spice blend, and injerra, the spongy pancakes made from fermented teff, the smallest grain in the world. I had better success with these recipes than I did in wrapping a netela.
A few weeks ago I was pleased to receive an announcement that Trouble has now been published in five different East African languages: Anuak, Tigrinya, Kiswahili, Amharic, and Afaan Oromo. You can view the books here. There are thousands of indigenous languages in Africa, and even more local dialects arising from different ethnic groups. Most African tongues are oral only. English or French is used when written language is required.
Other children’s books that I’ve written and illustrated have been translated into Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Turkish – but none have made me as proud as this one. There’s no financial compensation, since I donated the rights – but imagining children all over East Africa learning to read with this book is a great reward. What better way to keep kids out of trouble?
A good week to all!
D Yael Bernhard
http://dyaelbernhard.com
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