Book Review: African Icons

It’s a terrible thing that Black History Month so often focuses on the period of slavery onward, as if there was nothing of note happening in Africa during this time or indeed throughout the course of history before colonization.

I know when I was in school we learned about ancient Egypt, but that was about all the African history we learned. Of course there is so much more to know and so many historical figures from all over Africa that we should all spend more time learning about.

African Icons: Ten People Who Shaped History by Tracey Baptiste introduces young readers (and perhaps their teachers/parents) to 10 important Africans they might not have heard of before.

The list includes:

Menes, the first pharaoh of a united Egypt
Merneith, who led the country after her brother’s death and was nearly erased from history
Imhotep, the son of an architect who became a doctor and chief advisor to a pharaoh, and venerated as a god after his death
Aesop, the famous fable writer, who was likely Ethiopian and whose moralistic tales have been passed down for centuries
Hannibal Barca, the general and military strategist who waged war with Rome
Terence, a north African playwright enslaved in Rome, who was freed and educated by a Roman senator who saw what a good storyteller he was
Amanirenas, queen of Kush who battled Rome after they conquered Egypt
Tin Hinan, a leader of a nomadic group who led her people who establish a permanent community in the Sahara Desert (and whose story was considered a legend until her grave was found in 1925)
Mansa Musa, a ruler of Mali who expanded the wealth and size of his nation and is considered the richest person ever to have lived
Queen Idia, who ruled beside her husband in Benin, then raised an army to ensure her favored son would become king after his father’s death

Woven around these stories are essays about the history of Africa more generally, the importance of storytellers and books, and the history and culture that was lost through colonization and enslavement.

These stories would be great to share in a middle school/junior high classroom (they’re all pretty quick reads) as you learn more about African history, or to read at home as a family. These stories are the heritage of Black people everywhere and it’s important for all of us to know more about it.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback. Published 2021 (paperback edition 2024) by Algonquin Young Readers. Suggested retail price $9.99 paper/$14.99 hardcover

Several countries have a day set aside to honor and recognize their inventors, but Nov. 9 is a special one that’s known as Tag der Erfinder in German. It’s celebrated in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and it falls on Nov. 9 because that’s the birthday of Hedy Lamarr.

Hedy Lamarr is widely known as an actress but there’s a lot more to her story. You can get a little of it geared to little kids in the Little People, Big Dreams book Hedy Lamarr (32 pages, hardcover, published 2023 by Frances Lincoln Childrens Books, suggested retail price $15.99).

The book explores her birth in Austria and how she spent time when she was young coming up with inventions. She became an actress, married an arms dealer, made her escape to America and became an actress again.

But she also helped develop a frequency-hopping signal device for airplanes that was used by the Americans and their allies during World War II. That technology became the basis for wireless technology such as wifi and GPS.

While Inventor’s Day is a great time to learn about Hedy Lamarr, you can take this opportunity to check out books and do little studies on lots of different inventors. If there’s an inventor or an invention your child is particularly interested in, that’s a great place to start. It’s fun to think about all the things we use every day that didn’t always exist; someone had to invent them!

For a start here at Craft Gossip you can learn more about Garrett Morgan, who invented traffic lights; Maria Oroso, who developed a clay oven that could cook food without electricity; and more female inventors and scientists.

And for more general inventors’ fun, check out this inventors word search from Fun Findery (and another from Let’s Do Puzzles) or take a quiz on inventors and their inventions from Flanders Family Home Life.

Have you read?

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