Memories of the Little Elephant

[Olùkọ́ Ọbádélé]

Memories of the Little Elephant
by Nehprii Amenii



Book Review by Dan Tres Omi

Raising children is not the easiest thing to do. My mother calls it La Vida Loca or the crazy life since there are so many ups and downs. Raising children of African descent just adds more weight. Issues such as slavery, Jim Crow, and slavery compound the confusion that also comes with puberty, crushes, rules, chores, and safety. My wife and I struggle with how much information we should give during all the stages of a child's life. Too much is too traumatic. While too little would be detrimental to their understanding of the world and how it got to be the way it is. There are quite a few books that deal with the Transatlantic Slave trade. Some are more graphic than others but like the topic itself, they bring up many questions. Several of those questions are something that a good number of parents are not ready to deal with.

Nehprii Amenii puts together a book that simplifies the Transatlantic Slave trade. Amenii's book stands out for two reasons. The book does not begin with the Europeans entering the African continent. The story begins long ago when Egypt was called Kemet. This adds a better perspective to the matter. It was Frederick Douglass who stated that anything, even death, is better than slavery. Thus setting our standards to what happened after slavery is setting the bar very low. Yet looking back before slavery, we set goals that are much higher than our expectations now.

Amenii's depictions are simple. This effect brings the story home for the adult and the child. They are drawn in 2D form as if they came off the walls of the pyramids. The story continues as the protaganist moves across the continent from the east to the west. Amenii's text is not as simple as the art. Amenii tells the story through the eyes of young girl who speaks in dreams and about friendships. The young girl continues her story as she travels and is brought to the Americas as a slave.

The story line leaves much room for discussion. There are so many elements that are introduced. While I enjoyed the story, I realized that I had a great amount of explaining to my children. Some of the things they were familiar with due to the access to the information we have given our children. For any seventy odd page story that would take about an hour to read thoroughly and explain, Memories... Took much longer than that. I don't advise reading it as a bedtime story. It is better to read in the daytime and with a group of children. Several of the concepts and ideas introduced by Amenii may be unfamiliar with several parents. I advise that each parent read it first and then read up on the material discussed in the story to familiarize oneself with the information. Amenii should have also used the phonetic spelling of each term since I am sure many parents are very unfamiliar with them.

I hope that more stories are written in this format. Our children continue to ask questions days after I read the story to them. It opens up the discussion to not just slavery but religion and language. These are topics that we need to discuss since we were not Christians before and even after slavery. Oftentimes, these things get left out when we begin our journey during slavery.