Strangers in a faraway land
‘Once upon a time of fear and sorrow, the children of my village were woken suddenly in the night. We heard screaming and shouting. Our world turned upside down. Lightning and thunder came from the ground and fire came from the sky…
We crossed a river to a faraway land. The grass was green and the leaves of the maize whispered our arrival…’
Deborah’s short story Strangers in a Faraway Land was selected for inclusion in the Heartlines Stories that Talk 2 collection for children aged 8-13 years in 2010.
It is a fable about seeking refuge and about the experience of empathy and othering in exile. This story, like the novel described below, was written in response to a wave of xenophobic violence in South Africa in 2008.
